Meet the team

There are great opportunities in the highly competitive property market, but when you are seeking finance, you need a responsive service from people that understand the sector, see the value you see and can make decisions fast. Assembling a team of specialists, experienced in every aspect of the property market, not only allows us to make all our lending decisions in-house, but ensures we work with you, to find ways to lend, not reasons to turn you down.

Chris Buttle

Lending Manager

Chris is a familiar face amongst the South Wales business community, having spent more than 35 years in a variety of roles with HSBC bank across the region. He covers the South and West regions for SPF Bridging and I based in our busy Cardiff office.

Chris assesses and approves short-term property finance applications within our approved lending mandate. He is very positive by nature and combines an unrivalled understanding of bridging finance with a pro-active attitude to underwriting, which ensures we always make informed lending decisions, as quickly as possible.

As a family man Chris likes to spend time with his 4 children. He is an avid Wales and long-suffering Ospreys rugby supporter and, many moons ago, was fortunate enough to have played in the centre with ex Wales and British and Irish Lions centre Allan Bateman.

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Nazmin Choudhary

Client Relationship Executive

Nazmin is a highly successful individual with a vast range of banking experience. Exposure to extensive banking involvement within Retail Banking, Business Banking and the Insurance sectors have enabled her to grasp a thorough and detailed knowledge of the world of Banking and Finance.

She has developed a reputation for the strong client relationships she establishes and her ability to plan, analyse, pay attention to detail, organise and adapt to situations in highly pressurised environments, whilst remaining confident, good humoured and professional.

Nazmin works within the Lending Team and she is responsible for managing the pipeline of cases through to completion ensuring both company service standards and the regulatory requirements are adhered to throughout the process.

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Alan Coats

Lending Manager (Scotland)

Alan heads up our business north of the border as Lending Manager, Scotland. He is well known on the east coast, having been an Area Director for the Bank of Scotland in a previous role, with a clear understanding of where the main property hotspots are and the funding needs of property developers.

A highly regarded senior management professional with over 30 years’ industry experience, he is renowned for his attention to detail and uncanny ability to work with clients and key stakeholders to deliver bridging, refurbishment, and development lending to the Scottish market.

Our business in Scotland has gone from strength to strength since our launch in the summer of 2019 and Alan’s ability to structure funding solutions for clients to meet their needs and to build strong relationships with brokers, clients and professionals have been key to this growth.

Away from the office, Alan enjoys a spot of fly fishing on the rivers and lochs of Scotland.

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Tony Gilbertson BSc (Hons)

CEO

Tony is an experienced financier, with over 30 years’ experience of the property finance market. He worked for a major high street bank holding several lending roles in a managerial capacity, including as a regional underwriter, concentrating predominately on real estate lending.

He also has many subsequent years practical experience as both a property developer and commercial finance broker. His claim to fame is having had the privilege to have played rugby, admittedly many decades ago, alongside the best outside half of the 20th century.

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David Hughes

Finance Director

David is a well-rounded, commercially strong Chartered Accountant with a legal background. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to this role and will help guide the strategic development of our business. His main goal though, is to ensure we have the necessary internal controls and reporting procedures in place to cope with our growth.

David has a strong history of managing the finance function, working with owner managed SME’s to large multinational PLCs. He has great experience of both the fine detail and big picture thinking required by modern short-term lenders like Signature.

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Trevor Melly

Lending Manager

Trevor brings a wealth of banking and property finance experience to the role of Lending Manager. He’s previously been a Mortgage Underwriter with Bank of Ireland and an Account Relationship Manager in the Corporate Real Estate Team at Mizrahi Tefahot Bank.

Trevor is responsible for assessing and approving property finance applications within our approved lending mandate. He combines strong analytical skills with sound judgement and a pragmatic approach to underwriting to ensure we always make informed lending decisions, in the shortest time possible.

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Andy Neocleous

Relationship Manager

Andy has been part of the Relationship Management team for a couple of years, combining years of experience as a Commercial Portfolio Manager for NatWest with more recent expertise in bridging and development finance in the P2P sector. His easy-going and confident manner helps build strong relationships with our clients.

Already in possession of a Business Management degree, Andy is in the process of becoming CeMAP qualified, which will allow him to practice as a ‘licensed’ adviser. Andy covers the London and South regions for SPF Bridging where he has an extensive network of contacts.

Andy is currently based out of Southampton, making it a perfect location to cover the southern region. A keen football fan, Andy has been a lifelong Arsenal supporter (which has taken its toll on him in recent years). Andy also enjoys being active and playing golf when the weather permits.

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Bob Stones

Relationship Manager

Bob is a well-known figure within the industry in the East of England area which he covers for SPF Bridging. He spent 27 years in the region as a Real Estate Finance Manager for NatWest and 5 years as a Relationship Manager for Together, with extensive experience working with house builders, commercial developers, residential and commercial property investors, and individual buy-to-let landlords.

He will work closely with brokers and intermediaries to tailor short-term property finance solutions to suit the individual needs of their clients and is always happy to make site visits across Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, and the North East, to get a true understanding of investment and development potential.

In his spare time, Bob is a keen pianist and particularly fond of boogie-woogie and old-time music hall busking. His long-term ambition is to buy some land in Lapland and build his own log cabin to view the Northern Lights from.

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Stephen Todd

VAS In-House Surveyor

Stephen is a chartered surveyor and a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. A former Director of Jones Lang LaSalle in Manchester, he is a registered valuer with a wealth of experience at all levels in the property market.

Stephen is renowned for his ability to carry out valuation auditing and provide advice to our lending team, on all property types and sectors across the UK, identifying property specific valuation. His experience provides an important additional level of protection with regard to our management of risk.

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Paul Tromans

National Development Manager, Relationship Manager (Midlands)

Paul is our National Sales Director and is based in the Midlands. What he doesn’t know about lending money to buy and develop property is not really worth knowing. He has more than 30 years’ lending experience after a long career in management positions with UK and International Banks, together with other short-term property finance businesses.

As the head of the UK sales team, his roles is to connect with those developers across the UK seeking ground-up development finance. He’ll also be connecting with property developers, investors and finance brokers to ensure they understand our low bridging rates, fast decisions and high-quality customer service.

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Michelle Walsh

Relationship Manager

Michelle has been in the financial industry for over 18 years and has specialised in the property sector for almost 15 of those. Michelle has carried out a variety of roles in high street and specialist lending; from customer facing to back office operations, and from risk and compliance to technology and change.

A varied toolkit of experience in the industry and an extensive network of contacts proves beneficial to the clients and brokers that Michelle works with in the South Wales and the South West regions which she covers for SPD Bridging. If Michelle cannot directly help with their specific financial needs, she will always do her utmost to connect them to a contact who can, as she is passionate about helping her clients and brokers achieve their property goals.

Michelle is known as a jack of all trades outside of work. She is self-taught in electrics, plumbing, carpentry and even hairdressing! When she does not have any DIY to do around the house, she is often found either painting a new canvas or being slightly too competitive when playing computer and board games with her 3 children.

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Nazia Yaqub

Relationship Manager

With more than 14 years’ experience in various banking roles, including leading a team as an assistant branch manager on the high street, Nazia possesses extensive finance sector experience. Nazia works within the core of our business which is our Lending Team, ensuring a smooth and efficient process from enquiry to completion.

She understands the importance of schedules and deadlines for all our customers, irrespective of loan size. Nazia is passionate about customer service and liaises with brokers and clients daily, understanding each client’s needs whilst strengthening our commitment to delivering excellent customer service.

In her spare time when Nazia is not working she is probably reading/writing or watching documentaries. She also enjoys spending quality time with her family and friends.

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