Key hires head of advice sales and national account manager

Rachel has held senior leadership roles for more than 10 years across various retail banks including Santander and The Royal Bank of Scotland.

At Key, Rachel will be responsible for leading the team of whole of market regional managers with a focus on helping Key’s field based advisers achieve their businesses goals.

Key's equity release referral service, Key Partnerships, has also strengthened its senior team with the appointment of Kay Westgarth as national account manager.

Most recently, Kay worked as a national sales manager for Paymentshield and worked as a senior manager handling annuities for Prudential. Prior to that, she spent ten years as a national broker manager for Lloyds Banking Group.

At Key Partnerships, Kay will be responsible for managing a panel of networks, mortgage clubs and national mortgage brokers.

Will Hale, CEO of Key, said: “With the equity release and broader later life lending markets continuing to grow rapidly, it is essential that we have the right people in place to ensure we evolve our advice proposition and offer a consistently high level of service to our customers. Rachel will use her experience to help us continue to build our offering and develop our people. She will be a great asset to our team as well as our customers and I look forward to working with her.”

Jason Ruse, head of Key Partnerships, said: “I am pleased to welcome Kay to the team as we look to grow the business and expand our reach within the equity release market. Kay’s knowledge and expertise will undoubtedly prove to be beneficial as we continue to build relationships and form effective business partnerships. With the addition of Kay to our team, I know our partners will be in safe hands”.

Rachel East commented: “I am absolutely delighted to be joining Key at such an exciting time. I am passionate about people, leadership and progression so I will be looking to influence this at a rapid pace. It’s a fantastic opportunity to help customers with their later life lending needs and to be a part of a growing business which is a leader in its field. The equity release sector is rapidly growing and I look forward to collaborating with the team to ensure that consumers continue to be able to rely on us to help them make the right choices around their property wealth in later life.”

Kay Westgarth added: “I am absolutely delighted to be joining Key Partnerships at such an exciting time. It’s a fantastic opportunity to help drive customer acquisition, to implement and develop new strategic business relationships whilst optimising opportunities from existing supporters.”