GRE Capital appoints new head of origination

GRE Capital is expanding its origination team with two senior hires, as it continues to grow its loan book.

James Meigh joins as head of origination from Recognise Bank, where he built its northern business development team from scratch before taking on a national role. James has more than 36 years' experience in the industry and previously worked at Santander UK in its Corporate & Commercial division for 12 years, and held director roles at the Bank of Ireland (UK) and Nationwide Building Society.

Alex Stephens joins the firm as business development manager, also from Recognise Bank. He has over 20 years' experience in commercial and corporate banking in a variety of lending, origination and operational roles at banks from Santander to RBS.

GRE Capital’s origination team is seeking to rapidly expand its real estate loan book across bridging, structured finance, term debt, and development finance. To support this expansion, GRE Capital will continue to recruit across various roles while exploring opportunities to expand into all areas of real estate finance.

“In a market in which value is increasingly hard to find and absolutely vital to create, a lender that understands real estate beyond the spreadsheets and can provide hands-on support is invaluable," James says.

"Having known and respected Michael and Daniel for over four years and sharing their central value that strong relationships are at the heart of good deals, I’m thrilled to be working with them and with Alex once again to take on an opportunity that is vast in scale.”

Daniel Benton, director at GRE Capital, says: “James and Alex bring a collective half century’s worth of banking experience to GRE Capital, providing the energy, the contacts and the firepower we need as we expand ahead of what is going to be a very busy final quarter of the year and an even bigger year ahead.”