Anthony Noto is an American business executive and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SoFi, a digital personal finance company. ^{[1] [2]} His career is marked by senior leadership roles at the intersection of finance, technology, and professional sports, including positions as a partner at Goldman Sachs, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the National Football League (NFL), and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Twitter (now X). ^{[3] [4]} Appointed CEO of SoFi in 2018, Noto has guided the company's transformation from a student loan refinancing service into a full-service, publicly traded digital bank. ^[3]​

​

Early Life and Education

Anthony Noto was born in 1968 and raised in the Hudson Valley region of New York. ^[4] His early life was shaped by financial hardship; his parents divorced when he was three, and he was raised by his mother, who worked multiple jobs to support the family. During this time, the family received welfare and food stamps, an experience Noto has identified as a key motivator for his mission at SoFi to help people achieve financial independence. ^[3]

Noto attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he excelled in both academics and athletics. He was a standout linebacker on the Army football team, earning All-American honors. ^[4] In 1990, he graduated as the highest-ranked mechanical engineer in his class. ^[4] His X (formerly Twitter) bio includes "DSBD," an acronym for "Distinguished Saber Bearer," an honor for the top-ranked cadet. ^[5]

Following his graduation, Noto served for four years in the U.S. Army, attending the elite U.S. Army Ranger School and achieving the rank of Captain. ^[4] He has credited his military service with teaching him foundational leadership principles, including grit, contingency planning, and the ability to lead peers by granting them autonomy and trusting their expertise. ^[3]

After his military service, Noto transitioned to the private sector, working as a brand manager at Kraft Foods while studying business at night at the University of Chicago. ^[4] He then enrolled at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, earning his Master of Business Administration (MBA) in 1999. At Wharton, he discovered a passion for finance, likening the process of valuing stocks to mechanical engineering in its reliance on building frameworks to predict future outcomes. ^[3]

Career

Noto's professional journey is characterized by influential roles across finance, professional sports, and technology, where he has consistently led organizations through periods of growth and strategic change. ^[1]​

Goldman Sachs

After a brief period at Lehman Brothers following his MBA, Noto joined Goldman Sachs and quickly became a leading research analyst covering the internet sector. ^[3] His work earned him significant industry recognition; from 2003 to 2007, Institutional Investor magazine named him the top-ranked internet analyst for five consecutive years. ^[4] His performance led to a rapid ascent within the firm, where he was promoted to managing director in 2003 and named a partner in 2004. ^{[4] [2]}​

Noto left Goldman Sachs in 2008 but returned in 2010 to serve as the co-head of the firm's global Technology, Media, and Telecom (TMT) investment banking group. ^{[1] [2]} In this senior role, he advised major corporations on mergers, acquisitions, and capital-raising activities. A defining achievement of this period was his role as the lead banker for Twitter's Initial Public Offering (IPO) in 2013, an experience that gave him deep insight into the social media company's operations and would later lead to his recruitment as its CFO. ^{[4] [3]}​

National Football League (NFL)

In 2008, Noto departed Goldman Sachs to become the Chief Financial Officer of the National Football League, a role he held for nearly three years. ^[1] He joined the league at the height of the 2008 global financial crisis and was instrumental in helping the organization navigate the severe economic downturn. He worked closely with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to secure critical financing for the league after the collapse of Bear Stearns. ^[3]​

Beyond managing the league's finances, Noto was responsible for its long-term strategy. He and his team developed a plan with the ambitious goal of growing the NFL's annual revenue to $25 billion by 2028. This data-driven target was adopted by the league's leadership and set a course for significant commercial growth through new technology and international expansion. ^[3]​

Twitter (now X)

Noto's expert handling of Twitter's IPO led to his recruitment by the company, and he joined as CFO in July 2014. ^[2] He arrived at a time when the newly public company was facing challenges with user growth and monetization. Noto identified a core strategic issue: Twitter was not a mass-market product because it required users to actively curate their feeds, unlike passive media like television. ^[3]​

To address this, he helped reposition the company from a "social network" to an "information network," with a key focus on live video to make content more immediate and accessible. ^[3] In November 2016, his role expanded when he was appointed Chief Operating Officer, taking on responsibility for Twitter's revenue-generating operations, including global advertising sales, partnerships, and business development. ^{[1] [2]} Under his operational leadership, Twitter returned to user growth and achieved its first-ever quarter of GAAP profitability in the fourth quarter of 2017. ^[3]​

SoFi

On January 23, 2018, SoFi announced that Noto would become its new CEO, effective March 1, 2018. ^[2] He took over a company that had started in student loan refinancing but was facing internal challenges and needed a new strategic direction. Noto's vision was to transform SoFi into a "one-stop shop" for its members' financial needs, with the mission of helping people achieve financial independence. ^[3]​

Under his leadership, SoFi has undergone a significant expansion of its product ecosystem to include banking, investing, personal loans, home loans, and insurance. ^[1] Key milestones during his tenure include:

• National Bank Charter: In 2022, SoFi obtained a national bank charter, a critical step that allowed it to hold deposits and set its own interest rates, providing greater stability and economic advantages. ^{[4] [6]}
• Public Market Debut: Noto led SoFi to become a public company in 2021 through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), which valued the company at $9 billion at the time. ^[4]
• Brand Building: To build mainstream brand recognition, Noto spearheaded a 20-year naming rights deal for SoFi Stadium, the Los Angeles home of the NFL's Rams and Chargers. ^{[4] [3]}
• Growth and Profitability: The company has experienced substantial growth under Noto. From approximately 600,000 members in 2018, SoFi grew to 11.7 million members by the second quarter of 2025. ^{[3] [5]} The company reported its first quarter of GAAP profitability in early 2024 and sustained it through subsequent quarters. ^[3]

Business Philosophy

Noto's leadership philosophy is a blend of military discipline, Wall Street analytics, and a focus on iterative innovation. He has outlined four factors he views as critical for success: having sufficient capital, ensuring regulatory compliance, offering a great product, and building consumer trust. ^[4]

Key tenets of his philosophy include:

• Iterative Innovation: Noto believes that true innovation comes from continuous iteration rather than a single breakthrough idea. One of SoFi's core values under his leadership is "iterate, learn, iterate, learn." ^[3]
• Ambitious Goal Setting: He advocates for setting a "big, hairy, audacious goal" (BHAG) to provide a clear, long-term strategic direction that motivates an entire organization, a practice he successfully implemented at the NFL. ^[3]
• Collaborative Leadership: His time at Twitter taught him the importance of involving teams in developing plans to foster a sense of shared ownership. He believes this approach motivates employees to persevere through challenges because they feel the plan is their own. ^[3]
• Fear of Failure as a Motivator: Noto has stated that he is driven more by a fear of failure than a desire for success. He described this mindset as forcing him to constantly focus on unknown risks and potential problems rather than becoming complacent. ^[3]

His marketing philosophy emphasizes high-frequency advertising to build brand recognition. He has cited his experience at Twitter as teaching him that a consumer may need to see an ad 15 times before trying a new brand, a principle that directly informed the SoFi Stadium naming rights deal. ^[4]

Views on Technology and Finance

Noto is a vocal proponent of leveraging technology to disrupt and improve the financial services industry, with the goal of forcing large incumbent banks to innovate. ^[3]​

Cryptocurrency and Blockchain

Noto holds a pragmatic and forward-looking view on digital assets. He personally holds about 3% of his assets in Bitcoin, viewing it as an investment in technology rather than a currency. He has drawn a parallel, stating, "If one could have bought World Wide Web coins in 1990, today's Bitcoin investment is a similar technological investment." ^[7]​

As a condition of its bank charter, SoFi was required to suspend its crypto trading services in 2023. ^[6] However, following a shift in the regulatory environment, Noto announced on November 11, 2025, that SoFi was reintroducing these services. He stated, "We’re now the first and only nationally chartered bank where consumers can buy, sell and hold crypto!!" ^[8] This move was driven by strong customer demand, with data showing 60% of SoFi members were interested in virtual asset investments. ^[7]​

Noto's vision includes deeper integration of blockchain technology across all of SoFi's products, including lending and payments. He also announced plans for SoFi to issue its own stablecoin, 'SoFi USD,' backed 1:1 by U.S. dollar reserves, arguing that trusted, regulated institutions are best positioned to ensure the stability and liquidity required for payment innovation. ^[7]​

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Noto views artificial intelligence as a technological wave as "profound as the internet itself." ^[3] He believes AI is the key to delivering hyper-personalized financial advice at scale, enabling SoFi to proactively guide users on what they "must do," "should do," and "can do" to achieve their financial goals. He has identified AI, along with blockchain and virtual assets, as "super cycle technologies" that will become deeply integrated into the financial system. ^[7]​

Board Memberships

In addition to his role on SoFi's board, Noto serves as an independent director for several other public companies.

• SoFi Technologies, Inc.: Member, Board of Directors (2018–Present) ^[2]
• Franklin Resources Inc. (Franklin Templeton): Director (2020–Present) ^[9]
• Warner Bros. Discovery: Independent Director (2025–Present) ^[9]