George Patellis has taken over from Gary Booth as CEO of specialist lender Tiuta PLC.

Patellis has more than 18 years of experience of both building and managing lending operations in America, Canada, Australia, Germany, and Central America. He was part of the Barclays backed MBO at Preferred Mortgages and its subsequent sale to now defunct Lehman Brothers.

He was appointed as a special advisor to the board of Tiuta in August 2009.

Patellis said: “Having now had the chance to work closely with the team at Tiuta to fully understand its business model and plans for the future I am really looking forward to the challenges ahead.