Executive Changes: Lowell Group Announces Senior Management Appointments in Debt Purchase

Fast growing Lowell Group, the UK’s largest debt purchasing and contingent collections group, has made four new senior management appointments within its debt purchase business.

Tony Cross has been appointed director of financial planning & analysis, a newly created role within the business. Tony will take overall responsibility for providing financial planning, analysis and insight, both within the business and externally to key stakeholders, managing a six strong team.  He joins Lowell from HSBC where he was finance business partner for their UK contact centres and First Direct.

Following a restructure of Lowell’s Pricing, Risk and MI function into two teams to create additional management capacity, John Wood has been appointed director of pricing & investments.  John will be heading up a seven-strong team responsible for developing and enhancing Lowell’s pricing models, and pricing all prospective debt portfolio acquisitions to ensure Lowell meets its goals for asset growth, capital returns and enterprise value.  Prior to joining Lowell, John spent the past 12 years with Lloyds TSB within its Financial Markets division, most recently as head of Scotland and the north of England.

John’s appointment will enable Heather Pollard, previously responsible for the pricing team, to concentrate on leading the Analytics, Risk and MI team in her capacity as Director of Risk and MI.  Heather will be focusing on enhancing the Group’s competitive advantage in data analytics by developing effort sloping models and optimisation strategies and bringing alive the concept of “big data” to maximise the value Lowell generates from its portfolios

As part of a restructure of its Legal and Compliance function, Steven Peacock has been promoted to the new role of director of audit, risk and compliance, reporting to legal & compliance director Sara de Tute.  Working alongside Sara de Tute in leading and shaping Lowell’s approach to the new regulatory regime, Steven will be responsible for the compliance, audit, quality, testing, financial crime and operational risk teams.

Robert Sharman has been appointed head of compliance, responsible for ensuring the business continues to operate in a compliant and ethical manner.  As part of his role, he will manage Lowell’s quality monitoring and complaints teams. He joins Lowell from the law firm drydensfairfax.  His previous positions include head of litigation at HSBC.

Commenting on the new appointments, Lowell Group’s chief executive officer James Cornell, said: “As our business to grows, it is imperative that our senior management team also grows so that we have the capacity to develop the business further.  We are delighted to have recruited some very talented people into the business as well as being able to recognise the talents of existing people within our team.”

Last month Lowell Group announced its third quarter results for its 2013/4 financial year, revealing significant growth across all its key financial metrics including collections, EBITDA and ERC. Prior to that in May, Lowell Group acquired one of the UK’s leading contingent collections businesses Interlaken Group, including subsidiaries Fredrickson International and SRJ.

Lowell Group is a leading provider of credit management services specialising in debt recovery, data analytics and customer insight. Comprising market leaders in debt purchaser, Lowell Financial, and contingent debt collections specialist, Interlaken (comprising Fredrickson International and SRJ), the Group is well-placed to offer advice on integrated debt management strategies across the credit arrears life cycle.