Equity release lender, more2life, has created a new director of operations role and promoted Steve Dodd, formally more2life’s head of operations, to take up the position.

Dodd (pictured) has just under two decades in financial services, with almost five of those years within Key Group, firstly at Key and most recently with more2life.

As director of operations, Dodd is responsible for the origination of all equity release plans provided by more2life – from initial advance, drawdowns and further lending. This includes the application stage, valuation, underwriting, offer and completion, whilst ensuring all aspects are Financial Conduct Authority compliant and adhere to Prudential Regulatory Authority regulation.

Dodd said: “During the pandemic, we focused on ensuring the best possible journey for our advisers and our customers. This meant working with solicitors, surveyors and our funders to make sure we could still operate under the new and changing conditions. It’s been a challenging time and long hours have been put into making this work for our customers. I am thrilled to see my hard work rewarded with a promotion into this new role.”

Ben Waugh, director of operations at Key Group, added: “It goes without saying that 2020 has been a challenging year but we are delighted to be in a position to promote Steve Dodd who has worked tirelessly to support our partners and their clients. His hard work and dedication to improving the adviser journey as well as strengthening relationships with our external partners and managing the pre and post offer pipeline has been invaluable to the business during Covid-19.

“I look forward to working closely with him as we continue to improve our offering.”