Birmingham Networking Tour
Starting out at the Tap & Spile, a great pub situated in the beautiful setting of Birmingham`s Gas Street Canal Basin, we met with new and familiar faces.
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Your regional team
Tom has more than 20 years' experience in debt and equity based in Birmingham including senior roles at Barclays and Lloyds Banking Group. Most recently Tom has spent three years at BGF where he supported numerous SMEs across the Midlands as a board director, making investments from £2m to £20m.
Michelle has worked with SMEs across the lower mid-market space for almost a decade and brings a wealth of experience in the financial services and business banking industry from her time working at Clydesdale Bank and more recently, Virgin Money. There she has spent the last two years as a director in acquisition leveraged finance.
Michelle plays a key role in servicing the increasing levels of demand for funding to support the growth of mid-sized SMEs across the North and Midlands, with a particular focus on supporting private equity backed businesses.
Peter has over 20 years’ senior banking experience most recently at NatWest, including a demonstrable commercial banking track record leading multi-functional teams. He has extensive complex mid-market debt finance experience leading leveraged finance and structured finance businesses and is well versed in the management of debt finance transactions from inception to completion.
The Head of Transaction Management role has been created to oversee all aspects of the execution of funding transactions through to closing, as well as managing a team of professionals to ensure transactions are processed effectively and consistently.
Brian brings over 30 years’ experience within financial services, covering roles in credit sanctioning, business development and relationship roles in corporate and commercial banking. Brian joins us from NatWest Bank where he was a Credit Manager for Commercial Credit in the Midlands South West and Wales region.
Brian works closely with the Business Development team, local advisors and businesses to help shape funding across the Midlands and South West.
Richard is passionate about supporting a sector of the economy that desperately needs better funding options. He has significant experience from both sides of healthcare, and so is very keen to support good operators in the sector who are looking to grow, but are being badly let down by traditional lenders.
Richard’s role is to raise ThinCats’ profile in the healthcare sector and lead the launch of the healthcare fund, focussing on providing lending options to residential, nursing and dementia care homes as well as the many specialist care homes in the field.
Richard comes with more than twenty years of experience across financial services and healthcare, including 13 years with RBS and AIB, and eight years with healthcare specialist brokers, Chandler & Co. Additionally, Richard has six years’ direct experience as a care home owner.
Having worked for a number of high street banks, Stuart has seen the traditional lenders limit their appetite for SME cashflow lending. With a pragmatic approach and the ability to make quick decisions, he believes that Thincats are well positioned to support an underserved SME market - Stuart particularly enjoys working with management teams to provide finance to support their business needs and growth aspirations.
Stuart works to develop relationships with key finance professionals including brokers, accountants and corporate financiers along with Private Equity, to support SMEs in their growth ambitions, covering both London and Reading.
Stuart has 11 years’ experience in banking, working with SMEs and mid-market businesses across a number of industries, most recently for RBS and Clydesdale. He has provided finance to support event driven transactions such as management buy outs, acquisitions, growth finance and refinance.
Richard Thwaite joins us from Santander where he worked in the Structured Finance and Growth Capital team, before which he worked at HSBC in Corporate Banking.
Richard is based in Cheltenham and helps drive our presence and activity in the South West and Midlands region.
Featured Client Story
Visit our Client Stories section to see how business owners and advisers describe their experiences working with ThinCats
Other Funding Stories
- Sector: Professional Services
- Funding: Growth Capital
- Loan Amount: £2.5m
- Region: Midlands
