Cambridge Wilkinson hired John Donovan as a senior advisor.
Donovan is a financial technology veteran with global experience at start-ups, as well as established Fortune 50 companies. Currently, Donovan is co-founder, president, and GM of mySMBscore and head of marketplace for CHARM Solutions – an AI-powered SMB scoring and lending marketplace with a mission of helping businesses prosper. As a co-founder, COO and board member of Lending Club, Donovan was critical in raising initial start-up capital and A/B round financing, built and managed credit risk, finance, treasury and overall operations. As the business started to scale, Donovan created the corporate development function, developed new borrower products and onboarded the first key institutional investors. Donovan also co-founded OfferBoard – a JOBS Act company that helped businesses raise equity via crowdfunding. As a venture capital partner with Finsight Ventures, Donovan identified investment opportunities and represented the company as a board member of portfolio companies. Donovan restructured the inefficient operations of a highly levered SMB lender, Bizfi, and assisted with the wind-down and sale of assets. In association with Wheat Financial, Donovan built a Chinese blockchain-based lead generation platform that helped partners monetize their user base and enabled advertisers to accurately target customers.
While at MasterCard, Donovan launched new products resulting in more than 200 million new cards, more than $200 million in incremental revenue and more than $20 billion in card spending in more than 40 countries. In addition to working in headquarters, Donovan spent five years managing debit products for a MasterCard joint venture based in Belgium.
“John’s expertise in fintech and specialty finance makes him a tremendous addition to our team. His knowledge base is very accretive to our platform and to our clients. We are eager to work with John across our organization as we continue to scale”, Rob Bolandian, co-founder and global head of investment banking at Cambridge Wilkinson, said.
