About
Hello. We’re Redkite Lending.
Meet the team
Jake Francis
Managing Director
Jake Francis
Managing Director
Following an Economics Degree at Swansea University, Jake began his career as part of the inaugural Shawbrook Bank Graduate Program within the risk function. From here Jake transitioned to a role in the Banks central credit function, supporting in underwriting decisions and quality assurance for over £2bn of the Banks larger exposures, spread across multiple asset classes in both property and corporate lending.
In more recent years Jake was a Director in the Speciality Finance Team at Shawbrook Bank, as a key originator and relationship manager within a small team managing £1bn of exposure to financial institutions across the UK. This role gave Jake the springboard to launch into a more entrepreneurial space, and so Red Kite Lending was born!
In his spare time Jake enjoys running, boxing, and visits back to South Wales (time mainly spent in the pub).
Lee Hancock
Head of Lending
Lee Hancock
Director – Head of Lending
An experienced property professional with 17 years’ experience, Lee began his career in Stockbroking working for Charles Stanley and Co before moving into Real Estate lending with Anglo Irish Bank. Initially working in the back office function, Lee moved to the European lending desk and was a member of the team, which managed a £1bn diverse UK/European Loan Book. A short stint in Wealth Management followed where Lee was responsible for managing a portfolio of HNW clients in the UK and Ireland who had invested in a number of syndicated investment funds in the UK and US property markets.
More recently in 2017, Lee joined Shawbrook Bank as one of the founding members of a new Development Finance team set-up to offer a lending product to developers and property individuals in the UK. Lee was responsible for generating new business of £250m from a standing start and also assisting with the team set-up to include coordinating and delivery of a new system, lending policy and recruitment of additional team members and helped succeed in establishing Shawbrook’s development offering within the market, and lending more than £1 billion within 5 years since launch.
Away from work Lee is married and a father to two young children and a spaniel named Wilson. When he is not out walking the dog or involved with family life he likes to relax by playing golf and watching a variety of sport or films and going on a nice holiday.
Mark Birtwistle
Financial Controller
Mark Birtwistle
Financial Controller
Following a 5-year short service commission in the Irish Guards, Mark qualified as a Chartered Accountant in the London office of Peat Marwick Mitchell & Co, the predecessor of KPMG. Since then, he has worked mainly in company finance roles in a variety of different industries, ranging from financial services to scrap metal. From 2003 to 2007 Mark was self-employed as a Chartered Accountant in practice, before taking up a position as Head of Finance for a children’s charity in the Lake District.
Between 2004 and 2010, he studied part-time for a BSc in Life Sciences from the Open University, following which he took a 5-year career break to return to full-time education. During that period, he completed an MRes in Biomedical Research at Imperial College London and a PhD in Early Nutrition at the University of Nottingham. He then resumed his accountancy career, and since 2018 has been working as Financial Controller for a small group of companies owned by Red Kite’s lead investor. Between 2019 and 2021, having not quite satisfied the studying bug, he completed a part-time Executive MBA at Lancaster University.
Outside of work, Mark is an aviation enthusiast, and previously held a Private Pilot’s Licence with instrument rating. More recently, he learned to fly gliders while at the University of Nottingham. These days, however, he is more grounded, and spends his spare time reading, walking, working out at the gym and watching a variety of sport – principally cricket, rugby and American football.
Mark Robins
Chairman
Mark Robins
Chairman
Mark is a Chartered Management Accountant and a member of the Association Of Corporate Treasurers. He has over 30 years experience in the UK and Europe across a range of sectors including manufacturing and financial services. He was CFO of Oplo Group for 6 years prior to completing the sale of the business to form Tandem Bank in 2022. Mark has since turned his attention to NED roles where he can utilise his extensive experience at Board and operational level.
Away from work, Mark enjoys travelling, skiing and playing golf.
At Red Kite we aim to provide the most flexible and tailored approach to short term property lending. No matter how simple or complex your needs, we are always on hand to discuss how best to fund your project.
We know that your requirements won’t always fit in a neat box, but to help guide the discussion we have outlined our offering below.
What are you waiting for?
Let’s get you funded!
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