Rob Barnard is leaving Pepper Money to join fellow specialist lender Masthaven Bank.
It is understood that Barnard (pictured) will look after new business, with Masthaven sales director Richard Deacon taking responsibility for bridging.
Barnard has been Pepper Money’s sales director for the past two and a half years, while before that he was head of business development at Aldermore.
A Pepper Money spokesman said: "We can confirm that Rob Barnard will be leaving Pepper Money to take up a new external opportunity.
“Rob has been an excellent ambassador for Pepper and played an important role in educating brokers about how we can provide simple solutions for their interesting cases.
“He has also established a strong business development team who will continue to build on his work and support distributors and brokers in growing their business by writing more specialist mortgages.
“We thank Rob for his hard work and enthusiasm and wish him all the best in his new role."
Last week it was announced that Pepper Money chief executive Colin Snowdon will move into an advisory role at the firm in 2019.
Rob Jupp, chief executive of Brightstar, said: “While this is sad news for Pepper this is a strong appointment for Masthaven.
“It’s positive that a man of Rob’s experience is staying within the industry.”
Terry Pritchard, head of origination at Kuflink, said: “Obviously it’s a great appointment for Masthaven but could too many cooks spoil the broth?”
Masthaven’s team now includes chairman Peter Harrison, chief executive Andrew Bloom, managing director Jon Hall, director of credit and operations Alan Margolis, managing director of long-term lending Matt Andrews, managing director of short-term lending James Bloom and chief operating officer Simon Furnell.
Masthaven has been approached for comment.
