Specialist lender Cambridge and Counties Bank has made three appointments to its real estate finance team.
Lewis Ashford will be a senior business development manager (BDM) on Cambridge and Counties Bank’s real estate finance team for the South West, with Emma Harris coming on as a relationship manager for the Yorkshire region and Victoria Pearce as a BDM for the Midlands.
Ashford joins from The Co-operative Bank, where he worked for around 15 years, most recently as a senior BDM.
Harris was previously at One Stop Business Finance for nearly three years as an operations manager and finance broker. She has also held roles at Synergi Finance and OJ Media.
Pearce was a senior business manager at Keystone Property Finance for around four years, and before that, she was a regional account manager at Foundation Home Loans for nearly two years.
The lender said that the three appointments “underscore the bank’s continued commitment to professional property investors”.
Jayne Follows, head of real estate finance at Cambridge and Counties Bank, said: “Real estate finance remains at the core of the bank’s business model, and these three new appointments show how deeply committed the bank remains to the market.
“We have continued to help our clients seize opportunities, often through complex and nuanced solutions, and firmly believe our dedicated relationship-based approach will continue to see the bank attract further clients.”
The firm has also been growing its team, bringing on Scott Barber as regional director for the North and hiring Tim Lucas in the newly created role of head of product and proposition.
Cambridge and Counties Bank also reported £328m in gross new lending in 2023, its highest ever level of gross new lending and 6% up on the prior year.
Anna is currently the deputy editor for Mortgage Solutions and editor for Specialist Lending Solutions. She has worked as a journalist since 2019, having secured her Gold Standard NCTJ diploma from News Associates in a fast-track six-month course.
She started her career as a report at specialist publication The Insurance Insider covering a wide range of areas before joining Mortgage Solutions and Specialist Lending Solutions in 2021.
In her role, she helps put together and structure the news agenda for the day and writes up press releases, reports, interviews, analyses and exclusives across both titles. She also commissions blogs for Specialist Lending Solutions and hosts online masterclasses and in-person events across the business.
She has been shortlisted for three journalism awards, which include BIBA Journalist and Media Awards Scoop of Year Award in 2020, Headline Money Mortgage Journalist of the Year Award (B2B) in 2022 and 2023.
Prior to being a journalist, Anna worked in ecommerce across Snow + Rock, Cycle Surgery and Runners Need websites, and before that worked at specialist financial PR firm Rostrum.
In her spare time, Anna enjoys reading, seeing live music, and cooking for friends and family. When she gets a chance, she also enjoys hiking, skiing and indoor rock climbing.
