Sunbit Adds Three Senior Leaders from PayPal, LendingPoint and LendingClub

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 8, 2026--

Sunbit, the personalized financial partner that unlocks your best way to pay, today announced three additions to its leadership team, hired with experience from PayPal, Affirm, LendingClub, BlackRock, LendingPoint and Citi.

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Becca Zoller Stone joins as Vice President, Platform Partnerships; Jessie Garton Szymanski joins as Vice President, Consumer Marketing, Card and Loan Products; and Anthony Suzara joins as Vice President, Strategic Finance.

The hires come as Sunbit expands the platforms through which merchants can offer Sunbit’s financing technology, deepens Sunbit’s relationships with the millions of consumers already using its products, and builds the financial infrastructure to support Sunbit as it broadens its reach across products, platforms and markets.

“Becca, Jessie and Anthony each bring deep expertise, but what stood out to us was their ability to build,” said Britt Provost, Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Sunbit. “They’ve led teams, developed new businesses and helped scale some of the most recognized companies in financial services and technology. They're joining at a moment when we're expanding both what we offer and how we reach customers, and each of them will play a significant role in what comes next."

Becca Zoller Stone, Vice President, Platform Partnerships

Becca will lead Sunbit's Platform Partnerships organization, focused on expanding the technology and commerce platforms through which businesses can offer Sunbit directly within their existing workflows.

She brings more than 20 years of experience across payments, lending, banking and embedded finance. Most recently, Becca led key products in PayPal’s SMB payments portfolio, with responsibility for its business performance and go-to-market strategy. Previously, as Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at Affirm, she led business development and partner growth across major platforms including Adyen, Stripe, Shopify and Apple Pay. She also served as Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at SoFi and spent more than a decade at American Express in leadership roles spanning partnerships, product management, strategy and customer experience. Becca began her career in investment banking at JPMorgan.

“Sunbit has created an important technology that helps customers finance the in-person, essential services they need, from car repairs to dental care. As more and more businesses run their payments through vertical software platforms, there is tremendous untapped potential to scale Sunbit's differentiated offerings across these channels. I'm excited to join the Sunbit team to continue building the future of commerce and to drive a critical new vector of growth for the company."

Jessie Garton Szymanski, Vice President, Consumer Marketing, Card and Loan Products

Jessie will lead consumer marketing across Sunbit's card and loan portfolio, with a focus on turning a customer's first transaction into a lasting relationship and making Sunbit a trusted, top-of-wallet choice.

She brings two decades of fintech and financial services marketing experience. Previously, Jessie held multiple marketing leadership roles at LendingClub that spanned consumer and enterprise audiences, where her teams delivered 2x year-over-year growth. Before that, at BlackRock's iShares, she led go-to-market campaigns for more than 30 exchange-traded fund (ETF) products that brought in more than $500 million in net new business. Jessie also led a multi-channel brand campaign that returned iShares to the No. 1 position in U.S. ETF asset flows.

“What drew me to Sunbit is that the product is ahead of the brand. The company has served more than six million customers with technology that approves more people and delivers better offers, but most people don't yet know everything Sunbit can do for them. Closing that gap is exactly the kind of building I love."

Anthony Suzara, Vice President, Strategic Finance

Anthony will help shape Sunbit's long-term financial strategy and lead financial planning, building the framework and insights to support the company's next phase of growth.

He brings nearly 20 years experience across financial services. He spent approximately five years at LendingPoint as Senior Vice President leading Corporate Finance, Strategy and M&A initiatives. Earlier he covered the consumer finance and banking sectors as a Director at Citi Investment Banking, following several years in asset management.

“I’m excited to be joining Sunbit at such an important point in its growth. As the Company enters its next phase and continues to expand its market share and product offerings, I am looking forward to helping shape the financial strategy and planning that will support that growth. I’m also particularly passionate about Sunbit’s mission to alleviate financial stress for people by providing them with fair, affordable and accessible financing options.”

About Sunbit

Sunbit is a personalized finance partner that unlocks your best way to pay. Our goal is to help every individual realize their financial potential by building solutions for people who want to make the most of their money in the smartest way possible. Powered by proprietary AI, Sunbit replaces one-size-fits-all financing with smart, tailored solutions built around each person's unique financial situation. Sunbit technology consistently approves more customers and delivers better offers than traditional financing options. Sunbit's merchant and platform partners grow their business without added cost or complexity, because customers who get better offers come back. To date, Sunbit has served 6+ million customers across 45,000+ locations nationwide, through vertical-specific platforms, cross-vertical partners like Stripe, and a growing portfolio of no-fee co-brand and Sunbit-branded credit cards. Loans are made by Transportation Alliance Bank Inc., doing business as TAB Bank, which determines qualifications for and terms of credit. The Sunbit Card is issued by TAB Bank pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc.

Anthony Suzara

Jessie Garton Szymanski

Becca Zoller Stone

PARIS (AP) — Students barricaded a high school in northeastern Paris with rubbish bins on Thursday before police moved in with tear gas, as France’s nationwide protests showed few signs of ending.

The Hélène Boucher high school has been a flashpoint for clashes in the French capital and was one of hundreds of schools disrupted by protests Thursday.

At least a dozen demonstrations supporting the high school students’ movement were planned across France later in the day, including a rally at Place de la Bastille in Paris.

Riot police gathered in side streets as students converged on the school. Many protesters wore surgical masks or hoodies, apparently to avoid being recognized.

Police have made more than 6,600 arrests since late September, when students, most of them under 18, began protesting to demand more education funding, according to the Interior Ministry. The Education Ministry said 375 schools were fully or partially closed Thursday.

While the number of school closures was down compared to Tuesday, pressure is mounting on the government of outgoing President Emmanuel Macron.

The protests against the underfunding of schools — many of them struggling with dilapidated facilities and insufficient staff — have drawn troublemakers not concerned about the aims of the protest movement as well as unions and political groups.

In a TV address, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu lamented the “violence, students and staff being attacked, police officers and gendarmes injured, schools set on fire or vandalized, thousands of hours of classes lost, not to mention threats and insults.”

He took aim at “political leaders who use this anger to conduct their electoral battles.” France goes to the polls for a presidential election in April. “We cannot play with the safety of France’s youth,” Lecornu said.

At the Lycee, 18-year-old university student Emma Khelil came to offer support to those at the barricades at her former high school. She told The Associated Press that she’s really concerned about police violence.

“We’re here to defend our rights, not to lose an eye or a hand,” Khelil said. She also said that she had noticed insulation problems and water leaks in the school building and had even seen rats on occasion. Other students confirmed that they’d seen rats too.

She was not convinced by Lecornu’s efforts to calm the situation.

“I don’t think the movement is going to lose momentum. As long as things don’t change, we’re going to see the movement grow stronger, and potentially a convergence of struggles, especially with the next presidential election coming up,” she said.

Not long after she spoke, police surrounded a nearby square. The crowd surged, and tear gas was fired.

Smoke from burning garbage nearby hung in the air at Place de la République as hundreds of high school and university students prepared to march toward Place de la Bastille, the demonstration’s focal point.

Some carried signs bearing their schools’ names; others held placards reading “More money for repression than for our education” and “Who protects us from the police?”

“We’re here, we’re demonstrating, and we won’t stop. Until October, November, December if necessary. Nothing will stop us,” said Sofia Ferdials, 18, a student at Paris 8 University.

Dounia Gergeon, a 39-year-old school librarian, said she joined the demonstration at Place de la Bastille because she shared students’ concerns and worried about a broader crisis facing young people anxious about their futures. At the middle and high school where she works, time was set aside for students to discuss their demands.

“They do not feel supported,” she said. “They feel cornered and forced to work under these conditions.”

France is not the only country to be dealing with student-related protests.

In Belgium, Willy Demeyer, the mayor of Liege, issued a ban on public gatherings until midnight on Oct. 16, citing a “real, serious and imminent risk” of further clashes and vandalism.

City police said they used water cannon and tear gas on Wednesday to hold back several hundred protesters. Authorities sent emergency text messages advising shopkeepers to close due to rioting.

Nearly 90 people were arrested and several police were injured. Police reinforcements were sent from the capital Brussels and from Antwerp, and more are coming. Smaller protests have been held in Mons and Charleroi.

Belgium’s Interior Minister Bernard Quintin said on social media that the “perpetrators will have to answer for their actions before the courts.”

The Belgian protests, organized through online chat groups, include demands for more teachers and smaller classes as well as complaints about education reform in Belgium, but are also likely inspired by events in France.

Student protests have spread to several Italian cities, though on a much smaller scale and over a broader set of domestic grievances. Activists have explicitly invoked the French movement with the slogan “let’s do as they do in France,” while organizing school occupations, assemblies and marches.

In Turin, students occupied several high schools over building conditions, education funding and increased military spending. In Rome, students occupied one high school and walked out of another, while students in Naples added opposition to a planned migrant detention center to their demands.

Cook reported from Brussels. Masha Macpherson in Paris contributed to this report.

Students face police officers in front of the Helene Boucher high School during a protest against under-resourced schools, in Paris, Thursday Oct. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

Students face police officers in front of the Helene Boucher high School during a protest against under-resourced schools, in Paris, Thursday Oct. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

France's Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu makes a statement at the Hotel de Matignon in Paris, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (Dimitar Dilkoff/Pool Photo via AP)

Police officers spray students with pepper spray near Sciences Po university as they protest against under-resourced schools, in Paris, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Students face policemen near Sciences Po University as they protest against under-resourced schools, in Paris, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)