Bibby Financial Services announces new hires to boost SME funding

SME funder, Bibby Financial Services (BFS), has announced two new hires to grow its support for regional businesses throughout the North East and Yorkshire as the UK emerges from lockdown.

Joining BFS from AMG Business Consultants where he was director, Anthony Guest joins as business development manager, responsible for growing new business throughout the North East. Anthony joins BFS with more than 30 years’ commercial finance experience, including 25 years as corporate banking relationship manager at Barclays Bank and five years with Murray & Lamb Chartered Accounts where he was head of business development and commercial finance.

Rachael Symmons joins BFS as business development manager from Bluestone Leasing, and is responsible for growing new business throughout Yorkshire. Based from the funder’s Leeds office, Rachel has more than four years’ invoice finance and asset finance experience.

Commenting on the new appointments, head of UK sales, Gary Davis said: “We’ve hit the ground running in Q2 and our sales teams right across the country have continued to write strong volumes of new business in the face of a challenging market. As such, we’re delighted to welcome Anthony and Rachael to BFS to help us to maintain this positive momentum in the North East and Yorkshire. Both bring with them unique experience and skills, and will undoubtedly enable us to grow our deal numbers throughout the region, and support SMEs and their advisors.”

Commenting on his new role, Anthony said: “The chance to join a global brand like BFS doesn’t happen every day so I’m delighted to join the business and look forward to working with new and existing intermediary partners to build on the funding success BFS has had throughout the region.”

Rachael added: “BFS is a well-known brand, with a reputation for excellent client service and a real focus on colleagues so I’m delighted to join. The experience of joining BFS has been amazing and I’m now looking forward to getting out into the local business community and building my network to support more SMEs.”

Gary Davis added: “While undoubtedly government loans have been a lifeline for many businesses, SMEs are now starting to consider how they can repay these loans, on top of the added cashflow pressure of ramping up capacity as restrictions lift.

“Almost half of SMEs say they need additional funding to grow in 2021, and we have the people, experience and funding to make this happen. Rachael and Anthony are huge assets to the business and I look forward to us being able to grow our support for SMEs even further with them both on-board.”