Lisa Wood

Founder & Managing Director

Lisa has a wealth of knowledge and depth of understanding of both credit & risk management. At Praetura Commercial Finance Lisa is responsible for driving the strategic direction of the business and the businesses overarching risk principals, working closely with the origination and operations team in structuring and managing transactions in the asset based lending market. Prior to Co-Founding Praetura Commercial Finance, Lisa was the deputy Managing Director of Shawbrook Business Credit. Her previous leadership roles also include Chief Credit Officer at Shawbrook Business Credit and Centric Commercial Finance, Head of underwriting & audit at GE Commercial Finance, other roles at NMB Heller, Bank of Scotland and Lloyds International Factors.

Stuart Bates

Founder & Commercial Director

Stuart is a seasoned and recognised asset-based lending professional with a strong track record delivering complex transactional structures and driving business growth in numerous senior roles. In his role at Praetura Commercial Finance, Stuart is responsible for the origination and sales strategy of the business. Prior to co-founding Praetura Commercial Finance, Stuart held senior positions as the Commercial Director of Shawbrook Bank, Executive Sales Director of Centric Commercial Finance and Regional Director of GE Commercial Finance. Stuart is responsible for delivering Origination for the SME to Mid- market, with a key focus on MBOs, MBIs, acquisitions and growth debt structures.

Chris Davison

Finance Director

Chris qualified as an ACA and licenced insolvency practitioner with KPMG, working predominantly in the mid-market national Restructuring team across a range of formal insolvency, advisory and turnaround situations, predominantly on behalf of financial institutions. During this time Chris also undertook a secondment to Santander within their commercial restructuring team. Since joining in 2018 Chris has been responsible for overseeing the finance function at Praetura Commercial Finance with a focus on supporting the wider leadership team in addition to managing funder and investor relations.

Nicola Woodhams

Relationship Director

Nicola has vast experience spanning over 20 years’ experience in the Asset based lending industry primarily specialising in client relationships. Nicola is responsible for the portfolio team and prides herself on ensuring both prospects and clients have strong working relationships with Praetura right from the beginning. Prior to Praetura Commercial Finance Ltd Nicola has worked in a number of client relationship and audit roles at Shawbrook Business Credit, Centric Commercial Finance and GE Commercial Finance Ltd.

Adam Hooson

Associate Director

Adam obtained his accounting chartership with Grant Thornton working across the North West advising and supporting a portfolio of SME clients in a variety of sectors for 5 years. He spent time in the Corporate Finance team working on multiple transactions before joining Praetura. During his time at Praetura he has been instrumental in deal execution and has originated opportunities. Adam also acts as a non-executive to his family business jewellery chain.

Grace Caine

Senior Relationship Manager

Grace is responsible for managing client relationships at Praetura Commercial Finance to ensure we deliver excellent service and act in partnership with the businesses we support. With 19 years’ experience in the ABL sector and relationship management, Grace is also responsible for supporting and coaching our wider relationship management team. Prior to joining PCF, Grace held roles at RBS Invoice Finance Limited and Aldermore Bank Plc.

Henry Wheeler

Regional Sales Director

Henry has over 8 years experience in the Invoice Finance and Asset Based Lending sector previously with Aldermore Bank and Wyelands Bank. Having worked predominantly in origination roles he has structured and delivered on a wide variety of transactions in his career to date. Henry is passionate about helping clients achieve their goals and joins Praetura to grow the offering in the Yorkshire and North East region and supporting SMEs across a range of funding scenarios.

Jeff Greenfield

Sales Director

An award winning ABL professional with over two decades of experience, Jeff is an expert in structuring and delivering both traditional and complex ABL facilities between £1m and £15m. Through the clarity he brings to deal structures, Jeff helps entrepreneurs and managers grow their businesses.

Tom O’Dell

Sales Director

Tom brings a wealth of asset based lending experience to the Praetura team. Starting his career in 2006, he’s spent 10 years in relationship management roles with Euro Sales Finance and RBSIF. More recently, Tom has specialised in multi-asset facilities supporting both transactional and turnaround opportunities.

Board members

Gary Davison

Chairman

With over two decades of asset-based lending experience, Gary brings a wealth of well-honed commercial acumen to the Praeutra team. Previously, he helped establish the Bank Of Ireland’s ABL division and held a Debt Advisory Partner position at Ernst & Young. He’s currently a managing partner of Tosca Debt Capital LLP, an established North-West based debt fund.

Peadar O’Reilly

Non-Executive Director

Peadar, a founding partner at Praetura, has over 20 years secured lending experience having previously held senior roles at Bank of Ireland and ABN Amro. He helped establish a successful UK ABL business for Bank of Ireland and is responsible for raising over £300m of bank facilities from mainstream and specialist institutions for the Praetura Group companies. He is a founding Director of Praetura Asset Finance, Praetura Commercial Finance and Praetura Debt Co.

Danny Summers

Non-Executive Director

Danny joined Praetura in early 2014 and was instrumental in the establishment of several significant Praetura investments including Praetura Asset Finance, Praetura Commercial Finance and Sorted Group, acting as Finance Director of each upon inception. Danny has several years of board experience within the financial services, speciality finance and technology sectors. He has significant experience in raising external finance; £300m of institutional debt facilities for Praetura investments to date, including the £75m pre-securitisation facility for PAF.

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