Paragon Bank grows SME lending team with new business development hires

The new recruits will work across the division’s transport, regional and broker teams.

The BDMs include Jamie Thompson and Craig Nel as part of the transport team. The broker team has been bolstered with the appointment of Gulshan Khan as newly appointed BDM and the promotion of Jake Harfield as business development executive.

Finally, Lauren Cargill has been promoted to business development executive within the regional team, whilst Wayne Hall has been recruited from Shire Leasing. They will both be focused on the Southern regions.

Craig Nel has worked previously with Deutsche Leasing and BNP, focusing specifically on the van finance market working predominantly with virtual van dealers and introducers. Jamie Thompson joins from Huxley Corporate Finance and will focus on Paragon’s dealer finance proposition, working with dealers to find suitable finance solutions for clients.

Within the broker team, Jake Harfield began his Paragon career in 2017 as a business development associate and moves up to business development executive. Gulshan Khan joins Paragon Bank as BDM with an extensive career in asset finance, previously a sales manager at Dawsongroup Finance.

Paragon's SME lending sales director, Ken McKeating, said: “These new recruits are a sign of intent from Paragon. We are keen to grow our lending activity and to support our direct customers and brokers even further. We look forward to the recent additions to our team getting out into the market and helping to deliver on our growth strategy.”