Specialist real estate lender Hilco Real Estate (HREF) has appointed Duncan Pearson (pictured) as senior business development consultant.
Pearson was previously the director of Cloudwood Consulting for nearly a year. Prior to that, he was an executive director at PGIM Real Estate for more than 12 years.
Before that, he was the director of Mitre Capital Partners for almost four years and held senior roles at ING, JBC, AIBC, Berlinhyp and Currie & Brown.
Brad Altberger, CEO and co-founder of HREF, said: “We are delighted to welcome Duncan to the team. With his deep experience in the real estate lending sector, he will significantly enhance our ability to identify and transact across a wide variety of lending opportunities.
“In particular, we are seeing a significant uptick in demand for loans to finance development exits, and given the breadth of Duncan’s relationships with developers, we expect to materially increase our lending activities in this segment.”
Duncan added: “I am impressed with Hilco’s compelling value proposition and the speed and efficiency [with] which the team is able to craft lending solutions across sectors and geographies.
“Given its entrepreneurial spirit and achievements to date, I believe this an exciting time to join the firm and very much look forward to working with Brad and the entire team to grow Hilco’s lending activities.”
HREF has been growing its team, recently hiring Steven Allen as a senior business development manager (BDM) and appointing Alexey Shokin as a senior BDM.
The firm has also joined the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers (NACFB) as a patron lender and became a member of the recently renamed Bridging and Development Lenders Association (BDLA). The latter was formerly known as the Association of Short Term Lenders (ASTL).
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.
