Student lending startup CommonBond has hired Morgan Edwards, a longtime Wall Street leveraged debt specialist, as its chief financial officer.
Edwards recently served as a managing director of Macquarie Capital, an Australian investment banking firm, where he oversaw leveraged finance for the telecom, media, and technology sectors, as well as middle market lending. Earlier, Edwards worked at Morgan Stanley and other firms in debt capital markets.
New York-based CommonBond is an online marketplace lender, or peer-to-peer lender, that so far has specialized in private student lending.
In June, the company announced the completion of its first securitization, a $100 million deal. Earlier in the year, the student loan servicer Nelnet announced plans to buy $150 million in loans on the company’s platform.
Edwards will take charge of underwriting at CommonBond, in addition to seeking to build relationships with more financial institutions. He replaces Mike Taormina, a CommonBond co-founder who left to finish his Master of Business Administration at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School.
CommonBond also announced that Charles Stonehill, managing partner at consultancy TGG Group, will join the company’s board. TGG Group Chairman Vikram Pandit, the former Citigroup chief executive, is an investor in CommonBond.
