Gemma Wright is joining Reward Finance Group as commercial director.

Wright (pictured) will have responsibility to prepare the Leeds and Manchester-based alternative finance provider for its next stage of development.

She spent more than 17 years with RBS where she became a director of invoice finance with responsibility for leading a sales and client relations team in the North region.

Reward Finance Group has celebrated its fifth successive year of growth, with income for the year ended February 2017 increasing to £7.6m and the loan book growing by 25% on the previous year.

In September it has also received a £40m investment from Foresight Group, which has doubled the amount of funds available for the company to lend to SMEs.

Wright said: “I am delighted to be joining Reward at such an exciting time in their growth and looking forward to working with the existing directors to drive the business in the latest stage of its development.

“Reward is making waves in the alternative business finance market through its fast, flexible and innovative solutions for the SME market and I am really pleased to be part of such a successful and forward-thinking business.”

Nick Smith, Reward’s group sales & marketing director, said: “To have attracted someone with the experience and skills of Gemma to the team demonstrates the growing reputation of Reward Finance Group within the marketplace.

“We are an extremely ambitious company which has a ‘can do’ attitude, makes quick decisions and provides a fast turnaround of funding. This approach is welcomed by SMEs, especially as traditional funding is still proving difficult to obtain. This has been reflected in our impressive growth and increased revenues over the last five years.

“We are building an excellent team at Reward and, having appointed someone of Gemma’s calibre, are looking forward to building on our success.”