Brett Harrison (born May 11, 1988) is an American businessman and software developer. He is the founder and CEO of multinational derivatives exchange group Architect Financial Technologies.
Early life and education Harrison was born in New York City and raised in Dix Hills, New York. He graduated from Half Hollow Hills High School West in 2006. While in high school, he attended the Research Science Institute at MIT and published mathematics research in American Mathematical Monthly.
He attended Harvard University, where he earned an M.S. and B.A. in computer science. His studies focused on artificial intelligence. He completed Math 55 during his time at Harvard.
Career Harrison joined Jane Street Capital as an American depositary receipt trader in 2010. He later went on to lead Jane Street’s algorithmic trading system development groups. While at Jane Street, he met and worked with Sam Bankman-Fried.
He was subsequently a technology executive at Citadel Securities. At Citadel he managed the company’s Options, ETF, ADR and OTC technology departments.
In May 2021, Harrison became President of FTX US. While at FTX US he established the company’s regulated business operations and opened its headquarters in Chicago. In 2022 he oversaw the launch of the company’s US retail stock brokerage and trading platform.
Harrison announced his resignation from FTX US on September 27, 2022, amidst controversy arising from a tweet in which Harrison seemed to misleadingly imply that FTX customers’ deposits were FDIC-insured, when in fact they were not. At the time, Harrison characterized his departure as amicable and stated that he would stay on as an advisor to FTX. Months later, in FTX's bankruptcy filings, Harrison was said to have left the company following disagreements with Bankman-Fried about the company’s management structure.Exhibit(s) (Notice of Filing First Interim Report of John J. Ray III to the Independent Directors on Control Failures at the FTX Exchanges) Filed by FTX Trading Ltd.. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit A)
In December 2022, Bloomberg reported that Harrison was raising capital for a new trading technology venture. In January 2023, he closed a $5 million seed round and founded Architect Financial Technologies, a company to develop institutional-grade trading infrastructure, with investment from Coinbase and Circle. The company became a CFTC-regulated derivatives broker in September 2023, and an SEC-regulated broker-dealer in October 2024. In 2025 the company began operating a perpetual futures exchange in Bermuda and was valued at $187 million. In 2026 the company acquired a US futures exchange.
Personal life Harrison is Jewish. He owns numerous rescue dogs and cats.
He is married to Hannah Harrison. They have two internationally adopted children. He lives in Winnetka, Illinois.
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