Claire Ashkam has been appointed as Vida Homeloans’ new sales manager – north, to support its existing key account managers.

Ashkam (pictured) is tasked with driving sales performance within the region, meeting sales targets and motivating the existing key account manager team whilst developing new broker relationships.

She over 18 years of financial services industry experience, as well as an extensive sales portfolio, having held roles at businesses including Metro Bank and Legal & General.

Louisa Sedgwick, director of sales, mortgages for Vida Homeloans, said: “Claire brings a wealth of knowledge to Vida Homeloans and we’re confident that her skills and past experience will benefit us enormously, particularly when it comes to building and maintaining key relationships with brokers, which is vital to our business.

“At the same time, Claire will also add value by coaching and mentoring the sales team and building our market knowledge within the specialist lending sector.”

Askham added: “Working across different aspects of the industry has given me a unique perspective from both a lender’s and a financial adviser’s point of view, which will help me to drive sales and lead the team forward.

“Vida has made a real difference to the intermediary market since its launch in 2016, and I hope to play an integral role in contributing towards this great momentum by building on existing intermediary relationships whilst also making new ones.”