Michael Linford is the Chief Financial Officer at Affirm, where he oversees and manages the Company’s accounting, finance, capital markets, corporate development and strategic partnerships departments.
Linford has made many meaningful contributions to Affirm’s growth and success since joining the Company in 2018. During this period, Affirm has experienced a step change in the size and scale of its network and is well-positioned for the future with its attractive unit economics.
For the quarter ending December 31, 2021, Affirm grew its active consumer base by 150% to more than 11 million, from 4.5 million the year prior. In addition, Affirm increased its active merchant base by 2030% to 168,000 from 7,900 year-over-year. For the twelve months ended December 31, 2021, Affirm processed approximately $12 billion in gross merchandise volume, which doubled compared to the 12 month period ending December 31, 2020.
Linford helped lead multiple successful fundraising rounds for Affirm. He was also instrumental in leading the Company through its successful initial public offering in January 2021 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, which raised $1.2 billion after expenses. In November 2021, Linford led the successful completion of a $1.7 billion convertible debt offering, which provided attractively-priced capital to enable continued investments in Affirm’s growth for years to come. In his role overseeing Affirm’s capital markets activities, Linford has helped build an industrial strength capital markets platform. Since July 2020, Affirm has successfully completed eight asset-backed securitization transactions and was even named Esoteric ABS Issuer of the Year in 2021.
Prior to joining Affirm, Linford held multiple leadership roles within investment, IT, and software companies. Previously, Linford was the Chief Financial Officer for Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Software. Linford led commercial work for all HPE separations and previously served as the VP of M&A Integration at HP. Additionally, Linford 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.
Linford holds a B.S. from The University of Texas at Austin where he studied Mechanical Engineering.