20 Facts About Blythe Masters

Blythe Sally Jess Masters is a British private equity executive and former financial services and fintech executive.

Blythe Masters is a former executive at JPMorgan Chase, where she was widely credited for developing the credit default swap as a financial instrument.

Blythe Masters is founding partner of fintech-focused private equity firm, Motive Partners, Group CEO of FNZ and an advisory board member of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, an advisory board member of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, and a board member of GCM Grosvenor, Forge Global, and CAIS Group.

Blythe Masters is the former CEO of special-purpose acquisition company, Motive Capital Corp, and a former board member of Credit Suisse Group.

Blythe Masters joined the bank JP Morgan Chase in 1991, after completing a number of internships there while still a student dating back to 1987.

Morgan, Blythe Masters became a managing director at 28, the youngest woman to achieve that status in the firm's history.

Blythe Masters is widely credited with creating the modern credit default swap, a derivative used to manage credit exposure to underlying reference entities.

Nonetheless, Blythe Masters was described by the UK newspaper The Guardian as "the woman who invented financial weapons of mass destruction".

Blythe Masters stated support for reforms which increase transparency and reduce the risk of contagion among financial firms.

From 2001 to 2004, Blythe Masters served as the bank's head of Global Credit Portfolio and Credit Policy and Strategy.

Blythe Masters was the Chair of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association from 2008 to 2010 and of the Global Financial Markets Association from 2012 to 2014, trade associations whose missions include promoting public trust and confidence in financial markets.

Blythe Masters has frequently represented the industry in Washington, DC, on matters including the design of carbon markets to contain global warming, curbs on large commodities trading positions and the financial regulatory overhaul.

Blythe Masters was named the CEO of Digital Asset Holdings in March 2015, a company that builds secure and distributed processing tools to speed up settlement, reduce costs and enhance security and transparency in regulated industries.

Blythe Masters distributed ledger systems for the Australian Securities Exchange, DTCC and others.

In December 2018, Blythe Masters announced that she was stepping down as CEO, but would remain a board member, strategic advisor and a shareholder.

In December 2015, it was posited in the media that the new Barclays CEO Jes Staley had approached Blythe Masters about running the bank's investment banking division, however Blythe Masters indicated she was fully committed to her current role at Digital Asset Holdings.

Blythe Masters was appointed to the board of directors of Phunware on December 30,2019, and was named its chair in March 2020.

In February 2025, Blythe Masters rejoined JPMorgan as chair of its securities unit in the UK.

In 2019, Blythe Masters joined Motive Capital Partners, a private equity firm.

Blythe Masters was married to Daniel Masters, who worked on the commodities desk at JPMorgan.