Last month I reported on the new executive team taking over at Prosper. Things continue to evolve there as demonstrated last week by this short 8-K regulatory filing from Prosper where two senior executives announced their resignations.
The fact that Joseph Toms, the Chief Investment Officer, resigned was not a surprise to me. I have spoken regularly with Joe over the last couple of years and even reported on his switch from Lending Club to Prosper back in 2011. Last year he produced a monthly article series that was some of the most intelligent analysis of the p2p space I have read. But I also know he was deeply involved with institutional sales and that is a real strong suit for the new executive team.
The other resignation was that of Kirk Inglis who was the Chief Operating Officer and former CFO. He had been at Prosper since 2006 and I was a little surprised to see him leave. He is one of the old guard of this industry, being the longest tenured executive at either Lending Club or Prosper. But with Aaron Vermut becoming the new president there was probably going to be a lot of crossover between his role as the COO role. Still, a wealth of p2p lending experience leaves with Kirk Inglis.
Also reported in the filing was the resignation of Sachin Adarkar from Prosper Funding LLC. He is Prosper’s general counsel and was instrumental in putting the bankruptcy remote vehicle in place. He will be staying on in his role at Prosper, he will just no longer be a director at Prosper Funding.
I am not sure we can read too much into these resignations. When new management teams take over companies there is always some fall out. Personally, I am a little disappointed because I had good relationships with both departing executives. But the new team are obviously intent on bringing in fresh faces with new ideas. Now, they just have to start putting some runs on the board.
Peter Renton is the chairman and co-founder of LendIt Fintech, the world’s first and largest digital media and events company focused on fintech. Peter has been writing about fintech since 2010 and he is the author and creator of the Fintech One-on-One Podcast, the first and longest-running fintech interview series. Peter has been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The New York Times, CNBC, CNN, Fortune, NPR, Fox Business News, the Financial Times, and dozens of other publications.