Masthaven Founder to step back from executive role

By Bridging Loan Directory 12th February 2020

Masthaven Bank has announced that its founder, Andrew Bloom, is stepping back from his position as CEO at the end of April 2020, with chief financial officer Leigh Bartlett taking over the role. Andrew will continue as a shareholder and non-executive director.

Andrew founded Masthaven in 2004 and went on to build the business from a specialist bridging lender into one of UK’s leading newly launched banks.

Since the Bank’s launch in November 2016, Masthaven has grown to over 180 staff, has completed over £1.1bn of lending and has provided innovative deposit solutions to its retail and business customers resulting in over £1.2bn of savings being raised.

Under Andrew’s leadership, Masthaven has received numerous awards for its digital innovation, its lending & savings products and customer management services. In 2015, the business also featured in The Sunday Times’ Fast Track 100 (the annual awards designed to recognise Britain’s fastest growing 100 private companies) and, in 2017, was recognised by the Financial Times as the 240th fastest growing company in Europe.

In April 2019, Värde Partners completed a strategic £60 million equity investment in Masthaven, which was a key step in enabling the bank to continue to achieve its strategic ambition to become one of the leading specialist banks in the UK residential and SME markets.

Andrew Bloom, pictured, said:

“Masthaven has been a major part of my life over the past 15 years and it has been a privilege to found, serve and grow Masthaven from the early days when it was just a handful of people to the Specialist Bank it is today.

I am very proud of Masthaven and how its talented employees have always striven to deliver a personal solution for our customers and intermediaries. We have built an incredibly strong foundation and a great leadership team. As a non-executive director and significant shareholder, I will continue to assist Leigh and the leadership team in driving Masthaven forward.

I’m very fortunate to be in a position to be able to take a step back from the day to day running of the business and have decided to take full advantage of this. I’m looking forward to the next stage of my life where I already have many plans including cycling through Botswana to the Victoria Falls, as well as various other charity and business endeavours.

Given the high level of employee ownership and the backing from my other shareholders, Värde Partners and the William Pears Group, I feel now is the right time to pass on the baton. I’m therefore delighted to announce that Leigh Bartlett will take over as CEO from 1st May 2020. Leigh is an experienced retail banker and has my full support.”

Leigh Bartlett, said:

“It’s an honour – and great responsibility – to take over from Andrew. I would like to thank him personally for the support he has given me since joining Masthaven. I look forward to continuing to grow the bank, together with the Masthaven team, to become one of UK’s leading specialist banks in the UK residential and SME markets.”

Ashley Machin, Chairman said:

“It is always a seminal moment when a founder CEO steps away from his executive role. His commitment and contribution to Masthaven has been second to none. I’d like to thank him both personally and on behalf of the Board for the journey he has led Masthaven on over the past 15 years. I look forward to continuing to work with him as part of the Non-Executive team on the Masthaven Board.”