Cover story
Asim Shirwani CCO at Lendhub What they did in 2020 that kept the market moving: Asim joined Lendhub in the middle of lockdown and soon became a vital cog in the company. Within weeks, he had led the onboarding of five new staff members and provided remote training and development. He filled the void caused by no longer being able to meet and train people in an office environment with multiple daily video calls and generally being available to staff 24/7 to assist with anything and everything. He also further developed the Lendhub product range to ensure it fits the needs of the lender’s brokers and borrowers. Starting with fixed-fee bridging, and with the borrower in mind, Asim worked hard to provide greater clarity when budgeting. He sourced excellent legal and valuation fees so there were no hidden surprises and is already looking at other ways the business can improve other products and services.
Why they will be integral to the sector’s recovery and growth in 2021: Asim’s many years of experience will continue to benefit the future new hires at Lendhub and, in turn, its brokers and borrowers. His attention to detail when reviewing and redesigning products will also ensure that the lender is providing exactly what the market requires.
Faye Wilcox
Chris Field
Managing director at Valorem Partners
Director—head of corporate at Christie Finance
What they did in 2020 that kept the market moving:
What they did in 2020 that kept the market moving:
Faye committed to a journey of improvement, not only within her business but also to raise the standards of the bridging and commercial industry when it comes to recruitment and best practice. This included signing up to the Women in Finance Charter and agreeing to uphold it when providing candidates to her clients, in an effort to support the placement of more senior women in leadership roles. She also introduced The GC Index®—an industry first—as a response to the diversity and inclusion, health and wellbeing, and skills shortage challenges the industry faces. Her aim to help the market make better hiring decisions will hopefully aid companies to thrive during the recovery period and beyond. In December, Faye also launched a health and wellbeing partnership for the benefit of Valorem’s candidates, as well as its clients’ employees and the wider sector.
At the start of the year, Chris was focused on delivering funding options to large, complex HNW companies. When Covid-19 struck, a large proportion of Christie Finance’s team were furloughed, and Chris looked after the existing pipelines of deals, as well as future enquiries in a challenging market. Throughout this time, he demonstrated his willingness to help clients who needed support to not only grow, but to purchase and refinance. Chris— who was described by one person as “an honest, hardworking solution finder”—exceeded targets in 2020, including the successful completion of a number of tricky and sizeable transactions. In his role as the ‘go-to’ broker for hotels and care homes, he secured funding when his clients’ usual sources of debt could not perform. Even once funding offers were issued, Chris carried on supporting transactions and explaining issues and solutions to often frustrated sellers and their advisers in order to help keep deals alive.
Why they will be integral to the sector’s recovery and growth in 2021: Inspiring the next generation is something close to Faye’s heart, and she will explore how she can impact this area further throughout 2021. She is also looking to support various charities that have special meaning for her or have strong ties to our sector. Faye feels it is her duty to give back and looks forward to making future announcements regarding this over the following months. In addition, she has begun recording a dedicated Women In Finance/leadership podcast, on which she will interview inspirational leaders from within the market in order to boost WIF and encourage new talent.
Colin Barrett Mortgage proposition director at OSB Group What they did in 2020 that kept the market moving: In 2020, Colin oversaw the complete process of bringing together a team of people dispersed all around the UK via Webex, in addition to evaluating how to temporarily suspend new applications, have desktop valuations approved and implement system changes, and then restart new products based around restricted capacity and remote processing—all while maintaining a new credit risk policy and not wanting to swamp underwriting. He remained calm, focused and inspirational throughout. On top of this, Colin was quietly engineering the enhancement to Precise Mortgages’ bridging offering, and its recent relaunch and delivery of the semicommercial and commercial products from InterBay. This involved detailed engagement with the group’s credit, underwriting and real estate teams to ensure that it had a suitable proposition to support the broker market.
Why they will be integral to the sector’s recovery and growth in 2021: Colin plans to anticipate the challenges of 2021 and execute a route to success for every eventuality. He will ensure that any required changes are made, while also taking the entire team with him on this journey, so that people don’t feel stressed or out of place.
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Why they will be integral to the sector’s recovery and growth in 2021: Chris will be able to use his unrivalled contacts and lender relationships to ensure that he and his team will be able to continue to give clients the best advice possible by working tirelessly to make sure transactions are managed.