Neville Crawley appointed as OppFi CEO

By Edlyn Cardoza

OppFi Inc., a leading financial technology platform that powers banks to help everyday consumers gain access to credit, recently announced that its Board of Directors, led by Founder and Executive Chairman Todd Schwartz, has named Neville Crawley, currently the company’s President, to succeed Jared Kaplan as Chief Executive Officer of OppFi, effective December 31, 2021. Crawley’s selection is the culmination of a leadership and succession planning process led by the Board. Kaplan will remain a member of the Board of Directors and in an executive advisory role for the company, and Crawley will also serve as a member of the Board of Directors.

“With Neville’s deep experience and expertise in technology and serving financially excluded populations, the Board is confident Neville is best suited to lead the company’s next evolution as we look to expand upon our mission to help millions of everyday consumers build better financial health. I look forward to working closely with Neville and our management team to execute on the exciting plans we have for 2022 and beyond,” said Todd Schwartz, Executive Chairman of OppFi.

“As OppFi’s CEO for more than six years, Jared has been integral in building a leading fintech platform that we believe will continue to grow and thrive under Neville’s leadership. On behalf of the Board of Directors and the entire team at OppFi, I want to express my sincerest gratitude to Jared for his contributions to the company and I look forward to working with him as a member of our Board of Directors during this next phase,” said Schwartz.

Kaplan joined OppFi in 2015 as CEO. He led the company through a high growth period as OppLoans, transitioned to become OppFi, a multi-product FinTech platform, and expanded credit access to the 150 million consumers who are locked out of mainstream options. Kaplan took the company public in July of 2021 through a business combination with the special purpose acquisition corporation FG New America Acquisition Corp.

“It has been an honor to lead OppFi through its incredible growth as a private company and during its early months as a publicly-traded company,” said Jared Kaplan, CEO, OppFi. “I am extremely proud of what we have accomplished and built thus far, and I am excited to see OppFi continue to grow and maximize its potential. I believe Neville is extremely qualified to build upon the work we started – expanding credit access for the everyday consumer – and is the best person to lead this next phase of OppFi’s mission.”

Crawley joined OppFi in July of 2021 as President to lead the company’s growth initiatives, technology, go-to-market strategies, and social impact commitments. Prior to joining OppFi, Crawley served as CEO of the global FinTech platform Kiva from 2017 to 2021. Kiva funded more than $1.5 billion in loans to some of the world’s most financially excluded populations and developed multiple world-changing innovations, including inventing crowdfunding.

Under Neville’s leadership, Kiva’s core crowdfunding platform returned to substantial growth, and Kiva expanded its mission and product portfolio to include Kiva Capital, a scaled institutional asset management platform, and Kiva Protocol, which partners with governments to deploy blockchain-based identity and credit history at population scale. Prior to leading Kiva, Crawley served as CEO of Quid, an artificial intelligence company, during its high growth period. Neville holds a degree in Interactive Arts from Manchester Metropolitan University and an MBA from London Business School.

“I am honored to lead OppFi in its next chapter of growth and planned expansion to meet the untapped potential and opportunity for this consumer segment,” said Neville Crawley, President, OppFi. “Jared has done an incredible job building the company to be a leader and advocate for expanding credit access for so many locked out of the mainstream financial ecosystem. I am energized and excited to leverage my experience of building and leading high growth companies and disruptive financial technologies to further accelerate OppFi into the leading fintech platform for many millions of financially underserved consumers.”