CFTC Chair Michael S. Selig names Donald Battle, J Matthew Haws to senior roles

CFTC Chair Michael S. Selig has appointed Donald Battle as chief data innovation officer and J Matthew Haws as senior adviser in the chairman’s office and Chicago regional lead, extending a broader leadership reshuffle underway since Selig became the agency’s sole commissioner in January 2026. Battle joins the Division of Data and the Innovation Task Force after roles at the SEC, including advising Commissioner Hester Peirce on the SEC’s Crypto Task Force and serving in the Enforcement Division’s Data Science Group, as well as a stint at FinCEN focused on Bank Secrecy Act anti-money laundering and counterterrorism obligations. Haws brings more than 13 years of derivatives regulatory and legal experience, most recently at Marex and previously at Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP. The appointments come as the CFTC is building staff while pursuing a more assertive agenda around prediction markets, including a proposed framework for event contracts and lawsuits against multiple states over their efforts to curb federally registered platforms.