Joe Beard

Mr. Beard is an entrepreneur, innovator and a seasoned financial services executive.

Currently, Joe is the CEO of CollateralEdge, an innovative fintech platform that provides community and regional banks with a flexible, automated risk management solution to strengthen the credit profile on individual corporate loans. By creating attractive, risk-mitigated lending opportunities for banks while reducing friction and borrowing cost for small and mid-market businesses, CollateralEdge is committed to reducing the cost and barriers for small and mid-sized businesses to access bank financing.

Mr. Beard is also a co-founder of Venture Dallas, the premier venture capital conference in the DFW region. Prior to launching CollateralEdge, Mr. Beard served as a Partner at Perot Jain, an early stage focused venture capital firm, where he led investments in over 45 companies across 4 countries. Preceding his tenure at Perot Jain, Joe was as an investment banker at firms such as Bank of America, Merrill Lynch and Bear Stearns executing approximately $10 billion in M&A;, equity and debt transactions.

Mr. Beard received his BS in Discrete Mathematics from the United States Military Academy at West Point and also earned his MBA from Columbia Business School and was a Robert A. Toigo Fellow.

Joe was recognized by Pitchbook as one of the Black Founders and Investors to Watch in 2021.