Industry moves: Masthaven, Sigma and Morses Club announce new hires

As part of a new service for members, Credit Strategy has included here appointments covering retail banking, the debt advice sector, credit reference agencies and the BPO market.

Gareth McNab, Christians Against Poverty

Last month, Gareth McNab replaced Dawn Stobart as director of external affairs at Christians Against Poverty. McNab was most recently at Nationwide Building Society as money advice liaison manager.

McNab will work closely with Christians Against Poverty chief executive, Paula Stringer, and will be responsible for the team who engages with industry, government, regulators and other charities to ensure CAP’s clients are effectively represented in business practice and social policy.

Graeme Campbell, Morses Club

Graeme Campbell has received regulatory approval to become chief financial officer at Morses Club, the home credit provider, effective immediately. To support the transition, Andy Thomson will continue to work with Campbell on the publication of the H1 results, before re-assuming his role as non-executive director on the board.

Jaco Snyman, Sigma Financial Group

Sigma Financial Group, the customer contact centre provider, has appointed Jaco Snyman as director of financial services, reporting to chief commercial officer Ben Jones. Snyman has held a variety of leadership roles in the financial and consumer finance sectors in the UK and South Africa - including senior positions with PwC and more recently, as chief operating officer of the UK personal finance arm of BNP Paribas.

Margot Cronin and Jonathan Baum, TransUnion

TransUnion has added two non-executive directors to its board: Margot Cronin and Jonathan Baum. Cronin will act as chair of the board and is a winner of the Institute of Directors award for Chartered Director of the Year. Across her career she has worked at HSBC Life, Tesco Underwriting and Prudential International.

Baum is the former chief credit officer at Lloyds Banking Group, and has also held senior risk and credit roles at Barclays and GE Capital.

Preston Rogers, Alphera Financial Services

Alphera Financial Services has appointed Preston Rogers as the company’s new director for Alphera in the UK. Rogers is replacing Spencer Halil who will join Alphabet (GB) Limited as the new chief commercial officer.

Rogers was general manager for digital sales channels and insurance at BMW, and started his new role on 1 February 2021.

Mark Record, Simon Furnell and David Kennedy, Masthaven bank

Masthaven Bank has made a series of new appointments, among which is Mark Record who has been appointed to the newly created role of chief information officer (CIO), leading the bank’s technology, change and business functions. Record joins from Capita’s financial services arm and has previously held a range of CIO roles at Barclays, the Co-op Bank and RBS.

Simon Furnell, chief operating officer, and David Kennedy, operations director, have also taken on new responsibilities at Masthaven. Furnell will now be responsible for marketing, distribution and products, as well as continuing to lead the bank’s savings function and internal operations. Kennedy is being promoted to a newly created role of chief lending officer where he will look after all lending activities across short-term (bridging) and long-term (mortgages).

Masthaven Bank has also announced that Simon Glass has joined the board as a new independent non-executive director.

Nick Rember, Loans Warehouse

Nick Rember, former Prestige Finance director of operations, is set to join Loans Warehouse in the newly created role of secured loan operation director.

Matt Tristram, co-founder of Loans Warehouse, said: “We’re all excited about Rember’s recruitment. He has great pedigree and will add vast experience in all areas of lending that will help us grow the business over the next few years.”