Our Team

Experienced & Passionate

With decades of experience in finance and technology, we are passionate about helping you succeed by delivering better financing solutions.

Experts in Improving Your Financing Experience

Cerebro is revolutionizing commercial lending with the combination of our team’s expertise and a proven data-driven marketplace – matching top banks and lenders with companies who need loans ranging from $1 million to $100 million.

 

Accessing capital for your business should not depend on who you know, but on the strength of your business. Cerebro provides a solution that levels the playing field. 

Our Leadership Team

Image: Cerebro CEO/Founder Matt Bjonerud

Matthew Bjonerud

Founder & CEO

Matt has broad experience across many areas of corporate finance especially across debt and equity transactions. Most recently, with Laureate Education—a multi-billion dollar company with operations across 25 countries— Matt worked as part of the corporate finance team that ushered the company through $3.5 billion of transactions including Laureate’s IPO—the world’s first Public Benefit Corporation IPO. Prior to Laureate, Matt was a Vice President within the PNC Corporate Banking Group. He was responsible for growth and management of large-scale corporate and public finance portfolios.

Image: Cerebro Chief Technology Officer Kevin Dieter

Kevin Dieter

Chief Technology Officer

Kevin has over 25 years of experience designing and developing complex applications. Prior to joining Cerebro Capital, Kevin served as CTO at an expert network company serving the financial services industry. There he architected, designed, and built the core software platform products and services that were used by all employees, clients, and partners. Kevin graduated from Stanford University with a BS in Computer Systems Engineering and is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, serving as a space & ground systems acquisition officer.

Image: Executive Vice President Chris Dalo

Chris Dalo

Executive Vice President

Chris has over 30 years of experience building, growing and leading commercial lending businesses at banks, non-banks, and Fintechs both in the US and Internationally.  He began his career at GE in their premier Engineering and Leadership Development Programs and soon after moved to GE Capital. He moved to Standard Chartered Bank to become the Global Chief Commercial Officer – Commercial Banking and prior to joining Cerebro led Sales, Business Development, and Digital Partnerships at a Fintech SMB Lender.  He holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Image: Cerebro VP of Marketing Michele Hsu

Michele Hsu

Vice President, Marketing

Michele has over 20 years of experience as a hands-on marketing leader for highly competitive businesses most recently leading the transition from entrepreneurial start-up to scalable growth for a real estate private lender in the B2B market. With a deep background in database and business analysis she has developed growth strategies for multiple companies in the financial sector. As Chief Marketing Office for a specialty financial services company, Michele executed marketing positioning, branding, and campaigns across all channels including web, social media, and direct mail. She holds an MBA in Marketing from Bentley University. 

Our Team

Image: Cerebro Employee Chris Nixon

Chris Nixon

Director of Capital Markets

Image: Cerebro Employee Robert Schaeffer

Robert Schaeffer III

Senior Associate - Capital Markets

Image: Cerebro Employee Stu Whelehan

Stu Whelehan

Director of Compliance and Lender Relations

Image: Cerebro Employee Ridwan Zaman

Ridwan Zaman

Manager, Business Operations & Finance

Image: Cerebro Employee Uzezi Ogodo

Uzezi Ogodo

Application Developer

Image: Cerebro Employee Olivia Snuffer

Olivia Snuffer

Marketing Specialist

Image: Cerebro Employee Amanda Butler

Amanda Butler

Business Development Executive

Image: Cerebro Employee John Robinson

John Robinson

Managing Director

Image: Cerebro Employee Scott Garibay

Scott Garibay

Application Developer

Image: Cerebro Employee Matt Geiser

Matt Geiser

Software Development Manager

Image: Cerebro Employee Eddie Espinoza

Eddie Espinoza

Director of Sales

Image: Cerebro Employee Terence Dougherty

Terence Dougherty

Managing Director - Capital Markets

Ralph Patton

Business Development Executive

Our Board Members

Doug Becker

Board Member

Mr. Becker is a lifelong entrepreneur, investor, and operator. In 1983 he co-founded Sterling Partners; since then the firm has become a leading investor across many industries, having made over 80 investments over the years. Sterling Partners, based out of Chicago, IL currently has over $2.5 billion of assets under management.

 

Steve Reale

Board Member

For over 20 years, Mr. Reale has worked with private companies and small capitalization public companies in both investing and operating roles. He is the co-founder of Madison Bay Capital Partners, a growth equity platform where he was an investing partner and oversaw all COO/CFO functions. He also spent 14 years at Levensohn Venture Partners (LVP) where he worked on a wide range of companies and held several board seats. Steve is now the CFO and a Venture Partner at Ulu Ventures.

Jim McGuire

Board Member

Mr. McGuire’s background includes 16 years of leading a software-focused private equity firm. He has held executive positions, including CEO level, in the technology and software industry and early in his career was in commercial lending with a major U.S. bank. He has served on numerous public and private company boards, including Laureate Education, Inc. and Digital Insight Corporation. Digital Insight is now an NCR Corporation company.

Join Our Team!

Help revolutionize the traditional business lending industry to make access to capital fast, easy, and equitable. You will love it at Cerebro Capital. We hire talented people, recognize your strengths, and put you in the position to succeed.

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