Doug Lebda, the founder and CEO of LendingTree, died Sunday in an ATV accident, the web mortgage market firm introduced. He was 55.
“The LendingTree household is completely heartbroken,” LendingTree stated in a press release to CBS Information.
Lebda based LendingTree in 1996 in a transfer to simplify the method of procuring and making use of for loans. A part of his imaginative and prescient was to create a platform that allowed prospects to keep away from making use of for a financial institution mortgage in particular person and that may generate extra competitors amongst lenders for individuals’s enterprise, in accordance with Lebda’s firm bio.
The enterprise launched in 1998 and went public in 2000. LendingTree’s web site helps customers discover and evaluate mortgages, bank cards, insurance coverage and different monetary merchandise.
LendingTree, based mostly in Charlotte, North Carolina, was later acquired by web conglomerate IAC/InterActiveCorp, earlier than spinning off by itself once more in 2008.
LendingTree’s board of administrators referred to as Lebda a “visionary chief whose relentless drive, innovation and fervour remodeled the monetary providers panorama.”
Scott Peyree, LendingTree’s chief working officer and president, will take over as president and CEO. Steve Ozonian, the lead impartial director on the corporate’s board, will function chairman of the board. Each management transitions are efficient instantly, in accordance with LendingTree.
“The information of shedding Doug was devastating,” Peyree stated in a press release. “However one of the vital quick impacts of his legacy is the sturdy administration group he put in place at LendingTree. I sit up for main our group and persevering with our shared imaginative and prescient with Doug into the longer term.”
Lebda, who beforehand labored as an auditor and advisor for PriceWaterhouseCoopers, in 2010 additionally co-founded a monetary providers platform for youngsters and households referred to as Tykoon.
“All of my concepts come from my very own experiences and issues,” Lebda instructed the Wall Avenue Journal in a 2012 interview.
