Rapidly growing SME lender Grow Finance has strengthened its executive management team with the appointment of a chief operating officer.
Lee Clarke brings a wealth of banking and finance experience, most recently in the rapidly growing fintech arena, where he built and executed a successful go to market strategy for another company in the highly competitive SME lending market.
Prior to this Clarke held leadership positions at GE Capital, Allianz Finance, ANZ and Orix Australia as well as managerial roles at Bank of Queensland and St George Business Finance.
At Grow Lee is responsible for overseeing day to day operations of the company, which has more than 50 employees spread across all states, and executing Grow’s business plan.
Grow Finance Executive Director Greg Woszczalski said Clarke’s banking and finance, people leadership and operational skills would help Grow maintain and build on its rapid growth trajectory.
“Lee brings more than 30 years of experience to our leadership team as we look to capitalise on the strong momentum we’ve built over the last year when we increased our month to month loan origination by four times.”
“Grow Finance is the only non-bank SME lender in Australia that offers asset finance, trade finance, invoice finance, insurance premium finance and business loans, making Grow a one-stop shop for SMEs.
“Grow is seeking to raise capital and aggressively shake up the way Australian SMEs access different kinds of finance in 2021 and beyond. We aim to increase our loan portfolio to more than USD1 billion over the next two to three years and ultimately meet the lending needs of five per cent of Australia’s SME market,” says Woszczalski.
Clarke said he was pleased to join an organisation dedicated to making a positive impact to SME financing.
“I chose to join Grow because I am attracted by its purpose of helping Australian SMEs to more easily access a comprehensive range of finance solutions across both working capital and capital expenditure; particularly as many businesses seek access to capital to adapt to the new economic realities following the pandemic.
“Australian SMEs deserve a better way to borrow and we are here to provide it,” he says.
