The Brightstar Group has announced a series of appointments across all businesses, covering sales, operations and support functions.
Saan Popat and Leon Walker have joined the Brightstar Financial sales team. Saan Popat brings five years’ experience in the mortgage sector, having progressed from an administrative role into advising. Leon Walker joins from Saffron Building Society, where he worked as a mortgage adviser and has been active in financial services since 2012. Additionally, residential and buy-to-let specialist, Yiannis Constantinou, moves from Brightstar Financial to the broker team at London-based Sirius Finance.
Meanwhile, both The School Fees Company and Solstar Insurance have welcomed new team members. Saffiya Gwynne has joined The School Fees Company as a relationship manager and Emma Burgess has joined Solstar Insurance, reporting into Jacqui Edwards who has been promoted to head of insurance.
Across the wider group, the sales support function has been strengthened with the addition of Ben Abbott, Toby Austin, Albey Chambers, Tom Sullivan and Liam Morritt.
The operations team has also welcomed University of York undergraduate Thomas O’Sullivan for a year-long internship, supporting the data analytics team as they continue to grow and expand the technology and AI innovation projects underpinning the group.
The appointments form part of Brightstar Group’s ‘Project 20’ growth strategy, which targets at least 20% annual growth over the next three years and a turnover of £20 million by 31 December 2028.
Brightstar's group chief executive, Rob Jupp, said: “Across the Group, we’re continuing to see strong demand from brokers for support with more complex cases, and these appointments ensure we are well positioned to meet that need. We remain fully committed to investing in our people, our technology and the overall broker experience, and that is reflected in the growth strategy we’ve set out through Project 20. We are building a business that combines deep human expertise with significant investment in technology, particularly in AI, to enhance the broker journey. These appointments are an important part of that strategy, ensuring we have the right people in place alongside the right systems to deliver a faster, more efficient and ultimately market-leading experience.”
Chief people officer, Clare Jupp, added: “All of these appointments reflect the success of The Brightstar Group’s unique approach to recruitment which utilises our ‘Growing our Own’ philosophy alongside our REFER scheme and our growing relationship with schools, turbo charged of course, by the launch of The School Fees Company. We continue to recruit high calibre, high energy team members who, most importantly, are the correct cultural fit for our businesses. Our team, our contacts, our partner schools and our Young Learners Programme continue to be prolific recruiters for the business.”
