Baker left the firm and is establishing a new business which will specialise in helping small to medium businesses become franchisors.
Shatford takes up his new role from April 19 after he finishes a year’s stint heading insurance broking firm Aon Risk Services’ financial services division. Before that, he spent three years with AMP Financial Services managing key accounts in its broker division and before that he spent 23 years with ANZ Bank.
Becoming virtually his own boss together with "the enjoyment and pleasure of building and developing a business," were what attracted him to Approved, Shatford says.
He already knows two of Approved’s directors, Michael Beal and Nick McCorkindale, who he met when all three were working for ANZ, and while he was AMP Shatford was working closely with Approved to develop its insurance capability as an add-on service to its loan clients.
Approved began franchising in 2000 and now has 10 franchisees in addition to its directors, which still include the other co-founder, Lawrence Diack.
Shatford says his brief is to take Approved "to the next level," by which he means expanding the business. He will also be freeing the other directors from the minutiae of management so they can concentrate on dealing with clients.
Approved aims to be the number one mortgage broker in New Zealand, although not necessarily in terms of size, he says. "That’s a big ask when you’re looking at the competition," he says.
