Sirius Finance has announced that one of its founding directors, Rob Collins, has returned to the London-based specialist finance brokerage.

Collins (pictured) has rejoined Sirius as a senior associate, following a period of living and working in New Zealand. He joined the Brightstar Group in 2012 and was a director at both Brightstar, from 2014, and later Sirius between 2016 and 2021.

He has more than 30 years’ of experience in financial services, during which time he has also held the position of director at the NACFB.

Simon Nichola has also returned to the Brightstar Group as senior associate at Sirius Finance. His experience in property finance spans 20 years and he has previously worked at Brightstar Financial. He specialises in buy-to-let, commercial, bridging and development finance.

William Lloyd-Hayward, group chief operating officer and managing director of Sirius Finance, said: “We are delighted to welcome back Rob Collins to the Sirius team. Rob was a co-founder of Sirius back in 2016 and was a major contributor to the growth and success of the business before leaving the business to return to New Zealand.

“He rejoins Sirius with the same deep knowledge and experience that customers and lenders know him for and at an exciting time for our business. The arrival of Rob follows the addition of Simon Nichola, who joined us earlier in 2024. We have always prided ourselves on our commitment to best-in-class and these additions are just another example of that.”

Collins added: “I’m delighted to return to Sirius Finance, which is a brokerage I co-founded back in 2016. There have been many changes since then, but the firm’s obsession with outstanding service delivered by high-calibre professionals remains. We have a very exciting future ahead of us. It’s good to be back.”

Nichola said: “It is great to be back working with the hardworking and dedicated team at Sirius, at a time where they have just gone through some really exciting changes. In line with our mission to ‘make the seemingly impossible, possible’ I can’t wait to get started on finding solutions for our clients’ needs and building long-lasting relationships.”