Octane Capital has recruited Matthew Bird as its new director of commercial real estate finance.

Bird (pictured), who joins from Legal & General Investment Management, has 20 years’ experience within commercial property, and has transacted more than £3bn at a number of private equity firms and global institutions.

Prior to LGIM Real Assets, Bird spent 10 years at UK real estate fund manager, Frogmore, originating and executing new acquisitions in every real estate sector, including commercial, alternative and residential. He began his career at Gooch Webster and Colliers.

Bird has worked with the Octane team in the past, having been involved as an external consultant in the launch of Dragonfly Property Finance’s commercial property division. He is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, board member of the Investment Property Forum and founding member of the IPF Proptech board.

“Jon, Mark and the rest of the Octane team have always been at the cutting edge of specialist lending and so the opportunity to work with them again was impossible to turn down,” said Bird.

“Octane’s revolutionary pricing model is reinventing the sector and has given investors a whole new option when it comes to commercial property finance. This is a lender that has massive plans and I hope to play my part in helping it achieve them.”

Mark Posniak, managing director of Octane Capital, added: “Matt brings a huge amount of experience, sectoral knowledge and technical know-how to our rapidly growing team. For the large and highly complex commercial loans we are targeting, his skillset is second to none.

“Residential clearly remains a massive market for us but commercial has vast potential, too, and we plan to make our mark. With Matt on board, we certainly have all bases covered.”