LendingClub said Monday that it had appointed a BlackRock Inc. veteran to be its chief capital officer, a position designed to manage the online lender's relationships with its investor group as it works to rebuild their confidence after its chief executive was ousted and purchases of LendingClub loans slowed.

The company said Patrick Dunne, who most recently led BlackRock's San Francisco office, would be responsible for managing relations with individual investors, banks, endowments and strategic partnerships with retail distributors.

Year-to-date the company's share price has fallen 59% as it struggled with the departure of its founder, slowing loan purchases and negative returns to investors.

In early May, the online lender's board of directors asked for former Chief Executive Renaud Laplanche's resignation after it learned from an internal review that he failed to report errors related to a sale of loans as well as a personal investment in an outside investment fund and that he had inflated monthly loan volumes in 2009 by giving loans to family members.

LendingClub said in June that it expects second-quarter loan volume to be around one-third less than the $2.75 billion it reported in the first three months of 2016. The San Francisco company said shareholders and analysts shouldn't expect revenue and profit growth to resume until the first half of 2017 as it looks to spend more on incentives for investment funds to ramp up their loan purchases as well as for employees to stay at the company.

Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported that a fund managed by LendingClub that invests in the company's online consumer loans expected to report its first-ever negative month.

In January, reports surfaced that Mr. Dunne was leaving BlackRock due to an internal reorganization. He has 25 years of investment experience, including roles at BlackRock, iShares and Barclays Global Investors. He previously was head of iShares Global Markets and Investments and was global chief operating officer for iShares.

LendingClub shares rose 4.7% in premarket trading.

Write to Austen Hufford at austen.hufford@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 18, 2016 08:35 ET (12:35 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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