Twenty-five years on, BDM is still cutting a dash in the profession
When Paula Storey (pictured) came into the financial services sector 25 years ago, she was striking a blow for women, who were fewer in number, in a male-dominated industry.
Now, Storey’s doing the same again, for senior industry professionals, whom she believes bring a wealth of experience to the table – particularly in bridging, the sector she works in today, which is frequented by a lot of younger personnel.
“I think the reason why I do particularly well,” Storey told Mortgage Introducer. “I have been in this game for 20-odd years, I am a homeowner, my kids are grown up now, I've had to juggle the work-life balance, but I've got life experience. Some younger people in this industry are finding their way and learning, perhaps a little bit more green - everyone's got to start somewhere.”
Storey’s path into mortgages was somewhat unconventional. “I wanted a company car!” she laughed, explaining the reason why she switched from working for a pharmaceutical company to Barclays life business. “I went through the recruitment process,” she recalled. “I think there were about 40 openings for newbies if you like, and there was about 150 candidates. So I went through the process, I got one of the positions and, in my first year of financial advising at Barclays, I was in the top 50 financial advisers of 400 in the country at that time. I loved the world of finance and finding those gaps which people had in their protection needs and finding solutions for them, and recommending what they should have, based on affordability, and then I carried it over into what I do now.”
Read more: 'Becoming a mortgage broker was an eye opener – it's not an easy job'
How much is there a level playing field for women in mortgages now?
Today, Storey is a business development manager for London-based Lakeshield, which lends to property developers and entrepreneurs, with loans of up to £15 million.
Though the industry is becoming more of a level playing field for women, she acknowledges that it still inhabits greater numbers of men. “If you're going to come into the industry, it's quite male dominated, and I knew that from the beginning,” Strorey said. “It is still heavily weighted towards men. I've never worked in an environment in specialist lending or finance, where I felt that I was looked at as being different or there were sexist comments against me, no - I never experienced it. I can stand up with the rest of them. I enjoy chatting with the guys about football.”
Things are changing though and she reeled off the names of women holding top managerial positions. “I keep very well informed on LinkedIn and so forth - these women are building teams, they're my generation, my age,” she said. “They're not youngsters. You know, I'm 50 in September, so I'm not a spring chicken anymore, but I've done this for a long time, including six years in bridging. I've got a lot of broker connections, I've got a big presence on LinkedIn, I've got a lot of people I speak to who are regular introducers to me. More and more women are doing this. There is a place for females in this industry.”
After becoming a mother, Storey took time out from the business to operate a florist business for nearly three years, and also to run a picture framing venture for almost four years, before returning to the industry and eventually taking up her bridging role. “We're often brought inquiries which are not standard stuff – for example, someone wanting to buy a closed down church to convert it into a residence, which mainstream lenders would never lend on. It's really interesting,” she said. “I love finance, I love numbers, I love talking about it. I won't do anything else, I won't change career now.”
