Pagaya Technologies reinforced its executive team focused on automotive to deliver artificial intelligence infrastructure for the financial ecosystem.

Giancarlo Marchesi has joined Pagaya as general manager to oversee the auto and personal lending businesses.

Pagaya highlighted Marchesi is well-versed in the space, having served as chief risk officer for auto at Wells Fargo and head of credit risk in the auto division of JPMorgan Chase.

“Giancarlo has the leadership experience and industry knowledge to drive Pagaya’s auto and personal lending markets to new heights,” Pagaya president Ashok Vaswani said. “As we expand how Pagaya’s credit decisioning technology is used across different industries and markets, Giancarlo will be instrumental in helping us to continue to serve the needs of our partners every day.”

Most recently, Marchesi was head of consumer lending at Santander.

“With 30 years of financial services experience, I’ve witnessed the impact cutting-edge technology can have on improving traditional underwriting methods,” Marchesi said. “Pagaya has the potential to utilize its vast data network and AI capabilities to dramatically scale its lending business, and I’m incredibly excited to expand on the great work the team has done to drive success for Pagaya.”

Eric Watson also has joined Pagaya’s executive team as chief legal officer and brings extensive experience as a general counsel in the consumer lending sector.

Watson began his legal career at Skadden and went on to hold senior executive roles at Sallie Mae, SoFi, and Mosaic.

Most recently, Watson served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary at Doma, a company innovating the real estate market with technology, taking the firm from its series-C through its IPO.

“I am thrilled to be joining Pagaya, whose core business model has demonstrated consistency and growth, and I am excited about the Company’s expansion into new sectors and its new partnerships,” Watson said. “I look forward to working with the executive leadership team to help Pagaya grow as we innovate legacy financial systems and achieve our long-term strategic goals.”

Pagaya recently announced the increased and continued commitment from its investors, strengthening the company’s positioning to pursue strategic investments, including M&A.

The company said the hires of Marchesi and Watson will both help Pagaya accelerate organic growth of its core business and push forward new strategic growth initiatives.

“We are humbled to continue to attract experienced executive talent to Pagaya like Giancarlo and Eric and believe this is a key competitive advantage to continue to grow our business,” said Gal Krubiner, co-founder and CEO of Pagaya. “I’m excited to lean into all of the opportunities ahead of us in M&A, scaling our existing markets and new strategic business ventures.”

For more information on Pagaya’s technology, services, and careers, visit https://www.pagaya.com/.