Stonebridge announces new appointments at AR Update Conferences

27 November 2020

Stonebridge, the mortgage and insurance network, has announced a number of new appointments to the business during its AR Update Conferences which took place this week.

Recent new joiners as employees of the network include: Mark Cundy (Learning & Development Manager), Michelle Brailsford (Marketing Manager), Dawn Bradshaw (Business Development Manager), Jackie Pease (Quality & Risk Assessor), and Kirsty Gratton (Business Standards Associate).

Dawn Collins has also moved internally to head up the Recruitment and Onboarding department.

Stonebridge ARs attended one of the three conferences, held on consecutive days this week, in place of the firm’s regional Autumn events usually held in Leeds, Milton Keynes and Gatwick.

There were presentations from all of Stonebridge’s management team covering: market insight; network results; AR business support; Senior Managers & Certification Regime; and key developments in Stonebridge’s wholly-owned platform, Revolution.

Stonebridge ARs were provided with a year-to-date business update. The network again processed over £1 billion worth of mortgage applications during October, up 12% year-on-year.

The network’s total adviser headcount had also risen during the month from 733 to 754, a 10% net increase in adviser numbers in 2020 to date. Stonebridge said that it was pleasing to see organic growth from its member firms as during the year 81 new advisers have been added to existing AR firms.

The network also outlined the significant investment in many new roles created in 2019 and 2020 around the business including compliance, business development and AR support functions.

Rob Clifford, Chief Executive of Stonebridge, commented:

“As we grow our network, we continue to add quality members of staff to the central team and it’s great that we were able to update our AR firms about a series of appointments at this week’s virtual events. In key areas such as Business Standards, Marketing and Recruitment we’ve brought many new people on board who will be at the forefront in helping ARs grow and develop.

“While we have missed seeing our AR firms face-to-face in recent months, these events were well-attended, and we can certainly say we reduced our carbon footprint by holding them online.

“We were able to update our ARs on our views on 2020 and 2021 market outlook, what we are doing to support them and to highlight some of the issues that may be coming across their desks in their future. It is all about putting our member firms in the best place possible to deal with both current and future business levels, changes in the regulatory regime, and to help them develop in order to meet future challenges.”