Yorkshire Bank completes north west specialist & acquisition finance line-up with Skidmore appointment

Chartered surveyor Shaun Skidmore has been appointed a director at Yorkshire Bank's Specialist & Acquisition Finance team for the North West of England.

The recruitment of 37-year-old Shaun completes a team of experts established earlier this year by Yorkshire Bank to assist businesses in the region looking for advice and funding for corporate acquisitions. Shaun will lead Yorkshire Bank's drive into specialist market sectors such as healthcare, leisure and hotels.

Shaun joins the bank from a leading specialist chartered surveyors, valuers and agents, where he headed the Manchester office.

He said: "Yorkshire Bank certainly has high ambitions for this side of its business and I'm looking forward to helping ensure they are fulfilled by using the knowledge and expertise I have built up over a number of years serving clients in the North West."

Shaun, who lives in the Saddleworth area, is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

Working alongside him are other experts who have either been recruited from outside of the organisation or promoted in the last few months.  Roddy Kilpatrick and Ian Hardman have been promoted to their roles as directors.

Paul Hardman was recruited from Bank of Scotland, Owen Malton was previously with accountants and business advisors Tenon and Peter Smith joined from Bank of Scotland Corporate.

Heading the team is Paul Shephard, Yorkshire Bank's regional director of specialist & acquisition finance for the North West.

Paul said: "Our new team is working closely with colleagues at Yorkshire Bank financial solutions centres throughout the North West to ensure we tailor our advice and funding packages to the needs of clients making acquisitions."

The new-style financial solutions centres created by Yorkshire Bank in the last couple of years serve the needs of both large corporate and private banking customers - or members, as the bank prefers to term them. They house experts in areas such a commercial lending, treasury and wealth management, which means that quick decisions can be made locally rather referred to remote centralised offices.