Growing our specialist team to better support the Healthcare sector

• Despite a tough few years, Healthcare providers and care home owners continue to enhance their facilities to deliver better service and care for their residents and patients.
• This has resulted in an increase in demand for bespoke funding, especially to cater for multi-acquisitions and specialist developments.
• With the increased demand and some members moving to take on new challenges, the Healthcare team has expanded with the addition of 4 new team members. 

After a successful 2023 that saw the delivery of over £125m in funding support for healthcare professionals and organisations, Shawbrook continues to make a significant investment in its healthcare team  to help support more organisations with their acquisition and growth requirements in 2024 and beyond.

With some team members moving to take on new challenges both internally and externally, the healthcare team led by Dasos Kirtsides has increased significantly in recent months, welcoming four new faces.

Kirk Wicking joined Shawbrook late last year as a Senior Director, bringing with him 25 years’ experience in the corporate world, both at some leading banks and advisory groups. Kirk has a broad background having worked across  consulting, client coverage, credit and risk management, new business and loan origination. 

When asked what attracted him to Shawbrook, Kirk said, “Shawbrook’s ambitious growth plans and being part of a dynamic, agile team were the key drivers for me. I’m already enjoying some great opportunities to support healthcare clients with our flexible products, and I’m excited to see how much more we can deliver to the Healthcare sector  in the coming years.”

Benjamin Sanders also joined the bank towards the end of 2023, coming from an advisory background and with previous experience in healthcare lending and asset management. Ben joined the team as an associate director and his focus is on supporting UK healthcare SMEs, delivering flexible asset backed and cashflow lending solutions to enable growth in the industry. 

Another addition to the extensive Shawbrook Healthcare roster last year was Sam Holmes, who started his career as a chartered accountant. Following a successful period in this complementary field, Sam moved across to corporate banking where he spent five years advising on mergers and acquisitions, primarily working with clients in the mid-market space. Sam’s focus at Shawbrook is on existing healthcare clients and supporting with their acquisition and restructure requirements, as well as proactively guiding and monitoring on covenants during the life of the relationship.

The most recent newcomer to the healthcare team was Hamza Ahmed, joining in February 2024 following first-hand experience of working with Shawbrook with his previous employer.

Also a chartered accountant, Hamza has 9 years’ experience in corporate finance debt advisory and has indicated that he made the latest move because he liked the inherent agile and entrepreneurial nature of the bank, joining the team as “we are a market leader in the Healthcare sector”. 

The expansion of the team and the strong advisory and corporate banking background of these new members reflects Shawbrook’s appetite to broaden its focus in support of healthcare businesses with larger and more complex requirements. 

Dasos Kirtsides, Head of Healthcare at Shawbrook explains, 

“The industry has had a tough few years but we’ve found that quite a few of our clients are looking to evolve their facilities to better support patients, residents, and the community in general. For example, the residential care sector is experiencing a high demand for specialist homes to cater for children, adults and older age groups. As a result, we are seeing more funding requests for multi-acquisitions and specialist developments. We have flexible products and agility in our processes and, having expanded our expert team, I believe we are uniquely positioned to support with the more complex requirements of the sector.”