Update: as of February 2022, Casey Powers has transitioned into the role of Climb Credit CEO.
When it comes to our mission of increasing access to career-advancing education, everyone here at Climb is passionate about making sure that goal touches as many people’s lives as possible. That’s why we’re so excited whenever we add new team members who are equally as passionate and who will help expand our mission even further. And in recent months, we’ve been lucky enough to add three incredible new people to our Executive Team — our new chief product officer, Ravijot Chugh; our new chief revenue officer, Sean Fitzgerald; and our new chief technology officer, Greg Krywicki.
We’re excited to welcome these new additions to our executive team, and to add to the amazing group of strategists who have been leading Climb’s growth over the past several years. Get to know the full Climb Executive Team below!
Angela (Ceresnie) Prince, CEO
Angela (Ceresnie) Prince is the CEO of Climb Credit, an education finance company that evaluates the return on investment of education programs and helps consumers find, evaluate, and finance these programs to increase their earning potential. She joined Climb as the Chief Operating Officer in 2016 and quickly helped shape the operations, culture, and future of the Climb, earning her the role of CEO in 2018. Prior to Climb, Angela co-founded and was COO/CFO of Orchard Platform — a provider of software and data products offered to institutional investors to purchase loans from marketplace lenders (acquired by Kabbage). Before her time at Orchard, she spent nine years running credit risk analytics teams at American Express and Citibank, where she made billions of dollars’ worth of data-driven credit decisions.
Angela (Ceresnie) Prince, CEO
Angela (Ceresnie) Prince is the CEO of Climb Credit, an education finance company that evaluates the return on investment of education programs and helps consumers find, evaluate, and finance these programs to increase their earning potential. She joined Climb as the Chief Operating Officer in 2016 and quickly helped shape the operations, culture, and future of the Climb, earning her the role of CEO in 2018. Prior to Climb, Angela co-founded and was COO/CFO of Orchard Platform — a provider of software and data products offered to institutional investors to purchase loans from marketplace lenders (acquired by Kabbage). Before her time at Orchard, she spent nine years running credit risk analytics teams at American Express and Citibank, where she made billions of dollars’ worth of data-driven credit decisions.
Alécia Chen, General Counsel
Alécia acts as General Counsel for Climb, overseeing the legal, compliance, and people operations functions. Prior to joining Climb, Alécia served on the Legal Team at OnDeck, the leading online small business lender in the US, including acting as general counsel for OnDeck’s Canada expansion. She also led the Operations Strategy & Solutions Team, responsible for identifying and driving operational efficiencies. Prior to joining OnDeck Alécia’s legal practice focused on financing and other corporate transactions at two major US law firms. Alécia has strong interests in fintech, impact investment, and education, and her experience includes a fellowship in Nairobi, Kenya focusing on post-secondary student loans and serving on the Board of Directors for the non-profit organization Community Education Services Canada. Alécia Chen, General Counsel
Alécia acts as General Counsel for Climb, overseeing the legal, compliance, and people operations functions. Prior to joining Climb, Alécia served on the Legal Team at OnDeck, the leading online small business lender in the US, including acting as general counsel for OnDeck’s Canada expansion. She also led the Operations Strategy & Solutions Team, responsible for identifying and driving operational efficiencies. Prior to joining OnDeck Alécia’s legal practice focused on financing and other corporate transactions at two major US law firms. Alécia has strong interests in fintech, impact investment, and education, and her experience includes a fellowship in Nairobi, Kenya focusing on post-secondary student loans and serving on the Board of Directors for the non-profit organization Community Education Services Canada.
Ravijot Chugh, CPO
Ravi Chugh joined Climb in October 2020. He brings to Climb deep experience in the edtech sector, having co-founded and served as head of product for two companies. Ravi has managed teams of over 400 people and led product strategy impacting over 1.5 million users. His most recent venture, upGrad, is one of India’s largest online education companies with 350,000 users and >$60 million in annual revenues. It was named a top 10 innovative company by Fast Company and a top 25 startups to work for by LinkedIn. Ravi has also previously worked in management consulting with Parthenon-EY helping a variety of education clients in market entry strategy, growth and due diligence projects across emerging markets in Asia, Africa, and LatAm. Ravi was named to Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 and is an IIT – Delhi computer science graduate. Ravijot Chugh, CPO
Ravi Chugh joined Climb in October 2020. He brings to Climb deep experience in the edtech sector, having co-founded and served as head of product for two companies. Ravi has managed teams of over 400 people and led product strategy impacting over 1.5 million users. His most recent venture, upGrad, is one of India’s largest online education companies with 350,000 users and >$60 million in annual revenues. It was named a top 10 innovative company by Fast Company and a top 25 startups to work for by LinkedIn. Ravi has also previously worked in management consulting with Parthenon-EY helping a variety of education clients in market entry strategy, growth and due diligence projects across emerging markets in Asia, Africa, and LatAm. Ravi was named to Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 and is an IIT – Delhi computer science graduate.
Sean Fitzgerald, CRO
Sean Fitzgerald has over 20 years of leadership experience working in venture-backed SaaS companies and on Wall Street. He has scaled venture-backed companies, executed turnarounds, pivoted businesses, and raised capital. He has advised early-stage companies, mentored start-ups in the Techstars and Queen City Finance accelerators, and invested in early-stage companies. Most recently Sean was Chief Executive Officer of Savii, Inc. (acquired), a venture-backed SaaS company that automates workflows for home care agencies. Prior to Savii, Sean was Chief Operating Officer and CFO of The GenSight Group, a SaaS New Product Development workflow platform, and Executive Vice President of education technology innovator, EverFi. Sean founded EverFi’s Chicago office and led the company’s expansion across 17 states in the Midwest and Mountain West. Prior to EverFi, he was a Senior Vice President at Lehman Brothers and Vice President at Bank of America, and he also spent three years teaching in Chicago. Sean holds an MBA and Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis, and a Master of Science in Education and Social Policy from Northwestern University. He is a CFA Charterholder. Sean Fitzgerald, CRO
Sean Fitzgerald has over 20 years of leadership experience working in venture-backed SaaS companies and on Wall Street. He has scaled venture-backed companies, executed turnarounds, pivoted businesses, and raised capital. He has advised early-stage companies, mentored start-ups in the Techstars and Queen City Finance accelerators, and invested in early-stage companies. Most recently Sean was Chief Executive Officer of Savii, Inc. (acquired), a venture-backed SaaS company that automates workflows for home care agencies. Prior to Savii, Sean was Chief Operating Officer and CFO of The GenSight Group, a SaaS New Product Development workflow platform, and Executive Vice President of education technology innovator, EverFi. Sean founded EverFi’s Chicago office and led the company’s expansion across 17 states in the Midwest and Mountain West. Prior to EverFi, he was a Senior Vice President at Lehman Brothers and Vice President at Bank of America, and he also spent three years teaching in Chicago. Sean holds an MBA and Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis, and a Master of Science in Education and Social Policy from Northwestern University. He is a CFA Charterholder.
Greg Krywicki, CTO
Greg leads the technical operations and product development here at Climb. For over a decade, Greg has been working with tech startups to build their infrastructure and engineering teams. Focusing his career on providing services to the SMB sector, Greg has developed software that has scaled businesses to support millions of users as well as process billions of dollars of revenue. As an engineering leader, Greg brings experience from a range of industries working with notable companies such as WeWork, Squarespace, and Stealthbits (acquired by Netwrix). Greg Krywicki, CTO
Greg leads the technical operations and product development here at Climb. For over a decade, Greg has been working with tech startups to build their infrastructure and engineering teams. Focusing his career on providing services to the SMB sector, Greg has developed software that has scaled businesses to support millions of users as well as process billions of dollars of revenue. As an engineering leader, Greg brings experience from a range of industries working with notable companies such as WeWork, Squarespace, and Stealthbits (acquired by Netwrix).
Casey Powers, COO
Casey Powers is responsible for the operational and financial aspects of Climb’s business. Her teams include corporate finance, capital markets, loan operations, customer service, and general executive oversight of the legal and human resource functions. Ms. Powers began her career in investment banking, rising to a Vice President at Goldman Sachs in the Municipal and Infrastructure Finance group. After leaving Wall Street, Ms. Powers went on to earn her Masters at Columbia School of International and Public Affairs, where she developed a passion for deploying business strategies to address and promote social, environmental and economic progress. In the past decade, Casey has held leadership positions at several “mission-driven” financial technology companies including Mission Markets and Lenddo. Casey joined Climb in 2019. She lives in East Hampton, New York, with her husband and three young daughters.
Casey Powers, COO
Casey Powers is responsible for the operational and financial aspects of Climb’s business. Her teams include corporate finance, capital markets, loan operations, customer service, and general executive oversight of the legal and human resource functions. Ms. Powers began her career in investment banking, rising to a Vice President at Goldman Sachs in the Municipal and Infrastructure Finance group. After leaving Wall Street, Ms. Powers went on to earn her Masters at Columbia School of International and Public Affairs, where she developed a passion for deploying business strategies to address and promote social, environmental and economic progress. In the past decade, Casey has held leadership positions at several “mission-driven” financial technology companies including Mission Markets and Lenddo. Casey joined Climb in 2019. She lives in East Hampton, New York, with her husband and three young daughters.