Plend appoints head of impact and adds new growth advisor
Plend has named Alice Tapper as head of impact, and onboarded James Southon as a growth adviser, as the consumer lender continues to scale up.
Financial inclusion campaigner Tapper initially joined Plend as a strategic adviser in November 2021. In her new role, she will be a permanent member of staff and a member of the Plend board.
Her responsibilities include focusing on financial inclusion, B Corp and responsible lending policies, as well as furthering Plend’s impact initiatives. This includes licensing out the Plend Score technology to non-profit lenders and CDFIs.
Earlier this year, Plend partnered with ethical lender Lendology to improve financial inclusion for homeowners across the South West of England.
The partnership will see Lendology use the open-banking powered Plend Score to serve more people and ensure fairer lending outcomes.
Meanwhile, Southon has joined Plend as a new investor and advisor to the peer-to-peer lending platform. He is a co-founder and former chief operations officer at Oodle Car Finance.
“James brings a wealth of experience in growing and executing a lending operation at scale,” said Rob Pasco, chief executive of Plend.
“His focus will be supporting our operational growth plans and advising the senior team.
Plend has been in scale-up mode in recent months, making a series of new hires. Earlier this month, the platform hired Sutherland Boyd as head of operations.
Last year, Plend bolstered its team with an array of new hires including Crowdcube co-founder Luke Lang as executive chair, RateSetter’s former risk officer Kevin Allen, Sarah Davies as head of compliance and Ash Woolf as head of data analytics.
Read more: Plend chief: Skyrocketing credit demand raises ethical concerns