LendingTree CEO Doug Lebda dies following weekend ATV accident

LendingTree, Inc. introduced Monday that founder and CEO Doug Lebda died unexpectedly in an all-terrain car accident final weekend.

The board has appointed LendingTree Chief Working Officer and President Scott Peyree to succeed Lebda, efficient instantly.

“We’re deeply saddened by Doug’s sudden passing. Doug was a visionary chief whose relentless drive, innovation and fervour reworked the monetary providers panorama and touched the lives of tens of millions of customers,” the board of administrators mentioned in a press release.

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The board mentioned that since its founding in 1996, Lebda “has been dedicated to constructing an organization rooted in shopper empowerment, advocating a mission to simplify monetary selections and advance financial alternative for all.”

Douglas “Doug” Lebda, CEO of LendingTree Inc., pauses throughout a Bloomberg Tv interview in New York, U.S., on Tuesday, March 8, 2016. (Chris Goodney/Bloomberg through Getty Pictures/Getty Pictures)

LendingTree is among the nation’s largest on-line monetary platforms, providing gives on loans, bank cards, insurance coverage and extra via a community of roughly 430 monetary companions. Lebda, who graduated from Bucknell College and acquired his MBA from the College of Virginia’s Darden Faculty of Enterprise, labored on the firm for 26 years.

He based the corporate with the objective of simplifying the method of buying loans by creating a web site that eradicated the legwork of going to a number of banks for data.

“As a substitute of bodily going to a number of banks, prospects might go to a web site the place the banks would compete for his or her enterprise,” in keeping with LendingTree’s web site.

After its nationwide launch in July 1998, he led LendingTree via its preliminary public providing in 2000, the dot-com collapse in 2001, and a sale to IAC/InterActiveCorp in 2003.

Between 2005 and 2008, Lebda served as President and Chief Working Officer of IAC, and in 2008 he joined the newly fashioned Tree.com, which was renamed LendingTree because it spun out of IAC as a separate publicly traded firm. Earlier than founding LendingTree, Lebda labored as an auditor and guide for PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

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In a press release, Peyree mentioned Lebda’s passing was devastating, “however probably the most quick impacts of his legacy is the robust administration staff he appointed at LendingTree. I look ahead to main our staff and persevering with the shared imaginative and prescient that Doug and I’ve been working in the direction of for the longer term.”

The board mentioned it is going to work intently with Peyree to honor Lebda’s imaginative and prescient, emphasizing that the corporate is “dedicated to upholding his legacy and persevering with the work he began with ardour, integrity and dedication.”

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Lead unbiased director, Steve Ozonian, will function chairman of the board, efficient instantly. Ozonian joined the Board of Administrators in 2008.

Ozonian thanked Peyree for his “excellent dedication and focus” on the firm and expressed confidence in his “skill to proceed to steer LendingTree into the longer term.”

Buyer utilizing a bank card. (Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Pictures/Getty Pictures)

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The corporate’s shares fell on the information of Lebda’s loss of life.