The team
Seneca Bridging has built a strong reputation in the property finance sector. Our team brings together decades of proven hands-on capability in property, construction, finance and underwriting. Excellent service and transparency throughout can be expected when working with our personable and talented professionals.
“Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by a team of people” – Steve Jobs
New business
Chris Roscoe
Chris started his banking career on the high street for Nat West. Over his three-year tenure with the bank, he learnt the foundations of credit and underwriting with a wide variety of customers. He joined Mayfair Bridging in 2014 in a business development role. Shortly after his arrival, Mayfair was acquired by Amicus which enabled Chris to tap into his new employer’s wider network and develop productive relationships with brokers around the country.
Chris spent 3 years at Amicus before joining Seneca. He brings both business development and credit assessment experience to the role, allowing him to give introducers a very quick and robust verdict on a loan’s viability.
Sharon Catterall
Sharon joins us with 30 years of experience in banking and property finance. Sharon spent over 20 years with RBS, rising to become the bank’s Associate Director, NW, for Real Estate Finance. She was invited to set up Flourish Capital on behalf of a well-known family office. Sharon ran the widely-respected lender for 8 years before leaving in 2016 to set up her own businesses, which continue to prosper.
Sharon joins us with a clear mandate; to create an industry-leading borrower experience through refining processes and procedures right across our operation and improving the depth and quality of our proposition.
Rick Davey
Rick joined Seneca in late 2022 with over 20 years of experience in banking and property finance. Prior to joining Seneca, Rick had spent over 3 years as a senior decision maker and business development manager for The Bridging Group in London.
Prior to The Bridging Group, Rick was a business development manager at Abbey/Santander for 10 years and he then went on to develop his career further at Together Money where he focused on commercial lending.
Rick, who is well-known in the short-term property finance space, is relationship-driven and brings his passion for business development and underwriting experience to his role at Seneca.
Operations
Richard Manley
Richard holds a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics from the University of Birmingham and qualified as a chartered accountant with KPMG in 2003. He worked for KPMG for over 5 years, initially in their audit business and latterly in their corporate recovery division working on financial and operational restructurings and formal insolvencies.
In 2007, Richard joined NM Rothschild’s leveraged finance team in Manchester before joining Cenkos Fund Managers in June 2008. During his time with Cenkos Fund Managers, manager of the £60m pre-IPO investment fund RRF Ltd, Richard gained extensive experience of flotations, fundraisings, mergers, acquisitions and restructurings.
Richard is the Managing Partner of Seneca Bridging’s sister company, Seneca Partners and a member of the Investment and Credit Committees.
Mark Hopton
Mark qualified as a chartered accountant with KPMG in 1991.Mark gained extensive experience of corporate finance, restructurings and an AIM flotation in his roles as Head of Finance at Raytheon Corporate Jets and as Finance Director of FADS Group.
Mark joined Cenkos Fund Managers in 2009 as an Investment Manager and further enhanced his experience of fundraisings, mergers, acquisitions and restructurings during his three years with the company.
Mark joined Seneca in 2011 to assist in the management of our investee companies and lending activities. He provides invaluable financial management, analysis and reporting both internally and as an outsourced client service.
Tim Murphy
Tim commenced his finance career with Barclays in 1983 where he fulfilled various corporate and credit roles before joining County NatWest in 1990 where he held a number of positions in structured and acquisition finance.In 1993, Tim joined the Royal Bank of Scotland’s fledgling Acquisition Finance business, initially establishing the Leeds office. He was subsequently responsible for all UK regional teams and in 2002, he founded RBS Corporate & Structured Finance. As Joint Managing Director, he had overall responsibility for the national mid-cap structured finance business, whilst also being a member of the Royal Bank of Scotland’s Corporate Credit Committee.
In 2005, Tim was hired by Deloitte, Manchester, as a corporate finance partner with the remit to establish the National Debt Advisory business, advising on capital raising and stressed debt refinancing.
After a successful spell, he joined HBOS as UK Managing Director, Large Corporates in 2008.
Tim joined Seneca from NorthEdge Capital, where he was a founding partner of the business, established to focus on stressed corporate opportunities.
Aziz Shan
Aziz joined Seneca in 2013 as part of the banking advisory team where he supported SMEs on their interest rate hedging products litigation. Drawing on his legal and finance experience, Aziz transitioned to the Bridging business in 2015 with a special focus on deal execution and portfolio management.
As Legal Director, Aziz leads the growing operations team to ensure that Seneca’s portfolio is performing and Seneca delivers an excellent service to all of its clients. In doing so, Aziz oversees and supports colleagues on all new lending and portfolio management activities and where necessary handles Seneca’s enforcement actions.
More broadly, Aziz also works closely with Seneca’s credit committee and the board of directors.
Laura Govan
Laura joined the operations team in 2017 where she primarily focused on the progression of credit approved deals and managed Seneca’s panel of professionals in order to ensure that both clients and brokers alike receive an excellent level of service.
In more recent years, Laura has focused her time on maintaining close working relationships with our portfolio borrowers so that an efficient and complete service can be provided to our clients on their periodic borrowing needs throughout the construction phase of projects. In order to do so, Laura works closely with Seneca’s credit committee and the quantity surveyors and other professionals appointed by Seneca on the various projects we fund.
More generally, Laura works with all clients to deliver an efficient redemption process across Seneca’s portfolio and to ensure that developers are keen to work with us in the future.
Lauren Taylor
Lauren joined Seneca’s operations team in 2022 after graduating from the University of Liverpool with a First in Law (LL.B).
Lauren dedicates most of her time ensuring that all new lending transactions are progressed quickly and that issues are identified and resolved early. Lauren works closely with Seneca’s panel lawyers, colleagues and brokers where appropriate to ensure that deals are executed efficiently.
Lauren also reviews the lending opportunities approved by Seneca’s credit committee so that she is well-positioned to liaise with, guide and instruct the relevant professionals involved in each deal. Lauren also supports Laura on certain portfolio management activities.
If you require a flexible and personable lender who will work to bring your clients’ plans to life:
Call Us: 01942 295 982
Email Us: enquiries@senecabridging.co.uk
