Aldermore has appointed Simon Lefevre as its head of wholesale and Chris Smith as head of specialist equipment within its asset finance team.

Lefevre (pictured) has worked for over 25 years across asset finance, invoice discounting and asset based lending markets. He has worked within, built up and led market leading lease and wholesale teams in the UK. He has previously held roles at Lombard, ING, BLME and ABN AMRO, where he notably was responsible for building and managing a UK lease and wholesale portfolio in excess of £1bn.

Smith brings extensive knowledge of asset finance, from two decades in the industry, with the last 15 being dedicated to hard asset funding, in particular. He joins after spearheading the wholesale, block, vendor and broker teams at BLME Group businesses, Walbrook Asset Finance and Komatsu Finance.

Lee Rhodes, commercial director for asset finance, Aldermore said: “I’m delighted to be able to attract leaders of the calibre of Simon and Chris to Aldermore. They’ll be integral to building our business and fulfilling Aldermore’s growth ambitions in the Asset Finance space. These are exciting times at Aldermore, as we continue to invest in our proposition to back more people in life and business.”

Lefevre added: “I’m very excited to be joining Aldermore at this time to support their strategic growth objectives. The wholesale team is already high performing and in a good position to take advantage of the wide range of opportunities that exist. I look forward to bringing my expertise and experience to the team and leading them to even greater success.”

Smith said: “I’m delighted to be joining Aldermore. They are a business with strong foundations and I’m excited about their ambition and desire for growth. I look forward to being part of a fantastic team of people that seek to further strengthen Aldermore’s place in the UK market.”