Leeds Building Society is looking for a new head of intermediary distribution, as Louisa Sedgwick has announced she will leave in the summer.
The lender announced it has commenced the recruitment process to find a replacement, as Ms Sedgwick moves to a new role with an unspecified challenger lender.
The departure comes as LBS pushed forward with plans to improve service for its broker partners, led by a reshuffle in its senior leadership team.
Tom Tinkler moves from the role of director of operations to take up a new position as director of change; tasked with meeting lending growth targets, increasing market share and investing in technology.
Meanwhile, after having built up the society’s intermediary team, Martin Richardson will move across from being director of business development to become the new director of operations.
Finally, Jaedon Green will expand his previous responsibilities as director of product and now take up the role of director of product and distribution.
Mr Richardson stated: “Louisa joined the society in April 2014 and has played a key role in building and strengthening the team we now have in place. She will leave us in great shape for the next phase of our investment and we wish her every success for the future.”
As for promised product innovation, Mr Green’s responsibilities include meeting the needs of intermediary partners and borrowers - particularly those not well-served by the wider market - and providing more opportunities to help intermediary partners support more clients and grow their business.
“Intermediaries play a vital role in the society’s mortgage business and their support has been key to our recent strong growth in lending,” said Mr Green. “Meeting our members’ ever-changing needs drives our award-winning product innovation and we know intermediaries are similarly focused on delivering the best for their clients.”
Meanwhile, Mr Richardson has been tasked with focusing on further service improvements.
“We redefined our intermediary strategy in 2013 and since then have grown the team fourfold and invested heavily in our service for brokers,” he commented. “The team is well-placed for future growth and I’ll continue to focus on service improvements in my new role leading the society’s underwriting and broker service teams.”
The society’s latest results, published in February, showed residential mortgage lending increased by 15 per cent over 2015 to £3.1bn, against 2014’s figure of £2.7bn, taking gross lending over the last five years to almost £11bn.
peter.walker@ft.com
