Pepper UK has appointed Mark Caplan to head up its commercial loan servicing department.

The firm said the move marks a “substantial milestone” in its diversification into different asset classes.

Caplan joins Pepper from a 15-year career at Lloyds, where he first oversaw the origination of commercial real estate loans across a wide spectrum of size and type. For the past six years he then moved into a restructuring role where he made a name for himself as a specialist in handling the most distressed non-performing debt.

He said: “During the global financial crisis I headed a team that built a strong reputation for its expertise at managing the biggest, most complex, most toxic books, of every asset class imaginable.

“From wind farms to casinos, sports clubs to apartments, I enjoyed a great variety. But having successfully managed down the books under my control from £43 billion down to £5 billion, I was ready for my next challenge.”

Richard Klemmer, CEO of Pepper UK, added: “Mark is an ideal match for Pepper. With his breadth of experience at both ends of the commercial loans market, he has been able to adapt very naturally to our own service offering, with equal comfort handling both non-performing and performing CRE portfolios.

“Hiring Mark to lead this department is a continuation of our investment in building a team with experience unrivalled in this industry. All of our newly-hired commercial specialists are proven experts in both loan origination and servicing, and they put us in a strong position for today’s rapidly-changing landscape of hybrid books with an unprecedented mix of asset types.”