Aldermore has announced the appointment of Stuart Baty as head of business development – South for its invoice finance division.

Baty will be responsible for supporting SMEs across the South who need access to funding to grow their business. He will be based in Staines and will report to Chris Meldrum, national business development director for Aldermore Invoice Finance.

He has over 15 years of experience in providing finance to SMEs. He joins Aldermore from Santander Corporate and Commercial Banking where he was a director in the invoice finance team with a primary focus on asset-based lending in London.

Before this, he was a regional sales manager at Premium Credit where he led the southern UK sales team, working with insurance brokers on insurance premium finance. After starting his career with the Sussex Chamber of Commerce Baty spent nearly eight years with Lloyds Banking Group as a sales director, leading the London-based invoice finance and asset based lending team.

Bath said: “Aldermore is a fast growing business that has been making real inroads into the UK SME finance arena, and I’m delighted to be able to be a part of that growth.

“During my years helping SMEs access the right funding solutions to grow their businesses, I’ve been able to develop a strong network of contacts. This will serve me well at Aldermore and I’m now reaching out to my contacts to grow the Bank’s operations in the South.”

Meldrum added: “Stuart has a fantastic wealth of experience in business finance having worked closely with SMEs over the last 15 years. We’re very pleased to have Stuart on board, and we look forward to supporting him and his team to further developing our business in the South.”