Brian West has been appointed as Pivot’s new head of commercial operations and marketing.

Pivot was established in 2012 and over the past three years has provided over £200m of funding. It is aiming to double this in the next 18 months with a combination of residential and commercial bridging and development and construction funding. It recently expanded its funding lines.

West (pictured) served two terms as a board director of the Association of Short-Term lenders (ASTL) between 2015-2019 and has held senior roles at lenders such as GE Capital. He has also worked with smaller specialist lenders such as Swift, Funding 365 and Central Bridging.

He will now be responsible for driving the Pivot brand as it seeks to build out both its bridging and development offering and will be working closely with both CEO Shahil Kotecha and head of business development, Vishal Dixit.

West said: “I am delighted to be joining a team that I know well and hugely respect. With the positive and pro-active support of our new funders I am convinced we can take Pivot on an exciting journey and establish ourselves as a market leading, national lender.

“My recent work in the media sector has enabled me to look closely at over 150 short-term lenders and it is amazing how generic both their products and sales pitches can be. Consequently, I am determined that we will never look to sell on speed, tailored products, or access to decision makers because for me all of these should be a given in our sector. Instead, I will promote our genuinely unique selling points and the good news is that there are many, with more in the pipeline.”

Kotecha added: “With our roots in property development it is perhaps no surprise that since moving into the lending sector, we have been perceived by many as ground-up development specialists. Of course, we are uniquely qualified to work with developers, but we offer so much more than just development funding.

“Brian’s passion, knowledge and vast network of contacts will ensure the Pivot brand and the diversity of our products is more widely understood and appreciated by brokers. Together we will look to develop, refine and deliver a unique proposition to the intermediary market.”