She will report to Pete Dockar, chief commercial officer at Gen H, and bring her “extensive experience to further develop the lender’s innovative first-time buyer-focused mortgage propositions”.
Appleton has worked at Skipton Building Society, where she was head of lending for around a decade, and before that she was senior manager of mortgage risk for over two years.
She has also held roles at Bradford and Bingley, Euristix and GE Money.
Gen H began lending in 2020, bringing a reimagined joint borrower sole proprietor deal to market to fix maximum age limitations.
It also released its own conveyancing service and has partnered with Experian Boost so applicants can get a boosted credit score and improve their affordability.
The firm has also brought out an AI-backed packaging tool with Google Cloud that will automatically analyse and categorise documents needed for mortgage applications.
The lender has also been growing its team, with the appointment of Dane Clarke and David Jackson as business development managers (BDMs).
Dockar said: “We’re beyond excited to welcome Karen to Gen H. Karen has a demonstrable track record for truly innovative thinking, and her expertise is precisely what Gen H needs as we continue to grow, develop new propositions, and help more people find their place on the property ladder.”
Appleton added: “I’m delighted to be joining a team of people who are passionate about creating positive outcomes for real people and intent on transforming the housing market.
“Having come from a credit risk background, I have always embraced opportunities to collaborate with brokers and other partners across the industry so we can build a real-life lending culture that meets the needs of customers across the mortgage application value chain. I know that this passion of mine will be well placed with Gen H, and I’m very much looking forward to getting started.”
