Glenhawk, the fast-growing UK challenger lender, announces that it has strengthened its senior team with the appointments of Damani Johnson as Chief Operating Officer and Nick Hilton as Managing Director. These appointments are an important part of Glenhawk’s plans for the continued growth of its business as it targets half a billion pounds of lending by 2022. They follow the announcement in December that Glenhawk had agreed to a £25 million funding line with Balbec Capital, the global private investment firm.
Formerly Glenhawk’s Head of Compliance, in his new role as Chief Operating Officer Damani Johnson will oversee the implementation of the group’s business strategy alongside managing day to day operations, including leading the development of people, systems and processes frameworks in order to support Glenhawk’s growing headcount. Damani joined Glenhawk in 2018 soon after its launch and has over 15 years of experience in the short-term finance industry.
Nick Hilton has been promoted to Managing Director. Since 2008, Nick has been responsible for lending over £650 million of residential and commercial bridging finance. He joined Glenhawk at the end of 2017 ahead of its launch and, alongside CEO Guy Harrington, has been instrumental in the growth of the business. In his new role he will continue to support Guy in devising and implementing the corporate strategy, including the launch of new products, building on his previous role at Glenhawk, where as Director of Lending, he oversaw all aspects of the lending programme.
Glenhawk has seen exceptional demand for its short-term lending products since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. It enjoyed a record second half of 2020, generating nearly £800 million of new loan enquiries, as favorable government stimulus, including the stamp duty holiday, alongside the ongoing retrenchment of high street banks from the sector, underpinned borrower interest. Following a strong end to 2020, with over £30 million of lending originated in Q4, Glenhawk has now lent over £150 million across 213 loans with a Gross Asset Value of over £275 million since launching in 2018. To support this growth, Glenhawk has continued to invest in new talent, with 14 new hires made in 2020, leading to a 35% increase in the size of the team, of which c. 55% are women.
Guy Harrington, CEO of Glenhawk, commented: “2020 was a landmark year for Glenhawk, which included securing two institutional funding lines and launching our first regulated product, demonstrating our increasing sophistication and maturity as a business, with both Damani and Nick critical to this success. Nick’s market leading understanding of the short term finance space has been key to understanding the needs our borrowers and the evolution of our offering, whilst Damani has ensured that the business is aligned with the needs of our funding partners. These promotions will help us to continue delivering excellent client service, and as the vaccine roll out gathers pace, we expect both homeowner and professional investor activity to continually pick up, which will support our ambitious 2021 lending target.”
Damani Johnson, Chief Operating Officer, added: “As the non-bank lending sector continues to mature, we have focused on ensuring Glenhawk is leading the way in both the implementation of institutional style systems and processes whilst ensuring that we provide the optimum environment for our growing team to continue excelling.”
Nick Hilton, Managing Director, commented: “Demand for fast and flexible short term lending solutions continues to trend upwards, and with our institutional backing and growing team, we are well positioned to meet the needs of borrowers who continue to prioritise certainty of funding and deep sector expertise.”
