Savills appoints head of sales in East Sheen
Savills has promoted Sophie Barton, an associate director in its Wandsworth sales team, to take on the role of head of sales and oversee its multi-disciplinary East Sheen office.
Having joined the firm’s Wandsworth sales department in April last year, Barton steps into her new position with circa eight years’ experience in the industry and with plenty of knowledge of the area and its sales market.
Barton started her property career as a sales negotiator at Douglas and Gordon before spending several years at Winkworth where she progressed to assistant sales manager.
At Savills, she has established herself within the residential sales business since joining the Wandsworth office as an associate director. Throughout her property career Barton has specialised in south west London.
As head of residential sales, Barton will oversee the East Sheen office, valuations and client relations. She will will also work closely with the cluster of nearby Savills offices, including Barnes, Putney and Richmond.
Barton commented: “I will bring my experience and enthusiasm to the role and look forward to collaborating with our lettings and residential development colleagues as well as our local offices.
“Some of my existing clients from Wandsworth are looking for properties in East Sheen and I look forward to fostering client continuation as well as forging many new client relationships through offering the highest standard of care.”
The head of Savills South West region, Robin Chatwin, added: “I look forward to Sophie growing the business while continuing the high level of care, knowledge and professionalism for which the office is renowned.”
Templeton Robinson names Chris Kirk as a new partner
Northern Ireland estate agency Templeton Robinson has appointed Chris Kirk as a new partner in the company.
The 37-year-old, who started his estate agency career with Templeton Robinson over two decades ago, will be based at the firm’s Belfast office.
Having completed a work placement with the firm aged 16, he now joins Beth Robinson, Michael Young and Paddy Palmer in this leadership role.
Kirk said: “It’s hard to believe that Templeton Robinson is where I was first inspired to become an estate agent as I completed my fifth-year school work placement with them when I was 16.
“I found it such a rewarding and exciting profession and after I completed my education, I decided to pursue a lifelong career as an estate agent with another fantastic company where I learnt the ropes and gained so much experience.
“When Beth and the other directors approached me to join Templeton Robinson it felt fitting to return as a partner to the place that inspired my career many years ago.”
The company employs over 40 staff across four offices in Holywood, Lisburn Road, Lisburn City and Ballyhackamore in East Belfast.
Robinson commented: “Chris joins us at an exciting time with the current property market being very buoyant’.
She added: “We wanted Chris to join us because of both his excellent professional and personal reputation. He will be a real asset to our team and our clients will benefit hugely from his experience and knowledge of the local residential market.”
TML strengthens leadership team with new chief risk officer and head of credit
The Mortgage Lender (TML) has further strengthened its leadership team with the appointment of Neil Hornsby as chief risk officer and Gemma Porter as the new head of credit.
As chief risk officer, Hornsby sits on the TML executive committee and its board, and will be responsible for managing credit risk, conduct risk, regulation, and compliance, which includes managing TML’s response to upcoming Consumer Duty legislation.
He joins TML with three decades of experience in the finance and property sector, having worked with Shawbrook, where he was property risk director. Prior to this he worked at Barclays where he was director of mortgage credit risk.
Reporting to Hornsby, Porter will be responsible for developing TML’s current credit framework, providing direction and guidance to the underwriting team on risk appetite, while creating and maintaining lending policies.
In addition, she will be developing the company’s risk and credit management framework for residential and buy-to-let products. In this role, Porter leads a team of MI and credit analysts and a credit manager.
Porter joins TML with 20 years of experience having worked for a number of lenders and banks in the industry, including Shawbrook, where she spent more than 16 years in both credit and risk roles. These included several senior management positions, and most recently head of platform lending and acquisitions risk.
Peter Beaumont, CEO of TML, said: “We are pleased to welcome Neil and Gemma to the TML family. They bring with them a wealth of experience when it comes to understanding and crafting a business’s approach to credit and conduct risk structures, as well as compliance and regulation, and we look forward to each of them sharing their expertise as we evolve our credit policies which will support the business with its growth plans.”
Hornsby commented: “TML is dynamic, young, and ambitious in its culture, and embodies being a real-life lender through and through. With the current market going through a period of uncertainty, and such a focus overall on affordability, TML seeks to make finance simpler and meet the needs of its customers. Being a fast-growing business, I look forward to helping TML in its next phase of development and growth and will be looking to build a best-in-class risk team as a part of that journey.”
Porter added: “TML is at a pivotal moment in its growth phase and I am looking forward to playing my part in its future development. This creates an opportunity to influence key lending strategies with growth and diversification in mind. TML has a solid backbone already in place in terms of its credit policies, people, expertise, and culture, so I am keen to join the team and assist in advancing their position in the market. There is a lot to learn from data and MI, and I am eager to utilise credit analytics to enhance the business’ proposition.”
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