Industry moves round-up: Hiring spree at the FCA, Intrum UK and more

FCA

The FCA has recruited Mel Gunewardena as a senior advisor. Gunewardena was previously chief market intelligence officer at the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission based in Washington DC and a former Managing Director at Goldman Sachs.

Graeme Reynolds joins as director of competition, having worked as one of the FCA’s deputy chief economists. Reynolds will lead the FCA teams undertaking competition market studies, as well as those who investigate competition enforcement cases.  

A final addition to FCA’s senior leadership is Simon Walls, incoming interim wholesale director. Since 2016 Walls worked as head of wholesale markets, and he has worked with the FCA/Financial Services Authority since 2006 in a variety of wholesale roles, including seven years in asset management supervision.

Nikhil Rathi, chief executive of the FCA, said on the appointments: "I look forward to working closely with Mel when he joins and congratulate Graeme and Simon on their promotions. We anticipate having more senior appointments to announce soon."

Intrum UK

Credit management group Intrum UK has appointed David Price as compliance director for its partnership with Sainsbury’s Bank.

Price has two decades’ experience in compliance with firms such as Vanquis Bank, American Express and Lloyds Banking Group. He has a track record of running compliance monitoring programmes, supporting key stakeholders with compliance needs and working with regulators. In addition, he specialises in customer vulnerability.

David Stranaghan has joined Intrum UK as strategic account manager, as Intrum’s white label contract with Sainsbury’s Bank sees it assume responsibility for collections and recoveries.

Previously, Stranaghan worked at Tesco Bank, where he was a debt sale specialist working in the credit risk department, responsible for managing the bank’s panel of purchase partners.

“We are delighted to welcome David Price and David Stranaghan to Intrum as the business continues to expand,” said Eddie Nott, managing director for Intrum UK and Ireland.

“We are thrilled to have David Price on board to ensure our culture of continuous improvement in customer experience is maintained and developed.”

He added: “Meanwhile, we are pleased to announce that David Stranaghan will lead the strategic partnership with Sainsbury’s Bank, as Intrum assumes responsibility for collections and recoveries on a white label basis.”

Ohpen

Ahmed Michla joined fintech platform Ohpen as head of business development, bringing over 20 years’ experience in financial services, and extensive expertise in delivering organisational change.

Michla has worked with several financial services institutions driving the delivery of core solutions from concept to production, with the intention of streamlining processes across the mortgage, savings and asset finance sectors. Prior to Ohpen, Ahmed held positions at Sopra Banking Software and Sopra Group.

On his appointment, Michla said: “Ohpen’s growing commitment, vision and fresh-thinking for the UK market is refreshing and something I wanted to be a part of. We’ve needed true technological innovation in the mortgages space for a long time and is something I truly believe Ohpen can deliver on.”

Phil Bourne joins Ohpen as head of product in UK and Ireland, following a career working with building societies and specialist lenders. Bourne’s primary focus will be on secured lending across the full value chain, starting at the purchase of a property and leading to loan redemption.

Matthijs Aler, chief executive of Ohpen, said: “With the addition of Ahmed and Phil, we have an expert team equipped with the best technology to provide a range of building societies, lenders and brokers with the specialised software tools to improve efficiencies and ultimately modernise the UK mortgages market.”

The Leasing Foundation

Nathan Mollet, head of asset finance at United Trust Bank (UTB), has been appointed chair of the Leasing Foundation.

Mollet takes over from Mike Randall, and has over 20 years’ experience in the business finance industry. Prior to joining UTB in 2020, he spent five years leading Metro Bank’s asset finance business. Before that he worked at Wesleyan for 15 years, most recently as sales director.

Mollet has been actively involved in the Leasing Foundation for many years and currently leads the Next Generation Network, an initiative designed to champion the next generation of talented, career-minded young individuals in the finance and leasing industry. 

Outgoing chair Randall said: “Congratulations to Nathan and I very much look forward working with him and the team in continuing this very important activity.”

Mollet commented: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mike for being an extremely dedicated chair.  

“I am delighted to take up the role of chair and look forward to pushing forward our agenda and ensuring that the Foundation gets broader representation from within the industry.”