West One Loans appoints new lending director

West One Loans has hired a Director of Lending Operations in one of a number of new appointments.

Paul Simpson joins the bridging lender from Morgan Stanley Bank where he spent five years overseeing its European residential mortgage business.

Before that, Paul was head of the underwriting and servicing department at Money Partners and held a similar position at GE Money Home Lending.

Elsewhere, Luke O’Sullivan has joined West One Loans as Sales Manager from second charge lender Equifinance where he was a Director.

Danny Waters, Chief Executive Officer of Enra Group, the parent company of West One Loans, said: “Our recently released gross lending figures for 2015 show that we completed almost £400m of business in 2015 and we fully intend to better that volume in the coming 12 months.

To help us achieve this ambition, and to cope with ever-growing demand, we have identified a collection of high-calibre individuals who will help move the lending arm of the business onto the next level, ably supported by new arrivals in other departments of the wider group.

“They bring with them a wealth of experience from a range of renowned organisations across the financial services and property spectrums and will undoubtedly have innovative ideas as to what the next stage of our development looks like.”

In addition to Paul and Luke, West One Loans has made two other appointments, with Graham Stanbridge joining as Investor Manager and Danny Soltock joining the sales team.

In the meantime, Clive Smalley has being appointed Finance Director of Enra Group and Paul King has joined its operations department.

Enterprise Finance, the specialist loan distribution arm of Enra, has also been on the recruitment trail, adding Michael Moulton to its secured loan underwriting team.