On Wednesday, marketplace lending platform BorrowersFirst announced the appointment of Lending Club’s former SVP, Zhi Zhou, as Chief Risk Officer and Head of Enterprise Analytics.
Dave Tomlinson, BorrowersFirst’s CEO, stated:
“Zhi is an accomplished and well respected leader who has been at the forefront of the marketplace lending industry-driving growth and broader acceptance of marketplace loans as an asset class. We are thrilled that he is joining BorrowersFirst as Chief Risk Officer during this period of tremendous growth. Zhi is a seasoned risk executive with experience through multiple credit cycles as well as a proven, technically-driven, innovator who leverages big-data and technology to drive improved risk, customer and financial outcomes.”
Zhou joined Lending Club in 2009 when the company had just 20 people. During his six years at Lending Club he led the team responsible for building the credit operations function and managing credit and operational risk as Lending Club progressed from a startup to a publicly traded company.
Prior to Lending Club, Zhou was a Vice President at Providian Financial, later Chase Bank, where he was a leader in driving growth while improving risk performance. Zhou began his career at Capital One in 1999 and holds a masters in Economics, from the University of California at Davis, and a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Mathematics from Lawrence University.