Ryan Downs

As Unison’s President, Ryan oversees the company’s operational strategy and is responsible for managing the day-to-day business. He leads all of Unison’s consumer and production functions, which include: Business Development, Data Science & Engineering, Production & Investment Operations, Product, and Marketing.

Ryan joins Unison after a decade as President and CEO of Proxibid, a leading online platform for buying and selling highly valued assets, including real estate. Proxibid experienced tremendous growth under Ryan’s leadership, reaching $6B in annual transaction volume and resulting in an acquisition by a private equity group in 2020. Prior to Proxibid, Ryan was a top executive at Paypal (later acquired by eBay). As SVP of Worldwide Operations, he was responsible for approximately 5700 FTEs engaged in numerous functions, including Consumer Service, Merchant Service, Sales, Compliance, and Risk Operations. In addition to his PayPal responsibilities, Ryan also managed eBay Global Customer Support, which included an additional 6000 FTEs, from 2007 to 2008.

Prior to his work at Paypal and eBay, Ryan served as CEO at Omaha-based web development and IT consulting form, eTopia Technologies. Before that, he was a partner at the law firm Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott in Denver, Colorado, where he specialized in complex commercial litigation.

Ryan currently serves on the Board of Directors for Assurity Life Insurance Company in Lincoln, Nebraska. He also serves on several nonprofit boards, including Bellevue University, NorthStar, and the Corporate Advisory Board for the Raikes School of Computer Science and Management at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Ryan earned a B.S. in Agricultural Sciences in 1991 from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1994. He was born and raised on his family’s farm outside Hershey, Nebraska, and currently resides in Springfield, Nebraska with his wife, Valerie, and their three children, Emily, Lauren, and Carson.