Raj Date is the Managing Partner of Fenway Summer, an advisory and investment firm focused on financial services and financial technology. In that capacity, he chairs the investment committee of Fenway Summer Ventures, a fintech venture capital fund, and works with clients of FS Vector, the fintech advisory firm. He also serves as a Director for a number of innovative firms in financial services: Linden Labs, an internet company best known as the creator of Second Life; Customers Bank, a high-growth commercial bank; Tilia, the metaverse payments pioneer; and Circle, a leading crypto infrastructure provider. He also serves as the founding director of the Payments Leadership Council, a CEO-led trade association.

For Raj, Fenway Summer is the latest chapter in a long and varied career in and around U.S. financial institutions — as a senior policymaker, as a bank executive, and on Wall Street.

Raj was the first-ever Deputy Director of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). As the Bureau’s second-ranking official, he helped steward the CFPB’s strategy, its operations, and its policy agenda. He also served on the senior staff committee of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, and as a statutory deputy to the FDIC Board.

Before being appointed Deputy Director, Raj acted as the interim leader of the new agency, serving as the Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury.  He led the CFPB for most of the first six months after its launch.

Before his time in public policy, Raj was a Managing Director in the Financial Institutions Group at Deutsche Bank Securities, where he led the firm’s investment banking coverage for the largest U.S.-based banks and thrifts. His client work focused on calibrating credit deterioration, evaluating capital-raising alternatives, and generating liquidity. Before that, Raj was Senior Vice President for Corporate Strategy and Development at Capital One Financial, where he led M&A development efforts across the U.S. banking and specialty finance markets. He began his business career in the financial institutions practice of the consulting firm McKinsey & Company. He has also served as an attorney in both private practice and government service.

He is a graduate of the College of Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley (highest honors) and the Harvard Law School (magna cum laude).