Shannon Altimas is a Portfolio Manager at Paragon Development Finance, supporting clients in the north of England. We talk to her about her role, her standout deal and how she’s looking forward to meeting clients face-to-face again.

What does your role encompass at Paragon?

I’m a Portfolio Manager for one of our regional Relationship Directors in the North of the country. I am responsible for managing client relationships from credit approval through to when a facility repays. I work closely with our panel of valuers, monitoring surveyors and lawyers, along with our internal credit team, to ensure the initial loan due diligence is executed quickly.

I support our clients by ensuring they receive an efficient service such as swiftly processing monthly build drawdowns, assisting with any facility amendments and dealing with any queries in a prompt manner.

What do you enjoy about the role?

I enjoy the variety and individuality of each scheme we support.  It’s rewarding getting to see a development successfully delivered from start to finish. I have always enjoyed being in a client-facing role and enjoy being able to provide a high level of client service and working in such an experienced and efficient team.

What has been the most interesting or standout deal that you have worked on?

It is difficult to pick just one interesting deal, as we support such a variety. But one recent successful scheme that I have managed was for 39 houses in Balborough in Derbyshire. This was the second phase of a scheme, that when first started was a large empty field. There were some concerns initially as to the location as it was close to a motorway, but this was an experienced developer we had previously supported and was keen to work with again.

The development has progressed well with sales starting to complete nine months after the build commenced. It has been impressive to see what was once an empty field become a successful housing development.

What are you hoping to achieve in 2022?

Given the majority of the clients I support are based in the north of the country, with Covid restrictions it has been difficult to travel so this year I’m looking forward to being able to be back out on site and be face-to-face with our clients more.

What do you enjoy outside of work?

If I’m not working it’s likely you’ll find me at a concert enjoying live music; now restrictions are easing I’m hopeful this will be a more frequent occurrence.