New CEO for Linked Finance
Irish peer-to-peer lending platform Linked Finance has appointed Niall O’Grady (pictured) as its new chief executive, taking over from former chief executive Niall Dorrian.
Dorrian will remain at the company as a non-executive director.
O’Grady was previously managing director of insurance website 123.ie, and prior to that he was director of distribution of RSA. Before that he was with Permanent TSB as commercial director.
“I’m delighted to welcome Niall O’Grady as our new chief executive,” said Michael Cawley, chairman of Linked Finance.
“He has an excellent track record at growing financial services companies and we will benefit from his extensive experience building Linked Finance into a high performing, fast growing business. I look forward to working with him.
Read more: Linked Finance sees “record” interest in government-backed loans
“I want to thank Niall Dorrian for his leadership of the company over the last five years. He leaves the business in great health and well poised for strong future growth.”
Since being approved to over Ireland’s government-backed Covid-19 credit guarantee scheme last month, Linked Finance has funded more than €3m (£2.64m) in loans to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
The scheme is similar to the UK government’s coronavirus business interruption loan scheme, in that it offers low-cost working capital and capital expenditure loans for businesses affected by the pandemic.
“Linked Finance is a great company and I am very excited by the opportunity to grow the business and support Irish SMEs through the current challenges they face,” said O’Grady.
“Talking to customers this week, I can see a clear need for the speed and simplicity of our finance offering. It has been great to join a business just as we start to offer the government’s Covid-19 credit guarantee scheme to our customers.
“We have seen record levels of interest and we are able to move very quickly to fund great Irish businesses under this important scheme.”
Read more: Everything we know about the CBILS successor scheme (so far)
