Ken Rees, CEO of Elevate, Resigns

Ken Rees, the CEO of consumer lending company Elevate, resigned on Monday. The announcement coincided with the release of the company’s Q2 financials in which Rees described the business as performing “extremely well.”

Thus far, in 2019, we have already delivered over $19 million in net income or $0.43 per fully diluted share. We are reaffirming our full year guidance for $25 million to $30 million in net income. This will be more than double the net income we delivered in 2018. Elevate’s bottomline performance was driven by excellent credit quality and very low rates of fraud across all of our products. Additionally, our customer acquisition costs have remained better than target levels. In short, the business is performing extremely well.

And this is why I believe now is a good time for me to step down as CEO. I am very proud of our financial accomplishments since our launch in 2014, but I am even proud of the leadership team here at Elevate. They are all seasoned and dedicated professionals that have been instrumental in the rapid growth of the company and in generating solid profitability over the past two years.

Rees also stepped down as chairman of the board of directors but will a remain a director of the company.

Chief Operating Officer Jason Harvison has been named interim CEO. Harvison joined the quarterly earnings call and said, “First, I couldn’t be more excited about Elevate’s future and believe the company is very well positioned to capitalize on the strategic initiatives put in place over the past year. Secondly, I firmly believe that Elevate is uniquely well-positioned in the market with strong credit quality, improving margins and a measured approach to growth. We are on track for steady profitability in 2019 and beyond.”

A permanent CEO is expected to replace Harvison in his capacity as interim CEO as soon as one is selected.

Elevate had a net income of $5.8M in Q2, up 87% year-over-year.