Specialist lender West One Loans has appointed John Smith, who was most recently national account manager for first charge mortgages at Masthaven, as a senior regional account manager.
In his role, he will part of the sales team focused on the lender’s buy-to-let portfolio for new and existing intermediaries.
Smith worked at Masthaven for around five years, and before that was a key account manager at Bluestone Mortgages for nearly two years.
Prior to that he was a relationship manager at Aldermore for just over two years and was previously an intermediary account manager at The Co-operative Banking Group.
Before that he worked at Platform, a subsidiary of The Co-op Bank, for around nine years in various roles including business development manager and new business team leader.
He has also worked at Alliance and Leicester for around three years as a mortgage underwriter and team leader.
Andrew Ferguson, West One Loan’s managing director for buy-to-let, said: “John is an excellent appointment, and we are delighted that he has chosen to join West One. He’s well known, well-respected and experienced in the buy-to-let market and has fantastic knowledge when it comes to supporting a diverse range of intermediary partners. He is a great addition to our growing team.”
Smith said: “West One is a hugely exciting organisation and I couldn’t be happier to be joining. The company is trusted by intermediaries and property professionals to deal with complex buy-to-let and its strength of funding and agility in the market sets it apart from its competitors. I can’t wait to get started.”
Anna is currently the deputy editor for Mortgage Solutions and editor for Specialist Lending Solutions. She has worked as a journalist since 2019, having secured her Gold Standard NCTJ diploma from News Associates in a fast-track six-month course.
She started her career as a report at specialist publication The Insurance Insider covering a wide range of areas before joining Mortgage Solutions and Specialist Lending Solutions in 2021.
In her role, she helps put together and structure the news agenda for the day and writes up press releases, reports, interviews, analyses and exclusives across both titles. She also commissions blogs for Specialist Lending Solutions and hosts online masterclasses and in-person events across the business.
She has been shortlisted for three journalism awards, which include BIBA Journalist and Media Awards Scoop of Year Award in 2020, Headline Money Mortgage Journalist of the Year Award (B2B) in 2022 and 2023.
Prior to being a journalist, Anna worked in ecommerce across Snow + Rock, Cycle Surgery and Runners Need websites, and before that worked at specialist financial PR firm Rostrum.
In her spare time, Anna enjoys reading, seeing live music, and cooking for friends and family. When she gets a chance, she also enjoys hiking, skiing and indoor rock climbing.
