What is the primary function of your job and have your previous roles helped you to better perform in your current position?

As head of business development — mortgages at Iress my main objective is to identify and generate opportunities for lenders to create efficiencies through the adoption of our mortgage sales and originations platform, MSO.

Without doubt my previous lender roles help me appreciate the challenges lenders face and how they can be addressed.

Ideally, I would bring all the property risk and legal/conveyancing elements to the front of the process, using big data sources and contemporary technology

How did Iress, and you personally, adjust to remote working during the pandemic?

We’ve used Zoom and other remote technology at Iress for some time, so adjusting to a remote working environment was relatively straightforward.

As a global organisation, Iress has been fantastic at providing support to everyone across the business while we all adapt to new ways of working. Iress regularly offers lots of health and wellbeing tips and support.

My previous lender roles help me appreciate the challenges lenders face and how they can be addressed

From a personal perspective, my role is home based, so the adjustment hasn’t been too disruptive, albeit I have missed being out and about meeting clients.

The latest Iress Mortgage Efficiency Survey shows that lenders are relying more on brokers to distribute their products. Why do you think that is?

The fallout of the pandemic means mortgage borrowers need advice more than ever. Greater reliance on brokers allows lenders to control volumes, manage risk appetite and meet service level expectations.

Most objectives and plans fail because they’re never followed through or checked or replanned. I learned this lesson the hard way

All these key metrics have come under significant pressure during the increased volumes of the last 12 months and lenders have worked closely with their broker partners to meet consumer demand.

Has lender technology improved significantly since the Iress survey was first carried out 10 years ago?

It has definitely improved over the past 10 years. However, much frustration remains regarding the pace of change, and whether the UK regulatory and legislative environments offer the capacity for true innovation.

While broker portals, document upload, electronic ID&V, real-time case tracking, AVMs, e-CoTs and digital signatures have become more prevalent (much of this driven by the pandemic), arguably the end-to-end process remains the same today as it did 10, or even 20, years ago.

Greater reliance on brokers allows lenders to control volumes, manage risk appetite and meet service level expectation

We’ve digitised aspects of the mortgage journey and we’ve created efficiencies in some areas, but there’s so much more that could and should be done.

We’re starting to see a more ‘connected’ experience across the value chain. More broker CRMs, sourcing systems, surveyors, conveyancers and lender platforms are passing data to each other, allowing for a smoother journey and reducing the need to re-key information.

What’s the most important lesson you have learned in your career?

A great team I worked in some years ago extolled the virtues of ‘Why, how and follow up’. Whether in business or personal life, understanding ‘why’ something needs or has to be done and ‘how’ it can be done is essential, but the most vital part is ‘follow up’.

Neil Armstrong was a true inspiration

Most objectives and plans fail because they’re never followed through or checked or replanned. I learned this lesson the hard way.

If there was one thing you could change about the mortgage industry, what would it be?

I would bring all the property risk and legal/conveyancing elements to the front of the process, using big data sources and contemporary technology, to provide greater certainty earlier and a more palatable experience for everyone.

What is your favourite work memory?

Unquestionably it has to be the afternoon I spent with the first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong, in Barcelona. I was fortunate to attend a conference where he spoke and then a handful of us spent the afternoon chatting with him. He was a true inspiration.

If you could do any other job, what would it be?

As hard and exhausting as I know it is, I’ve always dreamed of being a chef.