People: Senior appointment at Together; Findel makes CFO hire; Sheppard Robson promotes; and more

John Truswell

Specialist lender Together has recruited John Truswell as head of national accounts.

Truswell joins from Capital Home Loans and previously spent 21 years as head of national accounts at Virgin Money and its predecessor Northern Rock.

Together recently announced its partnership with four leading broker networks, and as head of national accounts, Truswell will focus on building intermediary relationships across the group, in both the personal finance and commercial businesses, as the lender widens its distribution.

Truswell said: “This is a great opportunity to get involved with a business which has big ambitions and a customer-focused and innovative approach to delivering the best outcomes.

“Together has become firmly established as a leader in the specialist sector; with its common sense lending philosophy and willingness to look beyond the ‘tick box’ criteria to assess cases individually, so I’m looking forward to introducing more brokers to our offering as the business continues to expand.”

Richard Tugwell, Together’s recently-appointed group intermediary relationship director said: “John’s knowledge of the intermediary market will be invaluable as we strengthen Together’s position in the industry. I’m delighted to have him join us and am looking forward to an exciting phase of growth as we broaden our reach and develop relationships with more brokers across the UK.”

Together has a current loan book in excess of £2 billion, and total annual new lending for 2016 stood at just under £1.1bn.

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Stuart Caldwell has been appointed chief financial officer of Findel, the online value retail and education business.

Caldwell has held the position of acting CFO since April 2017, prior to which he was group financial controller. He is a qualified chartered accountant and a fellow of the Association of Corporate Treasurers.

After qualifying within the profession he held a number of roles with Provident Financial before moving to Findel in 2010.

Ian Burke, chairman, said: “I am delighted that Stuart will be taking on the role of CFO on a permanent basis. His knowledge and experience marked him out during the search process, and since joining Findel as Chairman I have been impressed with the positive actions he has undertaken to reinforce the Group finance function.

“Stuart’s appointment further strengthens the new management team as we focus on the delivery of our medium-term growth plans.”

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Neal Allen-Burt and James Jones

Architectural practice Sheppard Robson has promoted James Jones and Neal Allen-Burt to partner at the firm’s 80-strong Manchester office.

Both will work alongside the office’s three existing partners (Tony O’Brien, Alex Solk and Rupert Goddard) to direct a growing portfolio of high-profile projects, including schemes in the North West, Birmingham, Leeds and Newcastle.

These include the major mixed-use development New Victoria and continuing the practice’s work at Citylabs (both in Manchester), as well as The Learning and Teaching Centre at Newcastle University.

Valentino Capelo and Jonathon McCrone from Sheppard Robson’s Manchester office have also been promoted to associate.

 

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Teaching Art, the arts materials supplier which operates from sites in Salford and Newark, has recruited Carl Gamble as managing director.

Gamble, who joins from Next, will be charged with leading the growth of Teaching Art and its arts club, the SAA, which is one of the world’s largest arts communities.

His appointment follows a recent £4m investment in the business from PHD Equity Partners and Praetura Commercial Finance.

Gamble spent 14 years with Next and held roles including divisional financial controller and, most recently, head of online business development and marketing.

He said: “Teaching Art is a successful business with a 25-year history. I look forward to leading the team into the next phase of development following the investment from PHD and Praetura.  We are targeting a number of areas for growth, not least increasing membership of the SAA to allow us to continue to ‘Inform, Encourage and Inspire’ artists across the UK and further afield.”

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