Management team

David Whittaker, Managing Director
Tel: 01732 471601

Trained as a civil engineer at Sheffield University and with 10 years as an officer in the Royal Engineers, David joined John Charcol in 1987. He founded Mortgages for Business in 1990 and has twice been President of the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers (1994 and 2001), the trade body that promotes best practice and self regulation in the commercial finance industry. With three other brokers he founded UKCFG (United Kingdom Commercial Funding Group) in 1997 to design wholesale Buy to Let and Commercial Mortgage schemes. 

In January 2007 he launched Keystone Mortgages (in a joint venture with Wilky Group) - a wholesale funded BTL mortgage company that funded some £200M of mortgages before withdrawing from the market in December 2008. At the Business Moneyfacts Awards on 26 March 2009, David’s work within the mortgage industry was recognised by a Lifetime Achievement Award presented by renowned presenter Sandy Toksvig.

Simon Whittaker, Finance Director
Tel: 01732 471622

Qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse and subsequently moved to BDO Stoy Hayward where he became a partner in the Corporate Finance Department. He left to take on a role as finance director of a printing business and has subsequently been finance director of a television production company and a medical equipment supply company. He moved to Mortgages for Business from a specialist consultancy business where he was director in charge of Mergers and Acquisitions. In the last five years he has also undertaken various consultancy projects advising overseas state broadcasting companies on financial systems and reporting.

Steve Olejnik, Head of Sales
Tel: 01732 471612

Steve worked at the Woolwich for 2 years as a Mortgage Adviser and Independent Financial Adviser, before joining Mortgages for Business in February 2002. Previously, Steve was employed by Natwest Bank for 12 years and covered all aspects of retail banking and lending. Steve's professional qualifications include the Financial Planning Certificate (FPC), Certificate of Mortgage Advice and Practice (CeMAP) and the NACFB's Diploma in Commercial Finance.

Nick Blunt, Head of Business Partner Development
Tel: 01732 471618
 

Nick joined Mortgages for Business in July 2004 bringing with him over 12 years of Financial Services experience gained from Nationwide and then Charcol, in a variety of processing and managerial positions. Having managed the Customer Service team at Mortgages for Business for just over 3 years, Nick was promoted to head up the new Business Partner proposition full time in January 2008. Nick has overall responsibility for our Business Partner proposition, and working with all of our Business Partners and his enthusiastic team, he is tasked in creating a continually evolving proposition that constantly adds value to our Business Partners.

Michael Carpenter, Financial Controller
Tel: 01732 471603

Michael has worked in various sectors, predominately within Banking and Financial Services, but also within Logistics, Distribution and Global Service delivery. For many years he followed a career in project management, including a period with IBM Global Services, and finally IT Management. With IT Departments normally controlled by the Finance Department, Michaels career bucked the trend when he became responsible for managing the Finance Department within an international based company (whilst he was the IT Manager).

This has led Michael to pursue Finance as his career aim (whilst still involved with IT and Project management), and has now been the Finance Manager / Financial Controller at Mortgages for Business since June 2004.
 

Jenny Barrett, Marketing Manager
Tel: 01732 471615

Jenny has 20 years of business and marketing experience across a broad range of industry sectors including financial services, software, publishing and training. Between 2004 and 2010 Jenny took a career break to start a family but she also found time to buy, renovate, open and subsequently sell Hastings' top five star B&B! Before this she spent a number of years as Operations Director at Complinet, the leading supplier of risk-based compliance information and technology solutions to financial institutions globally.

Jenny joined Mortgages for Business in August 2010 and as well as developing marketing strategy, Jenny is responsible for the day-to-day marketing activity at Mortgages for Business. It is her job to keep us in the news and attract new clients.