Foundation Home Loans has made a series of personnel changes within its sales team and a number of appointments to its underwriting department.

Shirli Henry has become the new regional sales manager for the South region with immediate effect, having been promoted to the role after spending the last three years working in Foundation’s underwriting department.

She has over 15 years’ experience in financial services with many of those working for Lloyds Banking Group. She will focus on developing Foundation’s reach within the region, supporting existing and new adviser relationships, and providing product/criteria information and support to help them drive their specialist residential and buy-to-let business volumes.

Henry will report to Grant Hendry, who has been promoted to head of sales from head of national accounts. Grant is now responsible for all Foundation’s Regional account and national account managers.

Former head of sales, Mark Whitear, becomes head of commercial development where he will lead the strategic accountabilities for the sales team, delivering the ongoing growth of the residential proposition and new commercial opportunities at Foundation.

Gavin Kyle, previously Internal sales manager, has now been promoted to head of broker services, responsible for the internal business development managers, in addition to the sales support team.

Meanwhile, in order to continue to meet adviser need and borrower demand for Foundation’s products, the lender has also recruited to its underwriting department. It recently completed two underwriting academies where eight underwriters completed their training with Foundation which has increased its underwriting capacity.

George Gee, commercial director at Foundation Home Loans, said: “As we continue to develop our proposition across both residential and buy-to-let sectors we are growing the personnel within the business to meet increasing demand and have also been able to reward a number of people with richly-deserved promotions.

“It’s always our intention to promote internally if possible, and these new roles and job titles for Shirli, Grant, Mark and Gavin are an indication of their talents and skills, and the huge amount of energy, drive and ambition they bring to the business.

“We’ve also invested heavily in upping the resources within our underwriting team and are very pleased to be adding a considerable number of underwriters to this department. The extra capacity this gives us means we can continue to show a very strong appetite to lend in our chosen areas, and provide advisers with all the support they need, whether that’s via our excellent sales team or the underwriters themselves.”