Distinguished Mechanical Engineer
B.S., Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, 2005
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.
Michael 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.
Michael helped lead multiple successful private 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. In his role overseeing Affirm’s capital markets activities, Michael 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, Michael held multiple leadership roles within investment, IT, and software companies. Previously, Michael was the Chief Financial Officer for Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Software. Michael led commercial work for all HPE separations and previously served as the VP of M&A Integration at HP. Additionally, Michael 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.
Michael holds a B.S. from The University of Texas at Austin where he studied Mechanical Engineering.
