Bluestone Mortgages has announced the promotion of Niamh Downey to head of business development.

Downey (pictured) has been with the specialist lender since 2019 and previously served as a business development team manager. Since joining Bluestone, she has been instrumental in the growth and development of the London based telephony BDM team and has helped establish a second team in Sheffield.

She will now be responsible for managing not only the two BDM teams but also the broker support team, heading up all telephony activity.

As part of this, Downey will be responsible for delivering sales targets, coaching and training the business development team and broker support team, supporting Bluestone’s commitment to enhance the broker experience, as well as identifying and developing new business opportunities.

Downey said: “I’m excited to get stuck into my new role and continue to help Bluestone better serve our intermediaries and their customers. I’m looking forward to leveraging my experience in the BDM team to build and develop relationships with our broker partners which in turn will allow us to further strengthen our proposition and support a growing number of disenfranchised customers.”

Reece Beddall, sales & marketing director at Bluestone Mortgages, added: “Niamh’s promotion is a testament to her hard work and determination. Over the last few years, Niamh has been critical in helping Bluestone provide support to our brokers and expand our proposition and I’m certain her experience will help us to continue to expand our offerings and provide greater financial assistance to a growing number of ‘non-vanilla’ customers.”