New LendingTree CEO charts his own path forward after founder’s sudden death
Scott Peyree was unexpectedly thrust into the role of LendingTree CEO five months ago.
The Charlotte-based fintech company was reeling from the sudden death of its founder and CEO, Doug Lebda, 55, who died Oct. 12 in an ATV accident on his sprawling family farm in Polk County, west of Charlotte.
Peyree, then the chief operating officer, learned the news on a Sunday night while at his Seattle home watching a Mariners playoff game against the Blue Jays. His initial reaction seeing the incoming call from LendingTree’s head of human resources, Jill Olmstead, was to assume he’d be “firing someone.”
After learning of Lebda’s death, LendingTree’s board chair, Steve Ozonian, joined the call to say Peyree would be announced as CEO the next morning.
“It was a shock to the system,” Peyree, 49, told The Charlotte Observer during a recent interview at LendingTree’s South End headquarters. “So there’s this personal side I’m just processing, and now there’s the business side I’ve got to jump into this role.”
About LendingTree CEO Scott Peyree
Peyree recognized the challenge of taking over after Lebda, whom he called an “icon” within the company and the Charlotte community.
Peyree knew he needed to come in and “show strong, calm leadership.” The sudden commitment, which Peyree said was also a shock to his supportive wife, meant accepting significantly more responsibility.
Like Lebda, Peyree is an entrepreneur. He founded two companies, WorldClass Strategy, which he sold in 2006, and Quote Wizard, which LendingTree acquired in 2018 for $370.2 million. Peyree initially committed to a three-year transition leading the LendingTree insurance division but said he enjoyed the work. He was named becoming COO in 2023.
Peyree previously led a company with 150 workers. LendingTree has about 800, with 380 in Charlotte, as well as offices in Seattle, Denver and remote locations. This is Peyree’s first time leading a publicly traded company.
The Observer recently sat down with Peyree at LendingTree’s South End office a week after the company reported annual revenue for last year was up 24% to over $1.1 billion. LendTree last surpassed $1 billion in annual revenue in 2021.
We talked about everything from his leadership style and company goals, as well as the personal side of LendingTree’s new CEO. Answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.
Q&A with LendingTree CEO Scott Peyree
Q: How would you describe your personal leadership philosophy, and how will it influence the day-to-day operations and culture of LendingTree?
I always tell everyone this, I believe in leading by intention. I’ll start with (hiring) smart people to do smart work. In the CEO position, the job is to make sure you have good people and a strategy in place. I can’t captain every ship, but I can help communicate with all the captains.
As a leader, that’s really what I feel is important: everyone understands what needs to get done. Let’s talk about all the problems together because people can help each other solve problems versus me dictating, so “we” work as a team.
Q: What are your top priorities for LendingTree this year?
We put together a new North Star of the company: to be the No. 1 destination to shop for financial products. We’ve got four big pillars around that, which are our strategic priorities this year and in years to come: accelerate the core business, improve the consumer experience making it easier for the consumer to compare and contrast the offers (including using AI), expand our product offerings and reposition our brand. We want to reposition to be, like, hey, we offer all sorts of financial products, kind of like the Amazon of financial products.
Q: What have been the most significant challenges or surprises you’ve faced so far?
I was already running the vast majority of the business, especially all of the day-to-day money-making parts of the business, so that helped a lot. I knew everything that was going on in the business. There’s a lot more dealing with the board dealing, legal and finance, and HR.
Looking back, l respect that Doug handled all that stuff when I was just running the operations. The biggest part of the learning process has been a public company and what that entails. The board has been great and provided a lot of help through that process.
Q: How do you plan to balance honoring Doug’s legacy while establishing your own leadership direction?
Doug, he’s always going to be an icon in this business. I have my own distinct style. I think mistakes that people make is they try to replicate what previous leaders did or who they were, what their personalities were. I’ve got a lot of confidence in myself and my abilities, and I just come in and run my own way.
Q: What are the biggest competitive threats facing LendingTree, and how do you plan to address them?
This AI revolution. It could be a threat. It could be a benefit. We need to make sure that we are a leader in AI, and we’re using AI to improve our products and services. I think it’s going to transform how people shop financial products. AI will be a big driver, everything from customer service to compute powers, from the application to closing on a loan or insurance policy. You will get a lot more efficient.
Q: Can you provide examples of how LendingTree is using AI to enhance its platform and its future?
On the call center front, shopping for products, AI has had a major impact there. On the machine learning front, collecting and transferring, and deciding who to call and what products to offer people. We have increased our quarterly revenue by over $10 million a quarter while our objectives for our call centers only increased by a few hundred thousand dollars a quarter.
The other big impact is marketing and testing, seeing quickly what’s performing and what’s not performing. On the product front, we’ve been doing a lot of work around conversational funnels, more like a ChatGPT style, where you just have a conversation with the consumer.
Q: What is your core message to employees right now regarding the stability of the company, the direction of the business and their job security as that pertains to AI?
You hear a lot of other CEOs saying how they’re going to reduce their staff dramatically and AI is going to do the work. think AI is just going to help (LendingTree) employees. It’s not about saving money on resources as much as it’s about getting a lot more done with the resources. Our goal would be like if the company grows a lot over the next few years, we don’t have to double the size of HR. Getting more efficient so we don’t have to keep expanding payroll.
Q: Given the current economic environment marked by interest rate fluctuations and housing market shifts, what are your financial long-term growth strategies?
We are definitely in growth mode. We’re expecting to grow double-digits again this year. Insurance is a very healthy space right now. Small business lending is also a very strong growth for us. Personal loans, it’s been growing a little bit but it’s been more steady. I think, in the back half of this year, it’s going to start growing quite a bit. Mortgage is still tough. (Interest rates) are really going to have to get down to about 5.5% before I think that starts thawing out. I would expect that to continue through 2026.
Q: As a West Coast resident of Seattle, how do you view the commitment to the company’s long-term presence and identity in Charlotte? Will Lending Tree remain headquartered in Charlotte?
Charlotte’s a great town. We’ve got a lot of talent here. The majority of my senior management is here in Charlotte. There’s no plans to move the headquarters out of Charlotte. We’ll exit this year with more employees in the Charlotte office. We’re hiring in a number of areas – small business lending, Salesforce, pretty much every frontline business department we have whether sales, media, tech or product. I come here about four times a quarter.
Q: Do you have any favorite spots or restaurants that you like in Charlotte?
I really love Noble Smoke. In Seattle, there’s no good barbecue. Just walk down the street here and there are good restaurants, in these buildings, Sixty Vines and Culinary Dropout next door.
Q: In what tangible ways will LendingTree contribute to the broader Charlotte community?
Making employees available for volunteer work. Get financial literacy out there in the community. We want to support that.
Q: What’s something about you that people don’t know?
I’m a pretty avid skier. I love skiing with both of my daughters. In the wintertime, almost every weekend you’ll find us up on the mountain in the Seattle area. I’m a pretty good piano player. I was formally trained growing up.
This story was originally published March 19, 2026 at 5:15 AM.
