Together announces further additions to its executive team

By Bridging Loan Directory 21st July 2016

Specialist lender, Together, has announced two further appointments to its leadership team, concluding a spate of recent board-level appointments following the restructure of the business to separate its retail and commercial activities.

Brian Jackson takes on the role of operations director for retail activity, whilst John Hunt joins as chief risk officer in the retail division. This follows the announcement of Peter Ball as chief executive of retail, and completes the retail board.

Brian Jackson previously worked for British Gas where he was director of credit and collections. Prior to this, Brian spent 18 years at MBNA and Bank of America, following its acquisition of the credit card company in 2006, where his vast experience spanned collection, recovery and credit operations.

Brian said:

“The specialist lending industry is thriving and Together is at the forefront of that and growing at a rapid pace, so it’s an exciting time to join. The business has a really impressive history, having traded successfully for four decades, so there’s a very strong foundation in place and I’m looking forward to helping improve and enhance our operations as we move forward to the next phase of growth.”

John Hunt joins from Nationwide, where he spent six years in various senior risk and compliance roles, most recently leading a programme to redevelop the company’s enterprise risk management framework. With experience in compliance, corporate planning and commercial, unsecured and secured lending credit risk, John has previously held roles at Capital One and GMAC RFC UK.

John commented:

“Together’s impressive financial position, strong product offering and robust market demand all contribute to its continuing growth, and the new brand, established last year, creates the ideal platform to build on the current success. I’m delighted to have accepted this new challenge and look forward to bringing my experience to bear as we continue to grow and evolve as a leading specialist financial services group.”

Chairman Mike McTighe added:

“Since creating our new corporate governance structure we’ve made a number of high-profile appointments to create a really dynamic executive team that will drive the business forward. Brian and John each bring with them a wealth of experience and knowledge in their areas of expertise, and we’re delighted to welcome them to Together as part of our formidable new leadership team.”

Together takes a common sense approach to lending and has a current loan book in excess of £1.7 billion, with total new lending for the year ended 31 March 2016 at £971 million.