David Bagatelle '86 spent four seasons absorbing double-teams on Wesleyan's defensive line—three at nose guard—where the job description was simple: get knocked down, get up, and win the next snap. Today, as Global Head of Operations and Chief Banking Officer at Credit Sesame, that "next-play" muscle drives turnaround work and company-wide execution, proof that the student-athlete toolkit scales beyond Andrus Field.
On the line, every down is a fresh read—splits, stance, cadence—and then a hard commit. The whistle resets everything. Bagatelle carried that cadence forward: short feedback loops, fast corrections, and a refusal to linger on the last play. Meetings, like possessions, are decided by the quality of the next rep.
Wesleyan's scheme asked his position to do thankless work: occupy blockers so linebackers could finish. Bagatelle embraced it, learning pride in enabling others. That team-first wiring now shapes an operations philosophy—remove friction, clear lanes, and put specialists in space. It's the logic he used to stabilize Credit Sesame's banking arm and later to broaden his remit across global operations.
That system-building instinct showed up on campus when he helped start WesVest, the university's first student investment club. With an economics professor advising and nearly a hundred students pooling small stakes, the group researched companies, debated theses, and managed a portfolio that outperformed the market. The takeaway wasn't the return; it was formation recruit a scrappy roster, set a simple playbook, execute together.
Credit Sesame hired him after decades in commercial, private, and retail banking to fix a division that needed focus. Within a year, he was asked to apply the same discipline across the company. Three years on, he points to a business closer to profitability and a potential liquidity event, plus a model that now includes white-label B2B partnerships—most notably powering TransUnion's consumer business. Different arena, same trench work: absorb complexity so others can move.
Ask him which numbers matter and he'll list the classics—revenue growth, assets and deposits, ROA and ROE, efficiency ratio but he keeps returning to relationship measures: customer growth and retention. In banking, he chased "core deposits" because they signal trust. When clients bring their day-to-day accounts, you earn the right to handle payments, treasury, and cash management. Stickiness beats spikes. That's defensive-line logic in spreadsheets.
He watched that philosophy scale at Sterling, where a single-point-of-contact model—paired with disciplined hiring, lift-outs, and targeted acquisitions—helped assets grow from the low billions to roughly $30 billion. The engine wasn't flash; it was consistency: give clients one accountable owner, use technology to remove friction, and keep the huddle small enough to communicate clearly.
Culture change, he argues, rides on three habits. First, focus—be precise about the mission and stop chasing distractions. Second, execution—finish the rep in front of you. Third, transparency—tell the truth early and often, up and down the line. He's carried that triad through pivots at M&T, Signature, Herald National, CIT, Esquire, Sterling, and now fintech. The language changes; the habits don't.
The juggling started at Wesleyan and accelerated right after. He worked full-time while earning a master's in accounting and an MBA at NYU Stern, picking up a CPA along the way. He laughs that he's not sure how he managed it, then points back to Middletown: lifts and film, classes and clubs, a Statehouse internship—student-athlete time management in motion. The muscle wasn't hours; it was rhythm.
Service keeps that rhythm grounded. Since 1982 he's volunteered with American Legion Jersey Boys State, a weeklong "government in action" program for rising New Jersey seniors, and he has served as Executive Director since 2005. He mentors Cardinals through the Athletics Advantage (A+) network and serves on the Athletics Advisory Council—coaching students through high-leverage moments he remembers well.
His civic work mirrors his day job. Credit Sesame's mission—credit-building tools that strengthen financial wellness—fits naturally with Neighborhood Housing Services of New York City's focus on affordable homeownership. Better credit unlocks mortgages; stable housing stabilizes families. The throughline is support that makes the next good decision easier.
Looking ahead, he sees inclusion advancing through two shifts: tighter integration between credit tools and payments—so the "right next action" is effortless—and AI that offers real guidance, not just alerts: which bill to pay now, which product to use, whether that loan makes sense. The winning mix pairs speed with human context—the bank-branch instinct of knowing a customer by name.
When Cardinals ask about finance or fintech, Bagatelle starts with the student-athlete edge: follow what genuinely interests you, do the homework so conversations go deep, and treat every interaction as networking. He still believes in the nose guard ethic: unglamorous reps, done well and done again, move the pile. That's the value of the experience—and it plays long after the whistle.
