LendingTree CEO Dies in ATV Accident on Family Farm
Doug Lebda, the founder and chief executive of LendingTree TREE -3.92%decrease; red down pointing triangle, died Sunday in an all-terrain vehicle accident on his family farm in North Carolina, the company said.
Lebda, who was 55 years old, started the online lending business in 1996 and continued to guide the Charlotte, N.C.-based company amid the booms and busts of the U.S. housing market.
“Our hearts are broken, but we are also deeply grateful for the love and support that has poured in from across the world,” his wife Megan Lebda said in a written statement. “Doug’s legacy will continue in the company he built, the lives he touched, and the example he set for all of us to lead with kindness, courage, and compassion.”
Lebda grew up in Lewisburg, Pa., where he had a number of his own businesses as a teenager. He mowed lawns, cleaned pools and even sold fireworks before going to college at Bucknell University, which was in his hometown.
After a few years as an auditor and consultant at Price Waterhouse in Pittsburgh, he set out to buy a home. When he was shopping for a mortgage, he was put off by getting the runaround from banks. Convinced there was a better way, he launched LendingTree.
“I loved reading books on economics. Milton Friedman’s ‘Free to Choose’ was something that really changed my life,” he told The Wall Street Journal in a 2018 interview. “I loved politics and economics, but always wanted to work for myself.”
Lebda took LendingTree public in 2000 and its initial growth sparked the interest of Barry Diller’s InterActiveCorp., which bought the company in 2003. It was valued at $726 million.
But once the recession took hold and the mortgage industry imploded, LendingTree’s business suffered, and IAC shed it in 2008.
After the sale, Lebda faced a predicament: how to make the company profitable again without the financial backing from IAC. His strategy was to diversify into new territories outside of home loans.
He stayed on as chief executive of the company, which had a market value of around $750 million as of Monday.
On Monday, LendingTree named Chief Operating Officer Scott Peyree as chief executive and Lead Independent Director Steve Ozonian as chairman of the board.
“The news of losing Doug was devastating,” Peyree said in a news release. “But one of the most immediate impacts of his legacy is the strong management team he put in place at LendingTree.”
Along with his wife, Lebda is survived by his three daughters Rachel, Abby and Sophia.
Write to Nicholas G. Miller at nicholas.miller@wsj.com
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