Pepper Money has announced a new leadership position that will oversee the non-bank lender’s Australian mortgage business and its impending foray into personal loans.
Pepper yesterday announced Mario Rehayem would step into the newly created managing director – Australian mortgages & personal loans position after previously being the non-banks director of sales and distribution.
Speaking to
Australian Broker, Rehayem said he was excited about stepping into the role that will see him take responsibility for the day-to-day management of all residential mortgage and unsecured personal lending in Australia.
“I’m definitely excited about the new role. Collectively both the executive and those on the ground have worked hard and I’ve been the beneficiary of a good team,” Rehayem told
Australian Broker.
“We’ve got a very strong succession plan throughout our business and this is one part of that succession plan coming to fruition,” he said.
The creation of the new roll follows Pepper’s expansion and strong results across Australia, Asia and Europe and Rehayem said it will allow current co-chief executive officer Patrick Tuttle to focus more on continued global expansion.
“Previously Patrick was doing a dual role being co-CEO and also managing the day-to-day operations of the Australian business as well. This gives Patrick the opportunity to focus more on the strategic side of the business on a global scale,” he told Australian Broker.
“I’ve been working side by side with Patrick for six years now and it lets him go onto bigger things from a global perspective and have somebody focus wholly and solely on the Australian mortgage market and our new personal loan offering.”
While Pepper’s success recently has been the impetus for Rehayem’s new role, Tuttle said he has been a large part of that success.
“Mario has been a driving force behind the significant growth in Pepper’s Australian mortgages business, particularly over the past three years,” Tuttle said.
“Through the successful development of strong working relationships with the large aggregator groups and our white label partners, Mario has built one of the best B2B mortgage sales teams in the country,” he said.
After a successful internal launch, Rehayem said Pepper expects to launch their personal loan offering to the general public and broker network with the year.
Besides overseeing that launch, Rehayem said his initial focus in the role will be on consolidating Pepper’s current position in the market.
“My focus for the first 100 days will definitely be to ensure we don’t rock the boat,” he told
Australian Broker.
“The general theme of the new role is to keep building on what we’ve built. There’s not going to be any rapid or massive changes on that front.
“We’re running at a very good rhythm and we’re extremely happy with our growth. It’s been continued growth over many years and we just want to keep that momentum and focus on the positives.”
