Paula Priest and Katie Newell-Tucker have joined the commercial team at specialist buy-to-let lender Birmingham Bank.

Priest (pictured, second from right) has been recruited to run national accounts while Newell-Tucker takes on the role as head of marketing as the growing lender continues its recruitment drive.

Birmingham Bank has also recruited a number of underwriters and promoted Andy Virgo to the role of director of sales as it looks to grow its share of the competitive buy-to-let sector.

SPECIALIST BUY-TO-LET

Birmingham Bank offers specialist buy-to-let mortgage lending exclusively via a select panel of DA intermediaries and already has a workforce of 60 plus staff located nationally and within its Birmingham head office. It also offers a wide range of deposit products.

As part of the sales team Priest will report into Virgo (pictured, far left), who previously held roles as buy-to-let director at LendInvest and senior roles at InterBay.

Priest was previously the national accounts manager at Foundation Home Loans; head of sales at The Mortgage Lender and has held management roles at Barclays and Nationwide.

She said: “I’m overjoyed to be part of growing a new lender in the market – to use my industry experience to bring value to our exclusive panel and to shape the criteria of this new proposition. It’s great to be working on this challenge with such a great team.”

Katie Newell-Tucker (pictured, second left) was previously head of marketing for five years at Foundation Home Loans; an underwriter at Halifax and a mortgage broker and marketer at both John Charcol and Mortgageforce. She was awarded the Distinguished Performance Award for Marketing Strategy by the Chartered Institute of Marketing in 2023.

Tucker-Newell said: “It’s an exciting time in a marketer’s life to get involved with a start-up; to build a brand from the roots up, in the industry you’ve known and loved for 25 years.”

HEAVY HITTERS

Nick Moss (pictured, far right), Chief Commercial and Product Officer at Birmingham Bank, added: “We are very pleased to have Paula and Katie on board.

“They are heavy hitters in the industry who understand the focus we have on service to our brokers – and building a specialist property brand that can really have an impact.

“Paula is well-known in the mortgage industry with an incredible natural talent for connecting with brokers and she has a deep knowledge of what brokers need from their lender.

“Katie brings a unique understanding of how the wider Bank can really communicate trust and value to our customers and partners.

“We have lofty ambitions for this new specialist lender brand and excellent partner relationships are critical to that.”