Affirm’s Chief Capital Officer on mentorship, leading with empathy and finding growth opportunities

For Brooke Major-Reid, the power of capital and how it can promote growth and value across all segments of our society has always been fascinating. At each step of her career, she embraced the challenges she faced and identified opportunities to learn and grow from them. It's those experiences that have inspired her to be a mentor to others.

We sat down with Brooke to learn more about her role as Chief Capital Officer, how she prioritizes DEI on her team, and the advice she has for future leaders in the industry.

Could you provide an overview of your role as Chief Capital Officer and your responsibilities within the organization?

As Chief Capital Officer, I oversee teams responsible for funding Affirm’s overall business and managing associated risks as we scale our network. We have a diversified ecosystem across diverse funding channels and partners, providing us with sustainable and efficient access to capital. Simply put, my job is to ensure that we have a robust and resilient, accretive Capital program that meets the needs of Affirm through all phases of growth as we fulfill our mission of delivering honest financial products in a sustainable way.?

Could you talk about the key experiences that helped you become a Chief Capital Officer? Tell us about the important steps in your career journey in finance and capital management.

I was intrigued by finance early in my undergraduate studies. The power of capital and how it can be efficiently allocated to promote growth and create value across all segments of our society has always fascinated me.

After earning my MBA, I went to work on Wall Street at Morgan Stanley and spent almost two decades in aggregate, largely in corporate finance and capital markets. My experiences at Morgan Stanley provided a really strong foundation and understanding of markets and credit products, and I kept building from there.?

When I left banking, I wanted to do more to make a lasting impact. I founded my own advisory firm to advise women and minority-founded enterprises, which are often at a disadvantage due to lack of access to capital and other foundational resources. Working directly with entrepreneurs was such a fulfilling experience that it led me to a growth oriented fintech, Cross River Bank, where I worked as Head of Strategy. From my experiences at Cross River Bank to my role as Treasurer of Macy’s and now here at Affirm, my journey has taught me the value of being a life learner as I lead teams to deliver positive outcomes for the business.

How does your role contribute to the overall financial health and strategic direction of the company?

Every person at Affirm contributes to the overall financial health and success of the company by virtue of the work that we all do. I joined Affirm when we already had a robust and diverse funding program, and it’s been extremely exciting to build upon this strong foundation. Without consistent access to capital, we wouldn’t be able to extend consumers’ access to credit in a responsible manner. We strive to proactively identify strategic funding partners who are able to scale our funding capacity over time. In turn, this helps ensure we are able to support more consumers and merchants with our products. We ended June with $11.7 billion in funding capacity, which was a new all-time high.????

Capital-intensive industries often face unique challenges. How do you tailor your approach to capital management based on the Buy Now Pay Later industry’s characteristics and demands?

Affirm is unique in that our offerings via merchants to consumers range from financing terms as short as 6 weeks to as long as 60 months. That flexibility, in addition to the fact that we underwrite every single transaction, fuels consumers’ access to credit in a sustainable way. The profile of the assets we generate are attractive to a wide range of investors, allowing us to consistently fund our business across a range of business cycles.

Technology and data analytics are transforming the finance industry. How has your role and the role of your team evolved with the integration of these tools, and how do they impact your decision-making process?

Given Affirm’s position as a technology leader, it’s not surprising that my team relies heavily on technology and data analytics in our everyday operations and decision-making processes. On the technology front, the Capital team partners with a dedicated Capital Technology team to automate and optimize processes as we scale. This approach drives both resilience and efficiency, and spans money movement to asset allocations across our various funding channels. We leverage software solutions for reporting and forecasting. Technology and data analytics are core to facilitating my team’s growth and efficiency as we work really hard to maintain a competitive edge in our overall decision-making.

How would you describe your leadership philosophy, and how does it influence your interactions with your team?

My personal philosophy is to lead with empathy and humility and never stop learning in the process.

From leading businesses at Morgan Stanley to serving as Macy’s Treasurer at the onset of the pandemic, spearheading strategy at CRB, and now leading Affirm's Capital program, I have the opportunity to challenge myself at every turn.

Since joining Affirm, I have been able to apply many lessons toward delivering on our mission of building honest financial products that improve lives. I’ve also had the benefit of having diverse mentors throughout my career. It is fulfilling to identify others - especially women and minorities - to mentor, sponsor, promote and embrace as future leaders.?

Diverse teams often lead to innovative solutions. How do you ensure diversity and inclusion are valued and integrated into your team's dynamics?

Representation matters and it’s important that people from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds have mentors and are represented at the highest levels of an organization. At Affirm, nearly half of our executive team are women and more than three-fourths of our Board members are from underrepresented groups. The only way that we’ll improve as an industry is if we keep raising these questions, and holding ourselves accountable.?

We’re proud to have built a diverse group of individuals on the Capital team who bring a range of perspectives and financial services experiences to the table.?

What advice would you offer to aspiring finance professionals aiming to reach a C-suite role like yours?

As an immigrant from Jamaica, there is not a day that goes by that I don’t lean on the core values instilled in me from my formative years growing up and being educated through pre-college there - hard work, humility, integrity, gratitude, and respect.?

Those are the values that I’ve leaned on throughout my personal and professional life, and they’re the same values that I’d advise anyone, regardless of background, to lean into throughout their career.