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.

Relationship Managers & Business Development Managers

Josh Barrett

Relationship Manager

Josh is the firm’s first Associate Relationship Manager, having first gained valuable experience supporting our team of Relationship Mangers. This role builds on his early experience and ensures he is well on the way to becoming a fully-fledged RM.

Josh is now tasked with generating new business by building relationships with brokers and borrowers new to the firm and visiting development sites. He manages his own deals from initial enquiry through to completion and then the critical step, redemption of funds. Essentially the same role as an RM, just with a primary focus of building up his network of key brokers, which in time will lead to a strong pipeline of deals.

Outside work, Josh enjoys watching rugby, particularly if there is the opportunity to sample a beer or two, which ensures plenty of encouragement from a Signature team that shares his passion for hops and the oval ball.

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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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Senior Team

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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Thomas Howells

Chief Operating Officer

Thomas is our Chief Operating Officer and leads our in-house legal team. He trained as a Commercial Property solicitor in a Cardiff-based niche law firm before moving to a specialist property law firm where he progressed to Partner level in their Commercial Property department.

In his previous role, Thomas was predominantly representing and advising banks in the field of secured lending in order to perfect their security for their commercial loans. He also advised many clients on their acquisitions and financing of Commercial Properties, developing unrivalled knowledge and understanding of the entire process, from the lending side through to the legal process.

Thomas is a keen golfer, but when not watching or playing sport he enjoys taxying his children from A to B to C and back home.

He once met Shane Warne when Australia played Glamorgan on tour and although he signed his autograph, Shane told Thomas to ‘go away quickly’ in ‘industrial’ language because Tom, oblivious to the on-going match, had run across the pitch in the middle of the over to secure the autograph.

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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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Andrew McGill

Operations Manager

Andrew joined Signature as Operations Manager, bringing over 15 years of leadership and team management experience in financial services. Prior to this role, he spent 13 years at Principality Building Society, where he oversaw five branches as a Cluster Manager. Andrew has a proven track record of driving operational efficiency, optimising processes, and leading high-performing teams to exceed their targets.

Andrew plays a pivotal role in ensuring smooth execution of transactions and enhancing the efficiency of our back-office operations. His leadership is key to maintaining the high-quality, client centric service Signature is known for. He is passionate about coaching and development, fostering an ambitious support team to deliver an exceptional client experience.

Andrew is passionate about sport and the great outdoors, which is hardly a surprise for someone living in Wales. When not in the office, he spends time with his family and enjoying a pint or two in his local.

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Support Team

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 Signature and is based in our busy Cardiff head 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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George Lowry

Client Relationship Executive

Originally from rural West-Wales and a fluent Welsh speaker, George moved to Cardiff to study Business Management at Cardiff Metropolitan University, enjoying the city so much he decided to stay. George’s studies and a previous role in customer service have given him a great foundation on which to build his career here at Signature.

As a member of our Lending Team, with a hands-on role supporting our Relationship Managers, he helps progress deals, undertakes searches and manages the necessary electronic documentation to support loan applications. He is focussed on mastering the lending process with the aim of progressing to become a Relationship Manager.

Having grown up on the family dairy farm, George loves the outdoor life and enjoys anything sport related, playing regularly for his local football team. Unfortunately, he is a long-suffering Manchester United fan – his words not ours!

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Sam Pescott

Client Relationship Executive

Sam recently joined our short-term property finance team as a Client Relationship Executive through our Graduate Employment scheme, having achieved a degree in Consumer Behaviour and Marketing at Reading University.

Hardworking, enthusiastic and highly motivated, Sam has spent two years working for a Cardiff-based family run property management company in a part-time capacity, which gave him valuable insight into the property industry. This experience paired with his recent education, gives him all the skills needed to support the efforts of our Relationship Managers.

Outside of work, Sam enjoys spending quality time with family and friends, whether it be watching the football, playing different sports with a competitive spirit, or staying active in the gym.

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Alexander Smith

Client Relationship Executive

Alex is a Business Management (Finance) graduate who originally joined Signature as an intern in the summer of 2023 having enjoyed it so much, he ended up spending his placement year at our head office in Cardiff.

Now graduated, Alex re-joined as a key member of our team, bringing his hardworking and enthusiastic attitude with him. Having gained experience across all departments, from Lending to Legals, he developed a strong understanding of our entire process. He now focuses primarily on Lending and Redemptions.

Away from the office Alex enjoys spending time outdoors, whether it’s hiking, climbing or open water swimming.

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Michaela Willetts

Sales Operations

Michaela helps manage the Sales Operations here at Signature, supporting our Relationship Managers and Commercial Director with timely, accurate data to keep our strategic growth plan on track.

An insightful and highly motivated individual, Michaela joined our team following more than two decades at Kellogg's, where she rose to a senior role in their European Centre of Excellence. Her ability to deploy hard-earned skills to help resolve the many challenges we face as a growing business is a major benefit for us.

When not collating and analysing data, Michaela enjoys spending quality time with her family and young daughter, whilst professing no knowledge of sport or support for any particular team. However, gardening, good food, fine wine and artisan cheese feature heavily in her downtime.

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Legal Team

Rhodri O'Reilly

Legal Director

Rhodri is our Legal Director, he provides internal legal advice to the Signature team to ensure the borrowing process is as smooth as possible from a legal perspective. He qualified as a solicitor in 2020 after training in a niche property-only law firm in Cardiff.

In his previous role, Rhodri specialised in secured lending acting for banks, bridging lenders, property developers and large-portfolio landlords. This experience has given Rhodri a pragmatic approach to the legal process as he has acted for both bank and borrower.

Outside of work, Rhodri is a huge football enthusiast and Swansea City fan. He also enjoys the occasional round of golf.

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