Connective announces new appointments

Mark O’Shaughnessy, the former head of sales and operations at Medibank, has joined Connective Broker Services as head of wholesale. The new role is designed to “reinforce Connective’s continued focus on best practice broker support services”.

Mr Tan explained: “Mark’s appointment is a new role. In line with our commitment to providing outstanding support to our broker community, Mark's appointment will help us take the steps to achieve that.”

Mr O’Shaughnessy will be responsible for our wholesale aggregation business and in will oversee the state managers on a national level to “ensure that Connective delivers great service and support to its brokers,” according to Mr Tan.

The new head of wholesale has 16 years of experience in sales leadership, including experience with retail market players such as Medibank and Flight Centre.

As well as Mr O’Shaughnessy’s appointment, the aggregator also saw two other support staff join last week.

Sandra Ascenzo, the former lead broker support for My Local Broker, has joined as Connective’s broker relationship manager team leader. 

Mr Tan said that Ms Ascenzo takes over the role from Andrew Piltz, who has become a business analyst for sales and distribution.

Ms Ascenzo’s new role will involve overseeing the broker services team and “making sure that there is a very efficient and positive transition process for brokers that join the Connective network”.

Finally, Keerthi Damera has joined the Mercury Helpdesk from NAB, where she spent five years providing customer service on their service desk.

Mr Tan concluded: “We've increased our membership in excess of 3,100 members we have put on more support staff to further build our capabilities so we can provide targeted support our broker community.”

The appointments are the latest in a spate of recent hirings following the aggregator’s decision to appoint another BSM in Queensland and two in NSW, as well as two new business development managers for Connective Asset Finance, headed by Brent Starrenburg.

“As our business grows we need to make sure we can continue to provide the right level of support across the board. We see huge growth potential in both Connective Home Loans and Connective Asset finance,” Mr Tan said. 

The aggregator is currently recruiting for a compliance support manager for NSW, a business relationship manager for Connective Home Loans in Sydney, as well as two positions in Melbourne; an administration association for Connective Asset Finance and a part time payroll officer.

[Related: Major aggregator launches asset finance platform]