Together relaunches corporate lending team with new head of operations 

Together has promoted Liz Hooley to head of corporate operations in a key restructure of its corporate lending division.

Liz, who has a 20-year career in corporate banking, lending and risk, will provide strategic and operational direction for the team, and will work alongside Dave Rowlinson, the lender’s head of group valuations and corporate lending. Dave has been involved in property lending for over 30 years, supporting customers and lenders in large and complex lending transactions.   

This follows the delivery of a plan to double the size of Together's corporate lending by adding three new senior corporate underwriters; Ben Eckersley, a commercial real estate expert who joins from Aldermore, Niz Rajakulendran, previously a commercial real estate underwriter for Yorkshire Building Society, and Jordan Green who joins the new Together team after working for Handelsbanken for a decade.

Together has also appointed two new completion managers - Dave Taberner, who has worked in banking for more than three decades and Raza-Ali Vasi, a Masters degree law graduate who has previously worked in private practice, specialising in asset management and real estate with Manchester-based global law firm DWF.

Chartered surveyor and RICS registered valuer, Dan Sidlow, has also joined the team as valuation manager and Layton McCarthy joins as operations manager.

The restructure has involved creating a variety of specialist ‘pods’ to support corporate lending through specific sales channels, such as Together’s intermediary sales, corporate sales, portfolio and relationship lending. The function has enhanced its provision of specialist support such as internal valuation experts, specialists in larger complex lending, and in-house compliance and legal support.

Liz said: “Insights from our valued customers has proved invaluable in helping identify opportunities to improve our processes leading to an investment in additional headcount to broaden capacity. With the team already doubled in size we are committed to continuing to make meaningful changes to improve the experience for clients in order to achieve their property ambitions through Together’s fast and flexible commercial finance products.”