SoFi Names Twitter’s Noto As New CEO

SoFi, the online lender that was embroiled in a company scandal last fall, announced Wednesday (Jan. 23) that Twitter executive Anthony Noto has been appointed as its next chief executive officer.

In a press release, SoFi announced that Tom Hutton, who has been serving as interim CEO and executive chairman, will become non-executive chairman of the board. Prior to coming on board at the company, Noto served as chief operating officer at Twitter and was previously the social media company’s chief financial officer.

Noto had been leading Twitter’s efforts in the live content portion of the market. He aided the company in inking a $10 million deal to stream NFL games back in 2016, and was credited with forging live content deals with Bloomberg and Time, too.

“We are simply thrilled to have found someone of Anthony’s expertise and knowledge to lead SoFi,” Hutton said in a press release. “The SoFi board unanimously agrees that Anthony’s deep understanding of technology, consumer and financial businesses make him the perfect fit to be SoFi’s CEO. We could not be more excited to have someone of his caliber on board.”

SoFi has landed close to $2 billion in venture capital since its inception. Noto’s appointment comes at a time when SoFi is expanding into new markets and is eyeing becoming a bank. The company has been reeling from a scandal that resulted in the ousting of former CEO Mike Cagney. 

“I’m grateful to the SoFi board for this extraordinary opportunity to lead one of the most important new companies at the intersection of technology and finance,” Noto said in the same press release. “SoFi has a significant opportunity to build on its leadership position in student and personal loans to revolutionize consumer finance and build a next-generation financial services company. I’m excited to work with Tom and the rest of the SoFi team.”

Bloomberg previously reported SoFi was dangling a stake in the company in front of Noto to lure him to the company. The company did not disclose his compensation in the press release.