Lending Club enlists Wall Street veteran as new CFO

The US’ largest marketplace lender Lending Club hires former Acelity man as CFO.

Thomas Casey is joining Lending Club as chief financial officer, effective September 19^th. Casey most recently served a stint at Acelity as executive vice president and CFO. With over two decades of experience in financial services, spanning senior roles at GE Capital, Washington Mutual, JP Morgan Chase and Citicorp, Casey’s appointment will doubtless be seen by many as a reassuring development after a difficult year for Lending Club.

Casey is the latest in a string of seasoned financial services professionals to join Lending Club. Patrick Dunne joined from BlackRock as chief capital officer in July, while Morgan Stanley's Valerie Kay and BlackRock's Raman Suri joined as head of institutional investors and head of retail investors respectively in August.

The focus in many of these recent hires has been placed firmly on courting investment, which is hardly surprising, given Lending Club’s recent struggles on the capital side. The platform went so far as to consider funding loans on balance sheet in May, following a sharp decline in investor appetite. 

"Lending Club's success to date is just the beginning," said Casey. "I look forward to adding my talents to this outstanding team in order to deliver long-term value for shareholders and support Lending Club's mission to transform the banking system." 

Scott Sanborn, who acceded to the role of CEO at Lending Club in late June, following the dismissal of Renaud Laplanche in May, also weighed in: "Tom's outstanding reputation of strategic leadership, metrics-driven management, talent development, and integrity, combined with his experience working with investors, analysts, and regulators, will be enormously valuable as we further strengthen our foundation in preparation for our next chapter of growth."