Michael Clapper, (pictured) the founder of mortgage distributor Enterprise Group and co-founder of e-cigarette brand Vapestick is readying to launch a mortgage advice firm.
Clapper has been on a recruitment drive for qualified mortgage advisers for the ‘all-new’ venture since July and plans to launch a Hertfordshire-based office within weeks.
Serial entrepreneur Clapper founded and ran the Enterprise Group, which was ranked the UK’s fastest growing UK company in 2007, and sold a 30% stake for £8.5m in April the same year, but the firm folded in 2008 post-credit crunch.
In 2009, Clapper founded Clapper Ventures LLP which launched e-cigarette firm Vapestick with co-founder Michiel Carmel, which became one of the Europe’s leading brands of electronic cigarettes.
In Jan 2014, US-firm Victory Electronic Cigarettes Corporation bought Vapestick for $70m.
Clapper was unavailable to comment.
Victoria Hartley is contributing editor at Mortgage Solutions, Specialist Lending Solutions, Your Money and Your Mortgage at London-based publishing company AE3 Media.
She has an MA in Radio from Goldsmiths after gaining a 2:1 in a Comparative American Studies BA at Warwick University. She also holds a TEFL qualification and taught overseas in Mexico and Japan from 1994 to 1997.
Her role includes editorial oversight of the news, analysis and features, event content management and strategic and editorial consultancy for the AE3 Media group. She is an experienced video, broadcast and live-event host and regularly chairs web and podcast debates and interviews.
Multiple award nominations have resulted in two wins: Santander Media Awards, trade journalist of the year and Headlinemoney Awards, mortgage journalist of the year (B2B). Here is one of the award-winning pieces: https://www.mortgagesolutions.co.uk/news/2011/07/21/exclusive-tale-bailey-fraud-witness/
Previous roles include editorships of Mortgage Solutions, consumer title What Mortgage and trade title Credit Today as well as a stint freelancing for a variety of outlets including The Guardian and Which? Money.
