Team growth continues as SWIG Finance with five new appointments made to the lending teams since November.
SWIG’s Business Lending team, led by Nicola Parker, has welcomed three new team members with Tom Rafferty, Switri Kaur and Amanda Sheppard.
Business Manager Amanda Sheppard
Amanda Sheppard has joined our lending team as lead Business Manager for Wiltshire, Dorset and Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole. Amanda is an experienced banking professional and was previously Associate Relationship Manager at Lloyds Bank working within the Trading Business sector of Mid Corporates, with over 23 years’ experience of working with SMEs across retail, agricultural and commercial sectors in the South and West.
Tom Rafferty and Switri Kaur have also joined the lending team as Associate Business Managers. Tom, who lives in Frome, has joined SWIG from Bath Building Society, where he was a Mortgage Consultant, working with mortgage brokers and direct customers throughout the application process. Before this, Tom was a Customer Service Advisor.
Associate Business Managers Switri Kaur & Tom Rafferty
Switri has joined SWIG from Everyday Loans in Bristol, where she was Branch Manager and Underwriter. Switri previously worked as Customer Accounts Manager at Provident and before that as a CPSO for Avon and Somerset Police.
Sarah Blinkhorne has joined as Start Up Loans Officer and will be supporting Start Up Loans applicants throughout the region. Sarah previously had 6 years in Personal Banking at HSBC and more recently as Compliance Manager for Crowdfunder UK. Sarah also has an MA in Translation Studies and was previously First Aid and Beach Lifeguard Training Centre Manager in Newquay.
Start Up Loans Officer Sarah Blinkhorne
We also welcomed Ian Williams to the Start Up Loans team in November. Ian was previously with Outset Cornwall for 12 years, where he also worked as a Start Up Loans advisor. Ian is also an experienced independent mortgage broker and has run his own administration and bookkeeping service for small businesses in Cornwall.
Start Up Loans Officer Ian Williams
Of the new appointments, SWIG’s MD John Peters said “I am very excited to welcome our new team members, who are based over a large area from Newquay to Bristol to Andover. They will help us reach into new areas and communities and meet the strong demand we are seeing for finance amongst smaller SMEs and start-ups across the region.”
About SWIG Finance
SWIG Finance is a people-based company that helps smaller businesses in the South and South West to grow. We base our lending decisions on potential rather than collateral, which means that we can often support businesses when others can’t.
We’re growing every year. In 2022/23, we lent £14m to 478 businesses, helping to create and secure over 1,000 jobs and generate £44.6m in social impact. Download the report here.
If you’d like an informal chat about your funding requirements, get in touch with our friendly and professional team to see how we can help: info@swigfinance.co.uk / 01872 227 930