Peer-to-peer lender ThinCats has appointed Jill Sandford and Damon Walford to the board of directors, as the company celebrates the first anniversary of ESF Capital’s investment.

Both will be responsible for driving business growth, with a specific focus on originating loans and broadening the platform’s network of sponsors across the UK.

ESF Capital acquired a 73.4% stake in ThinCats in December last year, and has since provided the platform with investment, working capital and management and operational resource, along with underwriting capital for the loans on its platform.

Sandford was hired by the company last year, prior to ESF’s investment, as chief operating officer. Before joining ThinCats, she was a director of restructuring and recovery with a national chartered accountancy firm and she has almost 30 years of experience in this area.

More recently, the firm hired Walford as chief development officer. He has more than 20 years’ experience working in the financial sector, with a particular focus on SME lending.

Kevin Caley, chairman and founder of ThinCats, said: “These appointments recognise the huge contributions that Jill and Damon have made to the business over the past few months and our confidence that they will be able to drive the business forward.

“They share our vision of achieving growth based upon quality rather than quantity and retaining the ‘pure p2p’ approach that allows ThinCats investors to select their own individual deals and set the interest rate they wish to earn.”