Brian Merritt

Brian Merritt is the Chief Technology Officer at Bankwell Bank, a commercial bank with over $3 billion in assets, based in New Canaan, Connecticut. Prior to this role, he served as Senior Vice President and Head of Product at Cross River Bank following its 2019 acquisition of Seed, a Y Combinator-backed business banking startup where he was Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer. Earlier in his career, Merritt worked as Vice President of Engineering at the neobank Simple, which was later acquired by BBVA. During his three-year tenure at Simple, he scaled the engineering department to more than 30 members and helped grow the platform's user base to over 100,000 customers. With over three decades of experience, his current focus centers on developing digital banking infrastructure, scaling financial technology platforms, and leading system architecture for commercial institutions.