The Leadership Team

Rob is Chief Executive Officer of the multi-award winning specialist distributor, Brightstar Financial, which since launch has originated over £2 Billion of specialist property debt. As the UK’s largest specialist distributor Rob innovated the concept of stand along specialist teams in the distinct product areas of specialist residential mortgages buy-to-let, second charge mortgages, short-term, commercial and development finance. Since 2011 Brightstar has won over 40 national industry awards including the 2016 ‘Gold Employer of the Year’ in the Global Investors in People Awards.

Rob is in his third decade working within the specialist lending market. He has served as Chairman of the AOBP (2013 to 2015) and was member of the AMI Industry Contact Group. Rob is a regular panellist and keynote speaker as well as being a much respected media commentator. Rob is a key voice within the sector and as such provides support to the FCA through ongoing discussions on current and future market issues.

Rob is a four times British Mortgage Award winner having won in 2007, 2015 and an unprecedented two awards in 2016. He was voted Mortgage Personality of the Year at the Mortgage Strategy Awards in 2012 and in 2014 he was named Bridging Personality of the Year.

Outside of work Rob is a committed family man and has been married to Clare since 1997. He has two sons who are both sport mad so its rugby in the winter and cricket in the summer. Rob is also a season ticket holder at Brighton and Hove Albion FC.

Bradley has over 20 years’ experience across numerous financial services businesses, his early working life was for Blevins Franks Investment Management based in Malta before moving to Aviva in the city of London. Prior to founding Brightstar with his long term friends Rob Jupp and Kit Thompson he worked for Savills Private Finance.

Today Bradley is Brightstar’s Managing Director, taking care of the sales function of the business. Outside of work his real passions are his young family and travelling.

Bradley is well known for his no nonsense approach and desire to ensure that Brightstar remain at the very top of the Specialist Sector.

Clare’s background is actually in education: she is a qualified secondary Headteacher (NPQH) and worked in the state education sector for 16 years, running her own Training School. She has a Degree in English and Media Studies and also holds a Masters Degree in Management. She has a vast amount of experience in training and development, human resources, coaching, mentoring and public speaking. Clare has been working in this sector for the last 9 years and during this time has led Brightstar through the ‘Investors in People’ application process, achieving Gold status in 2015 and then the title of ‘Global Investor in People Gold business of the Year’ 2016-7. She has been instrumental in promoting and progressing the ‘Women in Finance’ campaign and has earned Brightstar the reputation of being a leading ‘people developer’ within the sector.

Clare is married to Rob: they met at Birmingham University in 1991.

Kara joined Brightstar in October 2013.  She has now clocked up over 7 years’ experience in the financial services industry, having previously worked for Lloyds Banking Group.

Kara is one of our ‘home grown’ talents, having joined Brightstar as an administrator for the Mortgages & BTL division, managing cases for 4 consultants. The team rapidly grew and her role evolved to become the Sales Support Team Leader where she helped lead and manage process changes. As well as being a team leader, Kara was also one of the original ‘Learning Champions’ within a scheme that was created to enhance the learning programme for new starters and to support existing employees. Within her Learning Champion capacity Kara helped devise the induction programme and booklet which is used by all new entrants to help them successfully pass their induction.

Recently, Kara has taken on the role of PA to Rob Jupp, Bradley Moore and Clare Jupp and is very much looking forward to new challenges.

William joined Brightstar in January 2012 with more than 5 years’ experience in administration and office management, having previously worked for businesses, charities, community organisations and political parties. His career in politics saw him serve as a local Borough Councillor for 8 years, winning two elections. He continues to play an active part in local and General Election campaigns.

Since joining Brightstar William has led the operations function within the business in various roles, spending 4 years as PA to Rob Jupp and the Directors. In January 2017 he was promoted to Director of Operations and now sits on the Executive Management Team at Brightstar responsible for EasySource, HR and Operations within the Brightstar group.

William is a keen fundraiser and has led community and personal fundraising activities in the last 10 years which have raised more than £75,000. Chelsea FC and Harlequins Rugby are William’s great sporting loves, with every season the success of each seemingly swapping round! He has set the ambition in life of visiting every US state by the time he is 50 and taking part in a Lions Rugby Tour (purely as a spectator!).

Michelle joined Brightstar in April 2013 from performance improvement agency, Grass Roots, where she worked on designing incentive and recognition solutions for large corporations such as Asda, O2, Blackberry and A-Plan among others. Previous experience includes business development in a field role for Enterprise Finance Group and various sales roles at iGroup and Commercial First.

Michelle designed and project managed our EasySource platform and is responsible for our brand, communications and all associated marketing activity.

Michelle is a keen amateur chef but doesn’t get much time in the kitchen as she prefers to spend as much of it with her two young children.

Sandy is a qualified Management Accountant with 20 years’ experience, gaining knowledge & experience in various industries & companies such as ABF, First Data, Diageo and First Group.

Born and bred in Athens – Greece, Sandy moved to the UK to study economics, operational research & banking in Lancaster and Sheffield. Sandy stayed in the UK to work in the South East of England with a short break in between, returning to her homeland.

Sandy enjoys cooking & eating, visiting new places and being open to new things in life such as attending an Iron Maiden concert, a band her husband likes!

Gina has been an influential member of the Brightstar team since August 2012.  Having an extensive underwriting background, working for lenders such as Kent Reliance and Beacon Homeloans, she brings an understanding to the role that benefits both lenders and brokers.

Following a career as a highly successful consultant on the residential mortgage desk, this has rewarded Gina with the role of Head of Residential Mortgages where her knowledge and experience benefit the entire team.

Outside of work Gina is a happy and proud mother to her little boy, and enjoys spending quality time with her family and friends.

Darren joined Brightstar in August 2012 with 12 years financial services experience, having previously worked for Easyloans & London Scottish Broking as Second Charge Sales & Underwriting Manager. Darren is now Head of our Second Charge Mortgages team, having recently taken over from Bradley Moore.  He holds the full CeMAP qualification and is currently studying to complete the CeMAP Diploma.

Outside of work, Darren is a keen golfer, enjoys watching Manchester United and also spending time with his wife and their children.

Kit was a founding Director at Brightstar, along with Bradley Moore and Rob Jupp, back in 2011. Prior to this, he has worked exclusively in the financial services sector since 2001 and has held numerous roles during this time as a senior manager and director at board level. He holds full CeMap and FPC and has also held CF1 function in the past.

For the past 5 years Kit has worked exclusively in the short-term bridging sector and currently heads up Brightstar’s short-term lending team, who are a multi-award winning business, with full FCA authorisation to offer regulated bridging advice for both broker introduced and direct client bridging loans. Kit was short-listed and recognised as one of 5 finalists for Bridging Personality of the Year and was crowned Best Bridging Broker in the UK at the 2017 Specialist Lending Awards, as voted for by a panel of industry experts. His short-term lending team originate over £100m per annum in bridging loan completions and recognised as some of the best talent in the sector.

Kit is a regular contributor to round-table events, specialist panels and trade press. He is married with four children and also enjoys being an accomplished guitarist in a top Essex function band.