Luke’s career in the world of finance began when he joined Woolwich/ Barclays in 2005 at the age of 19 as a customer service agent within a year became a mortgage specialist and gained CeMAP 1,2 and 3. After 9 years with Barclays, Luke left to work for Pure Commercial finance (now Pure Property Finance) in 2014.
Post-recession the specialist property finance sector was growing as people looked for alternatives and more options for their projects. This intrigued Luke and presented a new challenge, especially as a new broker looking to establish themselves. He quickly realised this was the sector for him and describes every day as “Being completely different with a weird and wonderful section of deals and securities that certainly kept you on your toes”. Pure quickly became established as one of the ‘go to’ brokers, under the stewardship of Luke as ‘head of specialist property finance’ and was recognised with a number of awards including at the prestigious and industry leading Bridging and Commercial Awards: ‘best bridging broker’, ‘best development broker’ and finally ‘best commercial broker’.
One of Luke’s core strengths is speed, which is a key requirement for bridging related deals. He quickly identifies the key points in a deal which allows him to package appropriately; he is also quick to highlight any issues up front and provide mitigants, to ensure everyone is comfortable with the deal. Being able to react quickly and communicate effectively to minimise any hold ups is essential as only a few hours are available in which to get everything in place for the next stage of the application in some cases. Another of Luke’s key strengths is attention to detail, which may seem at odds with working quickly but that is the real skill of specialist finance – combining the best of both worlds makes the best packaging broker.
When he isn’t working, Luke’s hobbies are most sport, he enjoys watching Welsh rugby and he also supports Manchester United.