Starling, a globally recognized RegTech pioneer, has announced the appointment of Secretary Richard V. Spencer to its Board of Directors.
Richard Spencer served as 76th secretary of the Navy (2017-19) and as Acting Secretary of Defense (July 2019). Following active duty in the U.S. Marine Corps, he worked on Wall Street for 16 years in roles centered on investment banking, strategic advisory services, and capital markets underwriting. Secretary Spencer was President of Crossroads Investment Management, a leading venture capital and private equity firm, and thereafter he joined Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE-ICE) as the company’s Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer.
In that role, he was responsible for the transition of the company from private to public: this entailed the initial public offering and three subsequent secondary offerings; recruiting the Board of Directors; financial reporting; strategy development and implementation; and human resources management. Secretary Spencer has served on the Defense Business Board, the Chief of Naval Operations Executive Panel, and on multiple corporate boards. Further, his charitable activities include board service with the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation, Honoring Our Vets, the Veterans Campaign/Center for Second Service, and The Community Foundation of Jackson Hole. Just prior to being nominated as Secretary of the Navy, he was Managing Director of Fall Creek Management, an advisory firm investing in private companies in need expertise as well as growth capital.
“I developed my understanding and appreciation of risk while working on Wall Street, and I honed that knowledge while running two organizations and the U.S. Navy,” Spencer said. “I’ve long been waiting for the risk analysis tools Starling provides,” he added. “Their team has developed a system, grounded in behavioral science, that provides preventative signals of risk, and potential risk management failures, rather than reactive recommendations after damage is done,” Spencer explained. “I am excited to guide the company’s leadership, as I believe their solutions represent a step-change in our event prediction and amelioration capabilities, to the benefit of the public and private sectors alike.”
“We are immensely fortunate to be guided by Secretary Spencer as we build on the success we have achieved in the financial sector and grow into new market verticals,” said Starling founder and CEO, Stephen Scott. “In many industries, we just can’t afford a reactive stance in managing risk and performance,” Scott added. “In nuclear power, aviation, healthcare, or the defense and intelligence domain, a failure to manage risk proactively may mean loss blood as well as gold,” Scott noted, “and so we adopt a ‘predict and prevent’ standard of care rather than the after-the-fact ‘detect and correct’ approach that is seen far too often elsewhere,” Scott concluded. “Secretary Spencer understands that better than most.”