Kent Reliance has announced the appointment of Sarah Hopkins as a senior business development manager (BDM) within the southern region covering Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, South Wales and South Coast.

Hopkins (pictured) will have full responsibility for overseeing and developing broker relationships within her region and increasing access to Kent Reliance’s specialist lending proposition.

She has over 15 years’ experience in financial service and joins Kent Reliance for Intermediaries from Foundation Home Loans where she was a regional account manager. Prior to that she was a BDM for BM Solutions where she started her journey into the specialist finance sector.

Hopkins said: “I’m delighted to be joining the expert and knowledgeable team at Kent Reliance. I’m particularly looking forward to building upon the strong relationships that have already been established as well as developing new business opportunities.

“Having worked within this region for many years, I’m really looking forward to sharing my local knowledge with the team to further expand business and awareness within the region.”

Simon Cockerill, head of sales at Kent Reliance for Intermediaries, added: “We’re absolutely thrilled to welcome Sarah to the team at a time when her expertise and understanding of the sector and region will be absolutely fundamental to our commitment to the intermediary sector and development strategy in 2020.”