B&C can announce that Masthaven Bridging Finance has secured the services of a former St James’ Development Project Manager.

Masthaven Bridging Finance has appointed Mark Hedley as a BDM for the Midlands.

Mark Hedley joins the bridging lender with 25 years of experience and has joined the team as part of Masthaven’s wider growth plans.

Commenting on his appointment, Mark said: "Having been in lending from the adviser side of the table for as long as I can remember it’s great to be working with Masthaven who truly have such a great reputation in the market for delivering great service.

“As an adviser, I have used Masthaven in the past and was always impressed with their speed, professionalism, attention to detail and creativity.

“In my new role as Masthaven’s business development representative for the Midlands I intend to carry on Masthaven’s tradition of excellence.

“I am really looking forward to strengthening the bond Masthaven have already established with our experienced introducers and helping new introducers develop their own propositions into a very dynamic sector of lending."

Mark started his career at Barclays in 1989; he worked with private and wealthy customers as a Premier Manager for eight of those years.

It was here that he had his first dealings with bridging finance, whereby Barclays charged 3 per cent over the variable rate of financial products to treat a loan as bridging with a high priority over timeframe. Mark helped clients with all their regulated needs, including: mortgages, bridging loans, investments and life protection.

In November 2003, Mark started his own IFA practice, with broker Cliff Hammond. The firm, Hedley Hammond & Co, specialised in mortgages and bridging loans, and also investment and pension advice. 

For two years from March 2007, Mark worked as a Sales Director and ventured into property funding for clients, completing three buy-to-let deals using back-to-back bridging.

Mark then worked in life settlements, bridging the gap between the provider and advisers, at Multiple Investment Partners as a BDM. Working with stockbroking-type products 

At St James Developments, which he joined in January 2012, Mark specialised in air space developments in Central London, looking for and sourcing reliable bridging funding sources for development opportunities, including Joint Ventures.

In November 2013, Mark met Andrew Bloom, Managing Director of Masthaven Finance, at the Finance Professional Show and that’s when the ball started rolling. A meeting was scheduled in for the New Year and the rest is history.

Richard Deacon, Sales & Marketing Director at Masthaven Bridging Finance, said: “I am delighted that we have secured the services of someone so experienced as Mark. His industry-wide knowledge will stand him in good stead amongst the diverse levels of applications we receive from our introducers on a daily basis

“It is testament to Mark and Masthaven that we have now got a dedicated professional working one of the major geographical areas of the country. The Midlands is often overlooked by lenders who solely concentrate on the South East markets, and as Masthaven have been lending here for years it felt right to have business development manager to maintain existing relationships and develop and nurture new ones.”

Mark has vast experience of bridging and development finance, having worked for a lender, owning his own IFA firm and advising clients with funding, bridging and development finance. This hybrid mix of experience should certainly put Mark and Masthaven in good stead moving forwards.