Alumni Update: Roland Mansilla '13

Roland Mansilla graduated from Dartmouth College in 2013 with a B.A. in Government and Romance Studies. While at Dartmouth, Roland participated in the Management and Leadership Development Program and interned at the U.S. Treasury. He also played water polo and was a member of Fire & Skoal. Upon graduating, Roland received the Renna Family Fund in the Romance Languages Prize and was awarded a Rockefeller Memorial Fellowship by the Department of Government.

As a Fellow, Roland researched comparative electoral politics and incumbency advantage in Japan's Lower House elections. He co-authored a quantitative analysis published in Electoral Studies with Professor Yusaku Horiuchi. He then moved to the Bay Area and spent time in investment banking before beginning a career in technology.

In San Francisco, Roland worked in credit and product management at Funding Circle and LendingClub. His work at Funding Circle expanded access to credit for small businesses across the United States and Europe and contributed to an IPO on the London Stock Exchange. At LendingClub, his team helped the company become the world's largest peer-to-peer lending platform at its peak. Roland now serves as the Co-Founder, COO, and CFO of Safely Finance, a Y Combinator-backed company.

Outside of work, Roland enjoys hiking, cycling, and spending time with his partner, Nora Mansilla '13, née Hodgson. He also advises early-stage founders and serves on the board of a nonprofit. Roland knows he would not be where he is today without the incredible mentorship and support of the Department of Government at Dartmouth, especially Professors Lisa Baldez, John Carey, Yusaku Horiuchi, and Diederick J. Vandewalle, and Visiting Professor Bernard Avishai.

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