Meet Our Team
Founders
Shawn Budde
General Partner
Chicago, IL
Shawn Budde is a General Partner at Ensemblex, LLC. Shawn is a 30 year veteran in financial services. He has held senior roles including CEO of 2Checkout, co-founder at ZestFinance, and SVP at Capital One where he managed the $1+ billion subprime credit card P&L. Shawn began his career with roles at Citibank and KeyCorp.
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Shawn holds an MBA from Wharton and a B.A. Computer Science from Columbia University.
Mike Armstrong
General Partner
Nashville, TN
Mike Armstrong is a General Partner at Ensemblex, LLC. Before Ensemblex, Mike was President of ZestFinance, a top-tier fintech company transforming credit underwriting through Machine Learning. Prior to ZestFinance, Mike spent time as a strategy consultant and nearly a decade at Capital One. There, he held various leadership roles within the credit card business.
Mike began his career as a U.S. Army Ranger after graduating from Duke University with a B.A. Economics.
The Team
Scott Bass
Managing Director
Scott Bass is the Managing Director of Launch Operations at Ensemblex, LLC. Prior to joining the team, Scott was the Head of U.S. Operations at Monzo Bank. He has spent the last two decades becoming a leader in operational strategies, holding positions at Capital One and Green Dot, as well as co-founding Ready Financial Group.
Scott started his career in the U.S. Navy as a Nuclear Submarine Officer and holds a BSE in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Duke University.
Boise, ID
Leland Burns
Managing Director
Leland Burns is a Managing Director of Analysis at Ensemblex, LLC. Before joining the team at Ensemblex, Leland spent four years at ZestFinance, where he was the Director of Business Analysis and managed the company's core lending business. Prior to his work at Zest, Leland served in the Marine Corps for six years, primarily as an Infantry Officer.
Leland holds an M.Phil from the University of Cambridge and a B.S. from the U.S. Naval Academy, both in International Relations.
Los Angeles, CA
Stephanie Goodrich
Senior Associate
Stephanie Goodrich is a Senior Associate of Operations at Ensemblex. Before joining Ensemblex, Stephanie managed Front-of-House operations for an acclaimed restaurant and received certification as an international sake sommelier.
Stephanie holds a BS in Nutrition and Food Sciences from the University of Vermont.
Portland, ME
Brandon Homuth
Partner
Brandon Homuth is a Partner at Ensemblex. He has over two decades of experience in consumer financial services. Prior to Ensemblex, Brandon spent 11 years at Capital One in multiple analytical leadership roles across the consumer lifecycle, including marketing, product, credit policy, account management, operations, and risk management. Additionally, he spent 7 years at Encore Capital Group in multiple executive leadership and P&L roles, helping to grow Encore to become the largest debt purchaser in the world. Brandon also served as President of ClearOne Advantage, a privately held consumer debt solutions business with $100MM revenue and 500 employees.
Brandon holds a BA from Yale University.
Denver, CO
Meagan LeBlanc
Director
Meagan LeBlanc is a Director of Operations at Ensemblex, LLC. Before Ensemblex, Meagan managed the training and quality programs at ZestFinance. She built out the customer service programs for several loan products under the ZestFinance brand. Additionally, she has worked as a consultant for lending start-ups, creating their customer service strategy from the ground up.
Meagan has a B.A. in Clinical Psychology and holds numerous certifications in complementary and alternative medicine.
Charlotte, NC
Trina Leishman
Senior Associate
Trina Leishman is a Senior Associate of Product Launch at Ensemblex, LLC. As the Lead Program Manager for all new Ensemblex Product Launches, Trina has decades of experience working in the finance and Fintech space. Most recently, she worked at Green Dot, spearheading the effort for all their direct mail marketing testing and production. Prior to that, Trina held various positions at Capital One, ultimately leading their risk management projects.
Trina holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Boise State University.
Boise, ID
Jim Mcguire
Managing Director
Jim McGuire is the Managing Director of Data Science at Ensemblex, LLC. Recently, Jim held the role Principal Data Scientist at the startup Flowcast. There he applied Machine Learning techniques to risk assessments in global trade and related financial products. Prior to that, he was the Director of Data Science at ZestFinance where he led the ML team.
Jim studied Physics, earning his B.A. from Dartmouth College and his Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego.
Los Angeles, CA
Chloe Zhu
Managing Director
Chloe Zhu, CFA, is the Managing Director of Venture Studio at Ensemblex. Prior to joining the team, Chloe worked at Mission Lane, where she led several successful product launches. These new products played a major role in doubling Mission Lane's customer base to over 2 million customers. She also was a founding investor of a global investment fund at White Oak Global. During her tenure, the fund scaled to over $200mm in capital deployed across four continents.
Chloe started her career at JPMorgan's investment bank and she is a CFA charterholder. Chloe holds a BA in Economics from the University of Chicago.