Hampshire Trust Bank (HTB) has appointed Nicola Ledgard as its head of portfolio management within its specialist mortgages division.

Ledgard (pictured) has spent 35 years working for lenders such as Halifax, Cheshire Building Society, Salt Commercial and Nationwide Building Society. She joins HTB from Aldermore Bank, where she was head of portfolio management for the property division.

She has extensive technical knowledge and understanding of the lending cycle from inception, through portfolio management to redemption.

In her new role, she will set up and lead the Portfolio Management Team within Specialist Mortgages at HTB, working alongside broker partners to safely manage and monitor large or complex exposures within the Bank, whilst building long term relationships.

She will report to Chris Daly, HTB’s managing director, specialist mortgages.

Ledgard said: “I am delighted to be joining HTB, during what is an interesting period within the mortgage industry. It’s a great opportunity to establish a best-in-class Portfolio Management team from scratch.

“I’m very much looking forward to getting to know my new colleagues, rolling up my sleeves and getting stuck into the exciting task ahead of me.”

Daly added: “It’s great to have someone of Nicola’s calibre joining us at HTB. She has extensive experience of and a track record of success within residential and corporate real estate lending, and she is the ideal person to set up and lead our new Portfolio Management team.

“Our specialist mortgage lending has proved extremely resilient despite the issues that the mortgage market as a whole has faced over the past year and our new Portfolio Management team will only strengthen our operations as a whole.”