Just Mortgages has bolstered its self-employed management team with the appointment of Chris Hayes as area director for the north.

Hayes (pictured) has over 20 years of experience from across financial services, supporting, mentoring and recruiting both employed and self-employed brokers. In addition to identifying new talent to join the division, the new role will see Hayes supporting existing brokers in their day-to-day duties with sales coaching, as well as in executing their business plans and identifying opportunities to grow their own teams and businesses.

He joins Just Mortgages after more than 10 years with the LSL Group, where he first started as a mortgage and protection adviser with Your Move. He become executive financial consultant, then area development manager and most recently, financial services manager. He held this role for six years and managed large numbers of advisers across the UK.

Prior to this, Hayes was a self-employed adviser himself and has previously worked in the debt management sector with Money Expert and began his career with sales roles with Co-op Bank and HSBC.

Hayes said: “After 10 fantastic years with LSL, the timing was right to explore a new opportunity and I’m thrilled to join Just Mortgages. Just through meeting the team, the onboarding and hearing their exciting plans, I can already tell this was a good decision. I’ve been impressed with the plans to progress and the backing from Spicerhaart – it’s clear Just Mortgages is ambitious and really going places and I want to be part of that.

“Having seen the proposition on offer, I would have loved to have access to this when I was a self-employed broker. I’m looking forward to working with our advisers to make sure they are maximising this, all while building those relationships and sharing my experience to support brokers where needed. It will be great to share the opportunities of Just Mortgages and self-employed too, helping to identify the right people that are motivated to make the move and then helping them to build their business plans.”

Carl Parker, national director at Just Mortgages, added: “A critical part of our proposition is ensuring brokers have access to a knowledgeable and highly-experienced team of managers. Chris certainly fits that bill and is a tremendous addition to our talented self-employed management team. Being able to draw on his real-world experience will be hugely valuable to our brokers in the region and across the division.

“Whether it’s supporting the transition to self-employed, or giving existing advisers welcome relief from more corporate structures, we’ve worked incredibly hard to provide the necessary platform for ambitious brokers to launch, scale and succeed. Alongside our experienced management team, we’re also able to provide day-to-day support with sales, marketing and compliance, as well as access to our in-house learning and development team. When we say, ‘on your own, but not alone’ we truly mean it.”