Tracy Pennell named COO, Lee Robson takes expanded auto and personal role
Avanti Finance has restructured its executive team, appointing Tracy Pennell (pictured left) as its new chief operating officer and expanding Lee Robson's (pictured right) remit to cover both auto and personal lending — changes the specialist lender says are designed to create clearer ownership across operations, risk and its various business areas as it prepares for its next phase of growth.
Avanti Finance Group CEO Fred Ohlsson said the changes reflect a deliberate push to align leadership with the company's growth ambitions.
"As Avanti continues to grow, we need the right structure, leadership and focus in place to keep improving how we operate and how we support our customers and partners," Ohlsson said.
Pennell and Robson take on expanded roles
Pennell moves into the COO role from her current position as general manager of strategic delivery, taking on responsibility for key operational functions with a focus on strengthening execution and service delivery for customers and partners.
"Tracy has a strong execution focus and a deep understanding of our business. Her appointment as chief operating officer gives us dedicated leadership across key operational areas as we continue to scale," Ohlsson said.
Robson, who previously headed Avanti's auto lending business, will now also oversee personal lending, taking on the title of general manager auto and personal. The combined remit is intended to bring the two lending areas onto more consistent footing and deliver faster, more consistent service for dealers, advisers, and customers, building on the group's recent investment in systems and service capability — including the Avanti Partner Portal, launched in April to bring auto and personal lending onto a shared platform with automated decisioning, self-service tools, instant contract generation, and faster settlement times.
"Lee is well placed to lead this expanded area," Ohlsson said. "He has strong experience across auto lending, and bringing auto and personal closer together will give us greater scale across our BDM network and operations, while supporting a faster, more consistent service experience for introducers and customers."
Leadership change positioned around partner support
Ohlsson framed both appointments as part of a broader effort to make Avanti easier to deal with for the brokers, advisers and dealers it works alongside.
"This is about making it easier and faster for our partners to do business with us, while making sure we have the leadership structure in place to support our continued growth," he said.
This is the latest in a run of leadership changes this year. In May, Avanti appointed long-time treasurer Paul Jamieson as general manager of its funds management arm, Avanti Capital.
Beyond the company's own leadership moves, the timing also lines up with a strong moment for the specialist lending sector more broadly. Avanti recently scored 75% in a broker satisfaction survey — behind only Pepper Money and Basecorp Finance among non-bank lenders.
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