Alex Joa brings over 20 years of financial and executive leadership experience within the consumer lending landscape. As a previous founder, Alex is highly attuned to the challenges of a startup at each particular stage of growth. His approach is collaborative with open communications across all stakeholders including leadership, Board members, and teams.
Prior to joining Burkland, Alex was a cofounder and EVP at Bread (sold to Alliance Data Systems), a startup financial technology company focused on offering payment, purchase finance, and buy now pay later technology and products. Alex was involved in all facets of the company. In addition to building and leading the Finance team, Alex also oversaw the Credit Risk management and HR teams. As part of his role, Alex led teams through periods of exceptional growth, assisted with equity raises totaling over $100mm, secured $300mm of debt financing, and launched Bread’s first international partnership.
Before Bread, Alex held senior roles leading Strategy, Analytics and M&A navigating uncertain and changing regulatory environments within the student loan space at Discover Financial Services and Citibank. He was the business lead in the sale of Citibank’s student loan business during the post-financial crisis era.
Alex holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BS from Cornell University.