It hires a consultant to its corporate team too
Specialist lender Together has appointed financial services executive John Barker (pictured) as the group’s chief operating officer (COO).
Barker has a wealth of experience in financial services, in particular, leading operations, information technology (IT), and change. He started his career with Co-op Insurance more than 17 years ago and later joined Capita, where he worked for more than a decade, becoming a managing director within the group in 2019.
He then worked for business transformation provider Target Group as group COO before he was promoted to chief executive officer, a position in which he was appointed by the Financial Conduct Authority to hold a senior management function.
At Together, Barker will take responsibility for operations across the Cheadle-based business, which provides personal and commercial secured finance and has recently priced its eighth residential mortgage backed securitisation.
🤝 We’re pleased to announce our executive team is growing by appointing experienced financial services leader John Barker as our Group Chief Operating Officer.
— Together (@Together_Money) June 30, 2023
💼 John has a wealth of experience in financial services, in particular, leading operations, IT and change, and will… pic.twitter.com/vIzTJ4IL9B
“I’m really passionate about purpose-led leadership and responsible lending, and Together’s common sense approach and its dedication to providing flexible products is something that has appealed to me for a long time,” Barker said.
“One of my first major tasks will be looking into the digital customer journey, so that we can cater for all our customers, no matter what route they want to take to communicate with us. Some may want to self-serve through our app, while others may want to have a telephone conversation, so it is about offering that choice.”
Barker added that he will create a more “user friendly IT experience” to engage Together colleagues, so they can deliver an even more streamlined service for personal and commercial finance clients.
“I’m a huge advocate for engagement and increasing job satisfaction for my colleagues at Together, which is highly-regarded in the financial services sector for its amazing work in this area,” he said. “I want to build on the pride that they already have in providing excellent customer service – to achieve our ambition of becoming the UK’s most valued specialist lender.”
Barker’s appointment is the latest in several new senior hires and promotions by Together, in line with the company’s continued growth plans.
The specialist mortgage lender has also just hired Richard Topliss, the former managing director of corporate banking in the north for NatWest, as a consultant to its corporate team.
Topliss, who has more than four decades of banking experience, joined the 50-year-old business at the beginning of the month.
Together announced in its latest results for the quarter ending March 31 that its lending had grown to £6.2 billion. The group saw an increase of 29.1% on the same period for the previous year, and up 4.6% on the previous quarter. Its average monthly lending was £211.7 million and its underlying profit before tax was £41.3 million.
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