LendingTree CEO Doug Lebda Dies in ATV Accident at 55

Doug Lebda, the founder and chief executive officer of LendingTree, died Sunday in an ATV accident on his family farm in North Carolina, the company said. He was 55.

LendingTree confirmed Lebda’s death Monday and named Chief Operating Officer Scott Peyree as CEO and Lead Independent Director Steve Ozonian as chairman.

“The news of losing Doug was devastating,” Peyree said in a release. “But one of the most immediate impacts of his legacy is the strong management team he put in place.”

Lebda’s legacy looms large over the U.S. housing market. Nearly three decades ago, he upended the mortgage industry by creating an online marketplace where lenders competed for borrowers, a model that cracked open what had been one of the most opaque corners of real estate finance.

His Charlotte, North Carolina-based firm became a household name during the housing boom, reshaping how Americans searched for mortgages and how lenders sourced borrowers.

Lebda founded LendingTree in 1996 after struggling through his own mortgage shopping process. A former Price Waterhouse consultant, he saw an opportunity to bring transparency and competition to consumer lending through technology.

He took the company public in 2000, and in 2003, Barry Diller’s InterActiveCorp bought it for $726 million, according to the Wall Street Journal.

After the 2008 housing crash, LendingTree was spun out of IAC, forcing Lebda to rebuild it as an independent platform amid a volatile mortgage market. Diversifying beyond home loans into auto, personal and small-business credit helped stabilize earnings as rising interest rates and tighter lending standards reshaped the sector.

Even as the digital mortgage space grew crowded with fintech entrants and traditional banks expanded online, LendingTree remained one of the best-known consumer gateways into real estate finance. The company had a market value of about $750 million as of Monday.

Lebda’s imprint extends beyond LendingTree’s balance sheet. His model for connecting borrowers and lenders online has become a foundation for modern real estate financing, a legacy that continues to shape how homebuyers access credit in an era of digital-first housing transactions.

He is survived by his wife, Megan, and their three daughters, Rachel, Abby and Sophia.