MPOWER Financing Hires Lutz Braum, Fintech and Higher Ed Marketing Veteran
WASHINGTON, Jan. 8, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — MPOWER Financing, a public benefit corporation focused on removing financial barriers to higher education in the U.S., has appointed Lutz Braum as its vice president of marketing and business development.
Braum, who has over 25 years of experience in marketing financial services, will be responsible for driving growth of the company’s student loan portfolio by increasing awareness of MPOWER Financing among higher education institutions in the U.S., as well as prospective high-potential students from all over the world.
Previously, Braum was chief marketing officer of Higher One, the largest digital-only banking provider in the U.S. with more than two million student checking accounts and over 800 college campus clients, which was sold to Customers Bank in 2016 and is currently operating as BankMobile. Earlier in his career, he was the head of consumer marketing for PayPal and SVP of marketing at Wells Fargo Bank. Braum started his career at Citibank where he held increasingly senior marketing roles both domestically and internationally. He earned his M.B.A. at Wharton and B.S. in Finance from Arizona State University after moving to the U.S. from Germany.
“Lutz has a strong background in driving revenue, customer engagement and loyalty by building compelling value propositions and executing integrated marketing campaigns across on- and off-line channels,” said Manu Smadja, CEO and co-founder of MPOWER Financing. “His expertise and global experience is exactly what we need to reach our $100 million loan portfolio goal. We know he’ll do an excellent job enhancing both B2B and B2C marketing capabilities and will reach even more high-potential students who aspire to obtain a degree from the U.S.”
“I believe that helping to turn the dreams of future global leaders and innovators into reality is of utmost importance, and their education should not be interrupted or derailed by a financial shortfall,” said Braum. “I look forward to helping international students study in the U.S and become global citizens by offering them a supplemental financing source that doesn’t depend on a co-signer or a traditional credit score.”
About MPOWER Financing
MPOWER Financing is an innovative FinTech company and provider of educational loans to high-promise international students. MPOWER Financing helps students build their credit histories and provides them with personal finance, education and gateway financial products to prepare for life after college. The team is backed by Zephyr Management, Goal Structured Solutions, 1776, Village Capital, VARIV, DreamIt, Fresco, Chilango, K Street and University Ventures. For more information, visit www.mpowerfinancing.com, or follow MPOWER on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
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Richard Anderson / Cara Johnson
Feintuch Communications
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MPower@feintuchpr.com
