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P2P Lender SocietyOne Appoints Simon Schwarz as Chief Operating Officer

Announcement posted by The Recognition Group 27 Mar 2015

Key hire will help the company continue to build and capitalise on opportunities in the Australian marke
Sydney, Australia, 27 March 2014 – SocietyOne, Australia’s leading peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform, announced today that Simon Schwarz will be joining the company as Chief Operating Officer. Schwarz was the Chief Credit Officer of the Australian arm of the global investment and private banking Investec Group. His appointment will enable SocietyOne to continue to build operational and organisational proficiency as it embarks on rapid growth. 
“We are excited to welcome someone of Simon’s calibre and breadth of experience to the team,” said Matt Symons, CEO and co-founder of SocietyOne. “Simon was responsible for all lending decisions across a multibillion dollar loan portfolio across a range of industries and products at Investec. His contribution to SocietyOne will be immensely valuable as we continue to evolve as a company.”
“I look forward to building on the successes of SocietyOne and using my expertise in risk, governance and banking operations to create a robust and scalable organisational architecture that will underpin the company’s next phase of growth,” said Simon Schwarz. “SocietyOne’s competitive advantage as a high-growth disruptive innovator is critically dependent on its speed and efficiency of learning. I’m excited to facilitate this process as a core competency in the business.”
“It is a great pleasure to hand over the role of COO to Simon,” said co-founder Greg Symons. “SocietyOne is entering a new phase of growth and maturity. Simon’s significant industry-relevant capability and experience is a welcome addition to the business.”
Simon Schwarz has more than 13 years’ international experience in risk, banking, finance and operations. He is also an Honorary Fellow and lecturer at Macquarie University’s Applied Finance Centre, specialising in Financial Risk Management.
The appointment follows an exceptional year for SocietyOne, after closing a $25 million capital raising round in February with a consortium of top-tier Australian investors, represented by Consolidated Press Holdings, News Corp Australia and Australian Capital Equity. The investment marked a milestone for SocietyOne and its ability to make P2P lending available to more creditworthy borrowers and qualified investors in Australia.
About SocietyOne
SocietyOne is Australia’s leading Peer-to-Peer technology platform where high credit quality borrowers connect directly with investors to get a better deal. The SocietyOne ClearMatchTM platform reduces the cost of originating and managing consumer loans enabling SocietyOne to share its operating cost advantage with both borrowers and investors. SocietyOne has been recognised as one of the top 50 Best Fintech Innovators (by AWI, KPMG Australia and the FSC) in the world and its unsecured personal loan as one of the Top 10 most Innovative Banking Products of the year in Australia. SocietyOne’s SmartLoan mobile app was awarded “Best of Show” at FinovateAsia in November 2012.