Burnell reports to Guy Batchelor, sales and marketing director at Belmont Green. The lender is expected to launch later this year.
Burnell joins Michael Cook who joined the lender-in-waiting in February as director of products and customer proposition.
Cook was formerly the director of Post Office Partnership at the Bank of Ireland and prior to this he held senior mortgage positions at ING, Lehman Brothers and Kensington Mortgages.
They both join David Tweedy, Guy Batchelor, Will Howard Davies, Lesley Sewell and Ian Giles at Belmont Green to help create an intermediary-only residential, secured and buy-to-let mortgage lender.
Burnell said: “I am really excited to be joining a start-up organisation and am looking forward to re-engaging with master brokers over the next few months.”
Batchelor added: “It’s great to have secured Simon for this senior role – he brings a wealth of experience – and we are currently recruiting a similar calibre of person to work alongside him as director of sales for mortgages.”
Burnell first joined the mortgage market in 1995, holding various roles with First National Bank before becoming National Sales Manager for GE Money from 2004-2010.
Mark Fry, managing director at multi award-winning Colonial Second Charge Loans, said: “It’s great to see Simon helping to set up a new entrant as he knows what the secured loan market needs post-MCD. And from the conversations I’ve had with Belmont Green so far, I think he’s going to be able to put a compelling proposition together for launch.”
Belmont Green moves into new offices in Staines-upon-Thames on 11 April.
Belmont Green’s lead investor is Pine Brook, a private equity investment firm that manages more than $6bn of capital commitments and specialises in ‘business building’, primarily in financial services and energy businesses.
The timescale for launch is still to be announced.
