by David Liu, Authority Magazine | April 7, 2021
Stay clear and focused. Communication is always a two-way dialogue. You have to be ready to empathize and listen, genuinely and openly. You need to come to the virtual table with a clear head.
That’s more difficult these days given COVID-19. As a leader, I’m naturally ruminating all the time. If I wake up thinking about a particular issue, I have to decide if this is something the team and I can address, or if it’s out of our collective control. As much as we work collaboratively, I set the tone — and I can’t come onto Zoom distracted by what is out of our hands. I need to be present to move real opportunities forward.
I start the day with optimism — open to new possibilities, and enjoying my family. By the time I’m sitting at my desk, I’m 100% focused on CampusDoor and the individual members of our team.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
Leading CampusDoor, a technology company which has processed over $24 billion in student loan applications for 2.2 million unique borrowers, is a reflection of all I believe in.
I grew up in extremely humble beginnings and was the first person in my family to go to college, and then law school. If not for the generous financial aid I received, we wouldn’t be having this interview years later.
I am thrilled that my work helps others who grew up in a similar position.
After completing my J.D. at Cornell, I worked in the financial industry and also served as Associate Counsel with college lender Sallie Mae. I had been with CampusDoor earlier and returned in 2009 to reinvigorate the company. It was exciting to be in the trenches with a fabulous team — innovating a white-label technology platform that makes borrowing easy for students, and private lending easy for banks, credit unions and educational institutions.
In 2017, CampusDoor became an Incenter company, and we are an acknowledged leader in our space. I am thrilled to have come full circle with this wonderful business.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
I mentioned that I had been with CampusDoor earlier — -having been hired as Vice President and General Counsel. On my second day there, I was given a pivotal assignment — negotiating the terms of its sale to Lehman Brothers. Five Lehman attorneys from all over the country came to our offices in Lincoln Town Cars to meet with me, as the sole lawyer who would be handling the transaction. It was both a challenging and exhilarating assignment and it made me realize how much I loved the business of business. When Lehman closed operations and CampusDoor made the decision to restart on its own, I was incredibly excited to lead the charge.
Read the rest of the article at medium.com
