Zopa, the world’s first peer-to-peer lending business which recently crossed the £1 billion lending mark, has today announced that Jaidev Janardana has been appointed the company’s Chief Executive Officer with immediate effect.
Giles Andrews, Zopa’s co-founder and previous CEO, has been appointed Executive Chairman.
Jaidev Janardana joined Zopa last year as Chief Operating Officer and has been driving the operations of the business, including marketing, credit risk, technology and customer service. He has been instrumental in increasing monthly loan volumes by 122% year on year. Zopa now lends over £50m a month and has already lent more in 2015 than it did in the whole of 2014.
As CEO he will now also be responsible for implementing the company’s strategy for the next phase of its growth as Zopa targets £1bn in new loans for 2016 and aims to build a brand that becomes a mainstream service for UK consumers.
Giles Andrews co-founded the business 11 years ago and has been CEO for the last 8 years. He becomes Executive Chairman with major responsibility for managing key external relationships as well as chairing and managing the board of directors.
"Jaidev has shown he has the right mix of skills, vision and focus on execution that we need and I am delighted to announce his appointment as CEO. Since joining, Jaidev has demonstrated his ability both to hire and motivate great people while implementing an impressive series of initiatives and partnerships resulting in Zopa growing at its fastest ever rate and cementing our position as the leading consumer P2P lending service in the UK”, said Giles Andrews, “He is the best person to take Zopa to the next level and I am really looking forward to working with him in leading the company.”
“Giles and Jaidev have formed a perfectly synergistic team since Jaidev’s arrival at Zopa, and the company results show that” said Phillip Riese, chairman of Zopa since 2006 and an ongoing board member. “Over the last year they have formulated a division of responsibilities that works brilliantly, and these appointments simply formalise the way the business is operating so successfully today. Together they will drive Zopa to even greater heights.”
As an experienced and respected figure in the credit industry, Jaidev Janardana managed broad and diverse functions within the credit card division of Capital One in the US and UK, ranging from Product Strategy, Credit Risk Management, Risk Operations, and Business Development. Most recently he was Chief Marketing Officer for Capital One UK before joining Zopa as Chief Operating Officer in 2014.
Jaidev Janardana said, “I joined Zopa because it is a true pioneer and innovator in financial services. Since its inception a decade ago, it has consistently provided products with tremendous value with an unusual dedication to transparency, simplicity and service. I feel very privileged to lead such a talented, dynamic and mission driven team and to have Giles’ experience and expertise to call upon.
I believe we have an immense opportunity to create a positive impact on consumers’ lives through offering them a radically better alternative to the incumbent financial services organisations. By aligning our interests with those of our customers, providing simple and transparent products with best in class user experience, we can ensure Zopa becomes the first choice to an ever growing number of customers.”