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The private lender has welcomed Darren McLeod, Finstro’s former channel manager for Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania, to its midst.
Financial services veteran Darren McLeod has joined Aquamore as the new business development manager (BDM) in Victoria, taking over the position from Deepti Alurkkar.
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Mr McLeod has more than 30 years of experience in the financial services space, having held a range of BDM and partnership manager roles in the broking space over that time.
He was most recently the channel manager for Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania at SME lender Finstro, a position he held for the past two years and has also worked at Resi Home Loans, eChoice, My Local Broker, Advantedge, and FAST over the last decade.
In his new position at Aquamore (which commenced earlier this month), Mr McLeod is tasked with extending the company’s Victorian footprint and “supporting brokers in educating in business and commercial purpose finance, identifying new opportunities, and achieving the company’s aggressive sales targets”.
He will work alongside the private lender’s Queensland and NSW BDM teams, reporting to the lender’s head of distribution, Matthew Porch.
Speaking of the new hire, Mr Porch commented: “The commercial lending landscape is evolving at an extremely rapid rate, fuelled by ongoing demand for structured business finance in correlation with a widespread restriction of credit appetite from traditional lenders in the business lending sector.
“We expect that private lending will increasingly be in the spotlight as an alternative strategy for businesses requiring flexible solutions and access to secured funds quickly. Accordingly, we’re expanding our team into key markets to support a greater network of brokers nationally.”
Mr McLeod said he looked forward to his new position, adding: “Aquamore is a good fit as an appealing strategic alternative to major bank business-commercial lending.
“My goal is to provide tailored commercial business finance that enables brokers to best meet SME expectations and requirements, while progressively extending the company’s reach in southern states.”
As well as hiring Mr McLeod, the private lender recently announced it had appointed Candice Lee as its new business development manager for NSW.
Last year, the lender also completed a $50 million raise from a global investment bank, which took its warehouse facility to $170 million.
Established in 2016, Aquamore distributes exclusively through the broker channel for its institutionally backed, property-secured commercial loans (business and property), bridging loans, and land bridging finance.
[Related: Aquamore’s warehouse boosted to $170m]
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