LendingCrowd names new chief marketing officer

LENDINGCROWD has appointed Darren Cairns (pictured) as its new chief marketing officer, in the latest senior hire for the Scottish peer-to-peer lender.

Cairns previously worked at London-based financial provider Neyber, and he has more than 20 years of experience in digital and mobile technology marketing.

Before working at Neyber, he was chief marketing officer at fintech lender 4finance, where he helped bring the company’s lending volumes to €1.1bn (£970m) across 17 countries.

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Cairns has also held senior roles at Sony, Yahoo!, 3, and BT.

“I am excited to be joining such a dynamic company as LendingCrowd,” said Cairns. “I loved the ambitious plans of Stuart [Lunn] and the LendingCrowd team and I believe with my start-up experience I can help them make this business a real fintech force.”

This is the latest high-profile hire for the Edinburgh-based platform. In October, the firm announced the appointment of former Standard Life boss Sir Sandy Crombie as its new chairman.

Stuart Lunn, founder and chief executive at LendingCrowd, said that Cairns’ arrival will help the platform to expand its reach in Scotland and beyond.

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“We are delighted to welcome Darren to our growing team,” said Lunn.

“His experience and expertise will be a valuable asset as we continue to serve the country’s small and medium sized businesses by building the most exciting fintech lending company here in Scotland.

“The fintech landscape in Edinburgh has developed exponentially in recent years, so it is no surprise the city is increasingly able to attract the best talent.

“LendingCrowd is an attractive option for businesses looking for an alternative to the big banks and we are now ideally placed to capitalise on an impressive first four years to grow our market share across the UK.”

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