ThinkSmart nabs Gerald Grimes from Hitachi Capital

Retail point-of-sale lease finance provider ThinkSmart announced the appointment of Gerald Grimes as chief executive officer on Monday.

The AIM-traded firm said Grimes would take up the appointment and join the company's board on 1 July.

It said Grimes was joining the business from Hitachi Capital where he was managing director of Hitachi Capital Consumer Finance, and sat on the board of Hitachi Capital UK.

As of March 2016, he was responsible for annual sales of £1.7bn, net earning assets of £2.1bn and approximately 400 employees.

Grimes joined Hitachi Capital in 2007, with responsibility for re-launching and developing its UK consumer finance proposition.

Over about 10 years, ThinkSmart said he successfully built a “market leading UK point-of-sale finance business” founded on “deep relationships” with some of the UK's “foremost retailers”.

It said he was “instrumental” in diversifying the consumer finance product offering, including launching Hitachi Capital's personal finance proposition, growing that into a £1bn portfolio within three years.

Prior to joining Hitachi Capital, Grimes spent six years as sales director at The Funding Corporation, where he launched a new consumer finance business in the UK and, prior to that, six years at GE Capital where he was sales director.

ThinkSmart also said Grimes continued to play an “active role” in shaping industry debate, as a director of the Finance & Leasing Association - for which he has also acted as chairman - in addition to being a member of the FCA Small Practitioner Board.

“On behalf of the board, I am delighted to welcome Gerald as ThinkSmart's new chief executive,” said executive chairman Ned Montarello.

“He brings tremendous breadth and depth of relevant experience and has an outstanding track record.”

Montarello noted that Grimes had already helped “transform” one retail point-of-sale finance business into a market leader by developing the offering and significantly expanding its reach across multiple verticals.

“We are confident he can lead ThinkSmart on a similar growth trajectory.”