Morgan Edwards has always been a builder.
“I have a history of starting things from scratch,” says Edwards, who earned his MBA from BYU in 1985.
He started his career in investment banking at Morgan Stanley, joining a brand-new loan-trading desk there and building it into a top trader of bank loans. Years later Edwards became one of Australian firm Macquarie Capital’s first American hires, helping the corporation build a North American investment bank from the ground up.
In 2015, after thirty years in investment banking, Edwards put his building skills to the test by jumping into the world of startups. He accepted the position of CFO at five-year-old CommonBond, a socially minded student-loan firm that offers loans, sells them to investors, and funds a year of school for a student in Ghana for every loan originated.
“I am a believer that there will be incredible growth in marketplace lending over the next ten to twenty years,” says Edwards, who adds age, experience, and maturity to the growing startup staffed primarily by millennials.
The timing felt right to Edwards, as investment banking was losing some of its charm. Opportunities for building aside, he often felt more like one cog in a “deal machine” than a leader. But at CommonBond, everything he does can affect the trajectory of the firm—which grew by 400 percent and added sixty-plus employees last year.
“The work at CommonBond is exhilarating and exhausting,” he says. “I haven’t worked this hard in at least fifteen years. I make multiple decisions per day, and every decision is critical.”
Edwards says he’s managed his career with an eye for balancing work and family, starting off first in positions that allowed more commitment to family and building into opportunities requiring more office time as his children got older. “I’ve made the choice to work harder and harder in the back half in my career, instead of less and less,” he says.
Edwards met his wife, Jennifer, on his first day at BYU, finally convincing her he was worth dating after months of perseverance. “Talk about training for the startup life,” he laughs. They have five children—including two sons who followed in his footsteps at the Marriott School—and four grandchildren. As a member of the Marriott School’s National Advisory Council, Edwards enjoys mentoring BYU students interested in banking and looks forward to spending more time with students and advising startups when he’s ready to retire.
But for now, he’s still busy building.
“Just because we have capital and ninety employees doesn’t mean our success is assured,” he says. “What gets me up every day is that my role—and everyone else’s—is vital. We are working to build a successful company that lasts.”
