- Samantha Graydon joins as Business Development Manager (BDM) in the Home Counties
- Michelle Walsh joins as BDM in the West of England
- Chris Timms joins as BDM in the Midlands
Specialist property lender Octopus Property, part of the Octopus Group, announces three new hires, as it continues to grow the loan book and transact record volumes. Strengthening its regional sales teams, the new BDMs are Samantha Graydon in the Home Counties, Michelle Walsh in the West of England and Chris Timms in the Midlands.
The appointments will support both the Company’s rapidly growing regional footprint and strong intermediary network, as it targets the increasing number of property professionals looking to benefit from the favourable returns available from property investment and development outside of London and the South East.
Samantha joins from Castle Trust, where she was instrumental in growing the loan book in the Midlands and the North. In her new role, Samantha will be driving the residential, commercial and development broker relationships.
Michelle also joins from Together, where she raised brand and product awareness amongst intermediaries in the South West. Prior to Together, Michelle worked at Barclays for over 10 years in several different operational and sales roles. This expertise will help Octopus develop new intermediary relationships, as well as continue to improve its market-leading broker offering.
With 10 years’ experience in financial services, Chris brings a wealth of experience both from the broker and the direct lending side, most recently working as a BDM for Together, covering the Midlands.
Since the start of 2018 Octopus Property has made 25 hires, supporting its significant loan book growth, which now stands over £800m. It follows the recent announcement that it has provided four regional commercial property loans, totalling £35m, across Birmingham, Derby, Manchester and Edinburgh.
D’mitri Zaprzala, Head of Sales at Octopus Property, commented:
“Recruiting and retaining the industry’s brightest talent is vital for Octopus, and we’re pleased to welcome these three new BDMs to the business. Their regional expertise will help us offer a local service to brokers while helping to build long term, trusted and personal relationships.
“We pride ourselves in not having any geographical limits or quotas that stop us from lending in specific areas, and this is aligned with the growing demand we are seeing from borrowers outside of London.
“Samantha, Michelle and Chris all have an in-depth understanding of what is driving local markets, and we’re confident they’ll help us expand and strengthen our intermediary network as we target £1bn of lending over the next 12 months.”
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For journalists in their professional capacity only. Personal opinions may change and should not be seen as advice or a recommendation. We do not offer investment or tax advice. Issued by Octopus Property. Octopus Property is the trading name of Bridgeco Ltd (Reg No 6629989), Fern Trading Ltd (Reg No 6447318), Nino Ltd (Reg No 9015082), Octopus Property Lending Ltd (Reg No 7531926) and Octopus Co-Lend Ltd (Reg No 8913299), Registered Office: 33 Holborn, London EC1N 2HT, registered in England and Wales and Dragonfly Finance S.ar.l. (Reg No B189290) Registered Office: Parc d’Activité Syrdall, 6 Rue Gabriel Lippmann, L-5365, Munsbach, Luxembourg registered in Luxembourg. Octopus Property Lending Ltd and Octopus Co-Lend Ltd are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Issued August 2018.