Who We Are
Lending Club is a social lending network where members can borrow and lend money among themselves at better rates.
We have assembled a talented group with diverse backgrounds in personal finance, technology, security and online communities. In addition to the people mentioned below, we are fortunate to have team members who previously worked at eBay, Agency.com and aQuantive (Avenue A | Razorfish).
Renaud Laplanche, Founder and CEO
Prior to founding Lending Club, Renaud Laplanche was the Founder & CEO of TripleHop Technologies, a VC-backed enterprise software company acquired by Oracle Corporation in June 2005. Prior to founding TripleHop, Renaud was a Senior Associate at New York law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton. Renaud was honored with the HEC "Entrepreneur of the Year" award in 2002 and won the French sailing championship twice, in 1988 and 1990.
John Donovan, COO
John Donovan spent most of his professional career with MasterCard International. John held multiple Vice President positions at MasterCard including managing product development for the MasterCard, MasterCard Electronic, Maestro and Cirrus brands, and developing the MasterCard Global Services customer service infrastructure. John was previously Chief Operating Officer at E4X Inc., and has worked for JP Morgan Chase.
Patrick Gannon, Senior Vice President
Patrick joined us from Wells Fargo Bank, where he ran product support, process improvement, and the project management office, and was the driving force in developing and enhancing the in-store electronic sales channel for the bank's small business credit division. Patrick earned a BS in Mathematics with Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA in Finance and Strategy from The Wharton School.
Wynn Goodchild, VP Operations
Wynn Goodchild brings extensive financial service experience driving new product design and roll-out, managing back office operations as well as customer service, and spearheading global initiatives to launch new payment services. Wynn was previously a Vice President at First Data Corporation and has held senior positions at US Bank and JP Morgan Chase.
Soul Htite, VP Engineering
Soul has spent most of his professional career building enterprise-level software with Oracle Corporation. He focused on real-time online services and system design for high availability. Soul held a senior product development position in the Oracle core server technologies team, and lead research projects focusing on diagnosability and online system management services. Soul also led a global early product adoption initiative for Oracle's real-time collaboration products.
Richard Castro, Vice President, Finance & Administration
Rich has 15 years of Management Accounting experience serving as Controller for 3 publicly held local high technology companies and as Vice President or Director of Finance and Administration for 3 Venture backed high-technology start-ups. Rich was also a Senior Finance Consultant for 2 privately held Accounting Services Organizations and he served in various accounting positions during his 8 year US Air Force career.
Core Technical Team
- Visar Nimani, Software Architect
- Tom Kraikit, Web Architect
- Nii Dodoo, Senior Software Developer
- Andy Kuo, Resident Perfectionist
- William Cannon, IT Director
- Craig Music, Senior Software Developer
- Julie Yin, QA Manager
Marketing
- Merry Richter, Director of Content and Marketing
- Rob Garcia, Director of Web Production
- Scott Reynolds, Director of Online Marketing
Operations
- Sidney Chen, Director of Product Strategy
- Mark Stone, Member Support Representative
- Helen Miller-Montana, Operations Manager
- Michael Little, Member Support Representative
Board of Directors
Jeff Crowe, Norwest Venture Partners
Jeff joined Norwest Venture Partners in 2004 and focuses on seed and mid stage investments in software, Internet, and consumer arenas. He currently serves on the board of deCarta, Jigsaw, Lending Club, Nano-Tex, Tuvox, Turn and Wallop. Jeff is responsible for NVP's investment in 5 Square Systems and is actively involved with Cast Iron Systems. Prior to Norwest, Jeff served as President, COO and board member of DoveBid, Inc., a privately held business auction firm, which expanded during his tenure via internal growth and acquisition from a $10M revenue run rate to a $120M revenue run rate with 400 employees.
Dan Ciporin, Canaan Partners
Daniel T. Ciporin joined Canaan Partners in 2007 as a Venture Partner specializing in digital media and communications investments. Dan is the former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Shopping.com, a publicly traded online comparison shopping service. As CEO of the company beginning in 1999, Ciporin oversaw the company's growth from zero to over $100 million in revenues in just 5 years, culminating in the company's initial public offering in October 2004. During his tenure Shopping.com became the leader and dominant player in the newly emerging sector of comparison shopping, and was the third largest ecommerce site on the web before it was acquired by eBay in August of 2005. Prior to Shopping.com, Mr. Ciporin served as senior vice president of MasterCard International, where he managed global debit services.
Renaud Laplanche, Founder and CEO
Prior to founding Lending Club, Renaud Laplanche was the Founder & CEO of TripleHop Technologies, a VC-backed enterprise software company acquired by Oracle Corporation in June 2005. Prior to founding TripleHop, Renaud was a Senior Associate at New York law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton. Renaud was honored with the HEC "Entrepreneur of the Year" award in 2002 and won the French sailing championship twice, in 1988 and 1990.
John Donovan, COO
John Donovan spent most of his professional career with MasterCard International. John held multiple Vice President positions at MasterCard including managing product development for the MasterCard, MasterCard Electronic, Maestro and Cirrus brands, and developing the MasterCard Global Services customer service infrastructure. John was previously Chief Operating Officer at E4X Inc., and has worked for JP Morgan Chase.
