Embattled online lender SoFi has poached Twitter’s chief operating officer, Anthony Noto, to be its CEO, dealing a blow to Twitter’s turnaround campaign.
SoFi announced Noto’s hiring Tuesday, just four months after Mike Cagney was forced to step down as its chief executive because of sexual harassment claims. Cagney was accused in a lawsuit of having had inappropriate relationships with company employees and questioned over whether he had skirted risk and compliance controls.
In Noto, SoFi has chosen a fast-rising executive in the tech industry. Noto, 49, was one of the most respected bankers at Goldman Sachs before becoming the chief financial officer of the National Football League and then Twitter.
Since arriving at Twitter, Noto has been perhaps the most trusted deputy to CEO Jack Dorsey, and he has taken on several additional roles. He has recently been leading the company’s interactions with investors and its marketing as well as its revenue-generating efforts, especially with its moves into live video.
With Dorsey splitting his time between Twitter and Square, the payments company, Noto is credited with being a calming force as Twitter has faced significant employee turnover and doubts about its ability to make money from its enormous audience.
While Twitter’s stock price has fallen steadily over the past three years, in the past few months it has ticked upward. On Tuesday, after Noto’s departure was announced, the company’s shares fell nearly 4 percent before recovering some of the loss to close down 2.5 percent at $22.75.
Twitter said that other employees would assume Noto’s responsibilities while it looked for a replacement.
On Twitter, Dorsey wrote: “I’m really sad to see @anthonynoto leave us, but I’m happy for him and really proud of everything he’s accomplished at Twitter.”
At SoFi, Noto will be responsible for trying to steady a company that was thrown into turmoil by Cagney’s departure.
After co-founding SoFi in 2011, Cagney turned it into one of the few breakout stars among the thousands of online lending startups trying to disrupt the financial industry.
SoFi began by refinancing the loans of elite students, but the company then expanded into personal loans, insurance and wealth management, and was making several moves to turn into more of a full-service bank.
After Cagney’s departure, though, SoFi significantly trimmed its ambitions, pulling back its application to get a bank charter.
Noto suggested Tuesday that he planned to pick up where Cagney had left off.
“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,” Noto said in a news release.
Noto will also need to find replacements for several top executives who left around the same time that Cagney did, including the company’s chief financial officer and chief technology officer.
Noto’s new job, which will start March 1, could put him into competition with his old boss. Dorsey’s second company, Square, has recently been making moves to become more of a consumer bank, as SoFi had looked to do under Cagney.
Since Cagney’s departure, SoFi has been led by the chairman of its board, Tom Hutton. Hutton will return to his former role.
“We are simply thrilled to have found someone of Anthony’s expertise and knowledge to lead SoFi,” Hutton said in a news 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.”
Cagney was one of the highest-profile tech executives to be felled by the wave of sexual harassment claims that have swept corporate America over the last year.
SoFi employees said the inappropriately sexualized atmosphere of the company ran deep and extended to the company’s satellite offices.
Unlike some other executives, Cagney did not acknowledge that the claims against him were true, though he did announce the start of an internal investigation before his departure.
SoFi has not yet made public the findings of that investigation. The company’s chief human resources officer, Jing Liao, said in December that SoFi was creating two working groups to improve the company’s culture and its approach to inclusion and diversity.
