Shojin expands team to support global growth
Shojin has unveiled six new hires as part of its continued international growth strategy.
Hugo Smyly has joined as associate director in investor relations. Smyly has more than 10 years of experience in direct lending and will utilise his prior experience to grow the investor base and evolve the management of Shojin’s investor networks globally.
James Hall will lead the newly formed portfolio management team, focusing on digitising the lending functions, report automation, process optimisation, and bringing efficiencies across the organisation.
Hall has held prominent roles in mortgage banking, investment sales, portfolio management and operations.
Read more: Shojin reduces investment threshold to £1,000
Also among the appointments announced today are Jacky Chan, a finance professional with 15 years of global real estate experience. He is working closely with Shojin’s family office and institutional investor clients.
Chan has advised investors in more than US$4bn of transactions over his career across both private and public capital markets. Prior to joining Shojin, he was head of real estate at an investment bank, having also worked for Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, a major Hong Kong family office and a private equity firm.
Kirat Dhillon is responsible for managing private clients, and raising capital from Shojin’s family office, institutional investor clients, banks and non-bank lenders.
Thanuja Yogarajan’s career started with four years of experience as an assistant management accountant in the retail, hospitality and construction industry. She covers monthly accounts preparation, alongside adding her expertise into the daily finance and investor reporting, as well as the audit pack preparation.
Read more: Shojin chief Ondhia open to trade sale or strategic investor
Finally, following a long corporate career as a strategic retail planner, Meenal Shah will provide support to the chief executive Jatin Ondhia.
“We’re delighted to welcome Kirat, Jacky, Thanuja, Hugo, Meenal and James to the Shojin team,” Ondhia said. “They have already had a fundamental impact on the business since recently joining in their respective roles, helping Shojin to expand in all directions as we continue to pursue ambitious growth targets in the months and years to come following our Series B raise.
“This is an exciting time of growth and internationalisation for Shojin. The added skills and expertise of our new key hires will add great depth to our offering, helping us reach our vision of making real estate investment accessible to everyone.”
