Online lender Social Finance (SoFi), a seven-year-old San Francisco-based startup, has recruited a high-profile exec, Twitter COO Anthony Noto, to take the reins as CEO of the company, effective March 1.
The appointment comes on the heels of a sex scandal involving former SoFi CEO Mike Cagney, who resigned in September after facing sexual harassment accusations that began in early 2012 and rapidly escalated with a wrongful termination lawsuit this August in addition to allegations of loan improprieties and fraudulent accounting.
Interim CEO Tom Hutton, who also has been serving as executive chairman, will become non-executive chairman of the board, according to SoFi.
“We are simply thrilled to have found someone of Anthony’s expertise and knowledge to lead SoFi,” Hutton said in a statement. “The SoFi board unanimously agrees that Anthony’s deep understanding of technology, consumer, and financial businesses make him the perfect fit to be SoFi’s CEO. We could not be more excited to have someone of his caliber on board.”
“SoFi has a significant opportunity to build on its leadership position in student and personal loans to revolutionize consumer finance and build a next-generation financial services company. I’m excited to work with Tom and the rest of the SoFi team,” said Noto in the press announcement.
Noto, who will also serve as a member of SoFi’s board of directors, will have some rebuilding to do in the wake of a slew of executives departing from the company last year, including former CEO Cagney’s wife June Ou, who previously served as the company’s CTO and VP of engineering.
Noto joined Twitter in 2014 as chief financial officer and assumed the role of COO in November 2016. Prior to Twitter he was co-head of global TMT investment banking at Goldman Sachs.
SoFi has completed $25 billion in loans between its inception in 2011 and 2017. One of its core areas of business is student loan refinancing. The company has expressed an intention to have an IPO, which may have been delayed by the leadership departures.