Isabella Constantinou

Simplicity Loans & Advisory congratulates Isabella Constantinou on the six-month mark of her appointment to the position of Associate Director of the Sales team at the beginning of COVID-19.

Ms Constantinou first joined the company in 2017 as a graduate before being promoted to the role of associate working with both the Managing Directors, Matthew Johnson and Jean-Pierre Gortan.

Co-Managing Director, Matthew Johnson said “With our plans to continue growing our team this year, we couldn’t be more proud to promote Isabella to this new role and to have seen her growth over the last three years since her first introduction to the broking industry.”

“We are pleased to see more widespread entry of women in our industry and we want to be part of those paving the way by providing the right environment and offering opportunities for women to thrive in the industry. It was amazing to see the positive difference we saw in our small group when we first had Isabella and Samantha join the five men in the business back in 2017. Historically the finance and broking industry, particularly so in the commercial market, has been slower than others to move the dial on this.”

Co-Managing Director, Jean-Pierre Gortan added, “It’s also great to see others in the industry such as our aggregator FAST, and many of our lenders, recognise and make an effort to highlight the importance of women’s success in the industry and the unique perspective they can bring to a team through programs such as Strength in Diversity.”

Rob Ryan, Head of NSW, ACT and QLD at FAST said, “One of the reasons behind Simplicity Loans & Advisory’s early success is because of their inclusive and supportive approach towards their people, reflecting FAST’s own values of strength through diversity in its many forms. We are proud to say it is already one of FAST’s major key broker groups nationally thanks to the vision and foresight of the business’ founding partners Matthew Johnston and Jean-Pierre Gortan. It is businesses like Simplicity Loans & Advisory that will continue to empower this industry for the better, with their innovative approach and drive for diversification.”

In this new role, Ms Constantinou is now responsible for managing her own portfolio of commercial clients and referrers. Over the last six months she has averaged around 30 transactions in her pipeline at any one time, working closely with all stakeholders to source and structure attractive funding solutions.

“Joining the team at Simplicity has proven to be an invaluable step in my career and I am excited to step into this role as the team expands. Starting my career with a newly established business as part of a small team has given me the opportunity to be mentored by the best in the industry, and gain the experience and knowledge I wouldn’t have been exposed to as a graduate in a bank,” Ms Constantinou said.

“Being a woman in an industry that is traditionally dominated by men was certainly a challenge, but the team at Simplicity has been incredibly welcoming and supportive in helping me grow in my career and develop my skillset. I recognise I am still one of few women in the industry, but I’m looking forward to encouraging better diversity and gender equality amongst other colleagues in the industry. There are so many female role models in our industry that should be celebrated. We are still greatly underrepresented, and I actually see this as an opportunity to stand out and demonstrate your value.”

Mr Johnson concluded, “We will always be stronger, better prepared and better able to deliver outstanding service to our clients when we are able to leverage a range of different experiences, skills, backgrounds and viewpoints. We are really proud that our business includes people from so many different nationalities from all over the world and from different work backgrounds, but we are certainly looking to have more women join our team as we grow. Today, we have Samantha, our Office Manager in a leadership role, but of our 7 brokers we only have Isabella, and whilst we are focused on the right people for the right roles, we would love to see that ratio even up.”

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Mr Pacella will be responsible for raising the profile and awareness of Marketplace Finance in the Australian market by engaging with new and existing partners on how its full service commercial finance solution can assist them and their clients achieve their goals through one portal.

Co-Managing Director, Matthew Johnson, said “We are pleased to welcome Dino to our growing team and are looking forward to tapping into his expertise to uncover new opportunities and help the business reach new milestones. Dino will be working closely with our sales and fulfilment teams to ensure deals are progressed through to settlement with the highest level of integrity and transparent communication.”

Mr Pacella brings over 16 years of financial experience, having most recently held Business Development Manager roles at Capify and Suncorp Bank, where he was responsible for managing their broker partner relationships, assist them in servicing their small business clients, and growing new business.

“I’m excited to join the Marketplace Finance team and to be working in a company where the people are the core focus and value of the organisation. I believe in surrounding myself with the right people who share the same values and work towards forming and maintaining relationships built on trust. I’ve known the Managing Directors, Jean-Pierre Gortan and Matthew Johnson, for some time now and we not only share a passion for helping our clients achieve their personal and financial goals, but also care about doing the right thing and giving back to the community,” Mr Pacella said.

“I’m looking forward to assisting our partners on identifying, analysing and most importantly capitalising on commercial lending opportunities through the Marketplace Finance solution and delivering true diversification by combining technology, years of commercial industry experience and true client passion.”

His experience and passion for the broker industry has also seen Mr Pacella found National Finance Brokers Day in 2015, which he established to build awareness of the broker industry throughout Australia and help educate consumers on the advantages received by dealing with a broker along with the full service proposition they bring to the Australian marketplace.

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Building the company from scratch, co-Managing Directors, Jean-Pierre Gortan and Matthew Johnson, identified a gap in the commercial finance sector and a need for brokers to diversify their offering which is setting them aside as a leader in the industry.

“We have experienced 90% YOY growth, settling 50%($500M) just in the last 12 months as we introduced Marketplace Finance’s solution to the market,” said Mr Gortan.

“Since officially opening our doors in July 2017 with 5 people, we have increased our headcount to 15 and we have plans to continue growing our team this year despite the COVID-19 crisis, as it’s presented us with a true opportunity to show the intrinsic value of a broker in a challenging lending landscape.”

Specialising in commercial finance, the business was borne out a vision to educate and enable Australia’s traditional mortgage brokers and other professional commercial loan referrers to grow the breadth of their expertise in light of a changing industry demand to maintain profitability and relevance to new markets.

In 2019, Simplicity introduced its digital solution, Marketplace Finance, to enable brokers to write and manage complex commercial loans, regardless of previous time and experience.

“We think of Marketplace Finance as our growth engine and its offer brings added value and opportunity for brokers to thrive in this growing sector of the market. A key benefit of this solution is the provision of quick, efficient and systematic access to competitive commercial loan facilities which ultimately enables brokers to assist their clients in identifying and managing the right commercial solutions and deliver successful outcomes, so they can focus on deepening their client engagement by providing high quality financial and debt advice in unison,” Mr Johnson explained.

“Over the last year, we made it our mission to impart our combined proven knowledge and experience towards the development of brokers in a new growth market through the introduction a digitally-enabled solution, as the residential home loan market started showing its first challenges. We believe it is achievable to address the fundamental change and challenges in the finance lending dynamics by harnessing technology and combining it with a systematic training offer,” concluded Johnson.

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