Masthaven Bridging Finance, winner of the Service Excellence award at the B&C Awards 2012, has recruited a number of staff already this year but Jason McGee-Abe spoke to Richard Deacon, Sales & Marketing Director at Masthaven, to find out more about the recent hires in the lender’s underwriting department.

Masthaven has hired yet another new starter, has internally promoted an underwriter and is actively looking for new underwriters to join its ranks, not just for its bridging and short term finance side of the company but also for its new secured loans proposition.

Gemma Salousti has been promoted from Assistant Underwriter to Underwriter. Gemma has been with Masthaven for 14 months and had come from another lender in the financial industry. Richard said: “Gemma is extremely good at her job and I’m happy that she has been promoted.

“I’m out on the road meeting brokers and issuing terms accordingly, but Gemma’s thoroughness and her communication skills, which are second-to-none, are  reasons we receive numerous emails from happy brokers thanking Gemma for her role in finalising a deal.”

Prior to joining Masthaven, Gemma worked for Abbey for Intermediaries, a firm of independent brokers and fellow bridging company Tiuta. Speaking of her time working with the brokers, she commented that it was: “a key period for me as I was able to see things from the other side of the fence. I can relate to their frustrations when dealing with a number of different lenders.”

Gemma said: “My role is challenging, but I get great satisfaction in learning and working on interesting deals every day. We are continuing to overachieve with our monthly targets and I feel I am lucky to be working for such a rapidly growing company.

“I can honestly say I feel I am very lucky to have been given such a fantastic opportunity with Masthaven and I look forward to many more years in the industry doing something I enjoy.”

Richard told B&C that the company has also brought in a new hire, Zoë Claydon, as an Underwriter, who’s been with the team for about four weeks. He commented: “Zoë certainly found her feet from day one. She’s on the ball and just wants to get the deals done.”

Zoë has been in financial services for ten years – working as an underwriter for seven. She has previously worked at Beacon Homeloans, Barclays Wealth and in the last 18 months was fulfilling two roles within the same office – Underwriting Manager for Century Capital and brokering for the Mortgage Centre IFA.

Zoë said: “I have been here a month and so far I’m working hard to get up to speed and learn the ‘Masthaven’ way. I think it’s a great place to work, with a great culture and work ethic and I very much look forward to a bright future here. I am over the moon to be back underwriting and being part of such a successful team.”

Asked how many people are now in the underwriting team, Richard said that there is Underwriting & Operations Manager Claire Wasbrough, Gemma, Zoë and Colin Moth. There are also three Assistant Underwriters.

He added, “We are actively looking to add members onto our bridging team, in particular more underwriters. It’s not just the bridging side of the business that we are expanding at present – in light of our secured loan proposition we are actively seeking new members for the team there also.”

In light of the short term finance sector going from strength to strength a number of lenders and brokers are currently on a heavy recruitment drive, not only to cope with the increase in volume of deals but to further enhance their proposition and increase their service levels for the broker, and ultimately the consumer. 2012 has seen Masthaven hire four new members of staff so far and it’s only half way through the year.

Richard added: “We’re garnering awards for being best bridging lender, service excellence and highly commended recognitions from all the industry awards respectively this year and our success is down to the team that we have.

“It shows we must be doing something right. It’s testament to how hard we work, belief in our product and it emphasises our service to brokers.”

By Jason McGee-Abe