Affirm CFO Fireside Chat - June 2023

Michael Linford is the Chief Financial Officer at Affirm, where he oversees and manages the accounting, finance, capital markets, and strategic partnerships department at Affirm. Prior to joining Affirm, Michael held multiple leadership roles within investment, IT, and software companies. Previously, Michael was the Chief Financial Officer for Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Software where he led commercial work for all HPE separations and most recently served as the VP of M&A Integration at HP. Additionally, Michael dedicated seven years to global investment firm KKR & CO, working his way to Principal and offering strategic and tactical support to a wide portfolio of companies as a member of the operations group. He started his career in management consulting as a business analyst at McKinsey & Company focused on consumer and retail clients. Michael holds a B.S. from The University of Texas at Austin where he studied Mechanical Engineering.

Rob currently serves as Affirm’s SVP, Finance where he leads teams responsible for financial partnerships, strategic finance, investor relations, corporate development and merchant pricing. Prior to Affirm, Rob served as Chief Financial Officer at Tile and in the same role at Spark Networks. Rob has also held various roles at Square, Pandora, Spitfire Capital, Spectrum Equity Investors, and Thomas Weisel Partners.

Rob received his B.S. in Business Administration from Georgetown University in 2003. Rob is a CFA® charterholder.

Craig Maurer joined FT Partners in 2021 as Co-Director of Research and Managing Director following seven years at Autonomous US and Alliance Bernstein L.P., before which he spent eight years at CLSA Americas LLC. Craig started his career at Neuberger Berman as a portfolio analyst before moving to the sell-side in 1999. Craig has over 24 years in the Equity Research industry. Craig’s coverage of Payments, Financial Technology and Specialty Finance began in 2003, prior to which he covered mid-cap banks. In 2006 and 2008, Craig was named to the Wall Street Journal’s “Best on the Street” ranking, and the Financial Times ranking in 2008 and 2013. Craig is a graduate of Syracuse University.

Matt O’Neill joined FT Partners in 2021 as Co-Director of Research and Managing Director from Goldman Sachs & Co. where he was the firm’s US Payments and IT Services analyst. Prior to Goldman, Matt was one of two lead Payments, Financial Technology, and Consumer Finance analysts at Alliance Bernstein L.P. following its acquisition of Autonomous Research, where Matt was a Partner. He began his career in equity research at Citi in 2006, followed by Bear Stearns, focusing on the consumer and restaurant sectors, respectively, before joining CLSA Americas LLC when he began focusing on FinTech companies. Matt is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University.