West One Loans is embarking on a major recruitment drive as part of plans to make significant market share gains in both the residential and second charge markets.

The company has created two new senior positions under managing director of residential mortgages and second charges Marie Grundy (pictured).

Grundy remains responsible for driving the overall strategy for both residential and second charge lending but will be supported in the day-to-day running of both divisions by Pauline Rylands and Paul Huxter.

Rylands, previously national sales manager, has been appointed head of specialist distribution and will provide dedicated resource and support to packaging partners across both residential mortgages and second charges.

The lender is also in the process of recruiting several key account managers to help Rylands deepen relationships with key packagers.

Broker support manager Lizzie Fonsecca and her team will continue to support Rylands and will gain additional resource as part of the lender’s expansion plans.

Huxter, previously head of clubs & networks, becomes head of intermediary sales & distribution, and will oversee a newly created field sales team, which the lender is currently recruiting for.

In his new role, he will continue to manage West One’s club and network partnerships but will also now take responsibility for residential mortgage club and network broker firms.

To support him, West One plans to recruit several new regional account managers as well as increasing the number of telephone business development managers to support the field-based team.

The first recruit, David Venn, previously national account manager at Tanem Bank, joined this week as regional account manager for the South East. He will work alongside national account manager, Steve Mannakee.

Commenting on the expansion plans Grundy said: “This is an exciting new chapter in our ambition to drive exponential growth in both our residential mortgage and second charge business.

“The past 18 months have provided us with a fantastic opportunity to learn and test our residential mortgage proposition and now the time is right to put the pedal down.”

She added: “Over that time we have been working closely with our brokers to understand their priorities and their needs and now we feel we are in a position to ramp up our offering in this area. To do that, we need to grow, which is why we have embarked on such a major recruitment drive.”