Blake Lepire

Blake is a director and a leader of structuring and origination in the Fintech Warehouse Lending team. Blake joined First Citizens Innovation Banking in 2019 and has market leading expertise in structuring transactions sponsored by venture-backed consumer credit, B2B financing and proptech companies.

Previous to First Citizens Innovation Banking, Blake served as an AVP at Cross River Bank in the capital markets department, where he helped launch the strategic financing function and manage the retained consumer loan portfolio.

Blake completed a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and earned a Master of Business Administration from Willamette University. In 2024, Blake was awarded the First Citizens Innovation Banking Extra Mile Award, a distinction that recognizes First Citizens Innovation Banking associates who go above and beyond by contributing in a meaningful way to projects or broader bank initiatives leading to an outsized performance in key results.

While originally from Southern California, Blake lives in Brooklyn, NY and is an avid baseball player and sports fan. He’d rather be at Chavez Ravine when it’s time for Dodger baseball, but he also sees orange and blue skies (Go Knicks!).