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Strategic Advisor·Specialty Finance

Steven Freiberg

Vice Chairman of Board of Directors at SoFi Technologies, Inc.

New York, NY

SF
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Why they matter

A former Citigroup Global Consumer Group CEO and E*TRADE CEO who now chairs and advises across a live specialty-finance and fintech board portfolio, including SoFi and a TowerBrook portfolio company.

Background

Steven Freiberg is a 40-year financial services veteran who spent three decades at Citigroup, rising to Co-Chairman and CEO of its Global Consumer Group (53 countries, 230,000 employees, $1 trillion managed balance sheet) and Chairman/CEO of Citi Cards. He went on to lead E*TRADE Financial as CEO (2010-2012) through its post-crisis turnaround, then pivoted to a portfolio of fintech board and advisory roles, including co-founding and chairing Fair Square Financial (sold to Ally Financial), chairing a fintech SPAC, and serving as Vice Chairman of SoFi Technologies' board since 2021.

Notable deals

  • 2010
    Appointed CEO of E*TRADE Financial Corporation, leading its post-financial-crisis balance-sheet remediation and return to profitability
  • 2021
    Co-founded and chaired Fair Square Financial, a digital-first credit card issuer acquired by Ally Financial for roughly $750 million
  • 2021
    Served as Chairman of Portage Fintech Acquisition Corp., which priced an upsized $240 million Nasdaq IPO
  • 2021
    Appointed Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of SoFi Technologies, Inc.

Call-prep brief

Background

  • 30 years at Citigroup, rising to Co-Chairman/CEO of the Global Consumer Group (53 countries, 230K employees, $1T managed balance sheet) and Chairman/CEO of Citi Cards.
  • CEO of E*TRADE Financial (2010-2012), steering it through post-crisis balance-sheet cleanup.
  • Founder of Grand Vista Partners (personal investment office); senior advisor to Boston Consulting Group.

Current Focus

  • Vice Chairman of SoFi Technologies' board (since 2021), giving him a front-row seat on consumer fintech/lending strategy.
  • Chairman of Rewards Network (a TowerBrook portfolio company) and director of Regional Management Corp, a subprime/near-prime consumer installment lender — direct relevance to specialty finance and lending diligence.
  • Recently added to Borrowell's board (2025), signaling continued appetite for consumer credit fintech.

What He Cares About

  • Credit underwriting quality and risk-adjusted growth in consumer lending, informed by scars from the 2008-09 credit crisis.
  • Building/exiting fintech platforms (Fair Square → Ally, Portage SPAC) rather than long-hold operating roles — he thinks in deal cycles.
  • Governance and board effectiveness across multiple concurrent mandates.

Sensitivities

  • Departure from E*TRADE in 2012 was reportedly not entirely on his own terms — approach that chapter carefully and let him frame it.
  • Sits on several boards simultaneously (SoFi, Regional Management, Rewards Network, Borrowell); be mindful of confidentiality walls and avoid asking him to comment on competitors of any current board seat.
  • As a TowerBrook senior advisor and Rewards Network chair, he may have existing visibility into TowerBrook's specialty finance thesis — useful, but confirm what he can discuss given that relationship.

Questions to Ask

  1. What underwriting or credit-quality signals mattered most in the Fair Square build, and how do those apply to today's specialty lenders?
  2. Where does he see consumer lending credit performance heading over the next 12-18 months, given his Regional Management and SoFi board vantage points?
  3. What separates a lending platform worth backing today from one that looked attractive pre-2022 but didn't hold up?

Outreach draft

Subject
Quick call on specialty lending diligence?
Hi Steven, I'm [Placeholder Name] on the deal team at TowerBrook. We're doing diligence on a specialty finance and consumer lending opportunity, and given your work at Fair Square, Regional Management, and now SoFi's board, your read on current underwriting discipline and credit cycle risk would be extremely valuable. Would you have 20-30 minutes in the next week or two for a call? Happy to work around your schedule, and glad to share more on the specific opportunity if useful context ahead of time. Thanks in advance, [Placeholder Name]

Linked companies

Sources