We don’t make a big deal of it, but Oregon punches above its weight for innovative fintech expertise. From the Simple diaspora to current players like Bumped, Expensify, and Sila, there are a lot of local folks rethinking finance and the infrastructure that runs it. And it’s always nice when other regions recognize how compelling that talent is. Like Lincoln Savings Bank which has recently hired former Simple exec and Seed cofounder Ryan Hildebrand to head up innovation.
Ryan comes most recently from Cross River Bank where he served as SVP Fintech Banking. He co-founded Seed, the first business neobank in the US and backed by YCombinator and other top Silicon Valley investors, which he sold to Cross River. Before Seed, Ryan was VP of Finance and Strategy at Simple, where he led the sale of Simple to BBVA. A CPA by education, Ryan got his accounting degree from Oregon State University, and began his career as an Auditor for PriceWaterhouseCoopers with a brief stint at Umpqua Bank in Portland. His first startup, Strands, sold fintech banking software to some of the largest banks in Europe.
“This is definitely a passion for me – and an opportunity to be entrepreneurial, but with the platform of a successful bank with solid investors. I was also drawn to LSB because the commitment to being a leader in this area is clear – even at the board level, the culture at LSB is exactly what a community bank needs to make that happen. They understand the pace of change, and the challenges the industry faces, and they embrace it with innovation,” stated Hildebrand.
For more, see the press release on the new role.
(Hat tip Dylan Boyd)
