Rebecca Newman has been promoted to chief operating officer (COO) at Suffolk Building Society.

She was previously chief of staff at the society. Former COO, Ian Brighton, has become head of credit management and mortgages.

Her new role combines her previous responsibilities with an additional operational remit, including change management and IT and information security. She will also take on responsibility for outsourcing and operational resilience which will sit within the newly defined CEO’s office team.

Newman (pictured) said: “My role is to ensure there are mechanisms in place to support our members, brokers and to successfully grow our business. We need the right systems, people and premises to continue to make the Society a success, and a key part of that will be through our digital transformation journey which will streamline the broker experience.”

Having already spent over 30 years working within the building society sector, Brighton will be stepping away from the board and executive team to a more hands-on role utilising his experience and knowledge. He will be responsible for the entire mortgage lifecycle, from DIP to redemption, and the lending function will continue to report into him.

Brighton said: “Developing the Society’s lending strategy to further enhance our specialist offering will be an important priority. We’re always keen to focus on where we’re strongest – supporting brokers looking after niche borrowers, via our manual underwriting ethos.

“While we’ll always retain our individual approach to applications, we’re also keen to enhance the Society’s service proposition, so I’m pleased to be leading the launch of a new mortgage origination platform later in the year.”