Our Team

Ian is our CEO and Chairman of the Investment Committee. He brings to the company 8 years experience of owning, running and funding a similar litigation lending business in Southern Ireland. He has an excellent track record in the litigation sector having funded over 250 successful cases to date.

Ian started his working career with FBD Plc in Dublin where he spent a number of years in the sales and marketing department. He was the youngest ever Top sales achiever in the country. Ian also has extensive experience of evaluating mortgage and insurance risk.  His passion is horses, has played football and golf at the highest level and enjoys a great litigation funding podcast.

As Managing Director, Nick is responsible for the day to day running of our company.

Together with Ian Cunningham, Nick saw the opportunity to provide innovative solutions to litigation finance issues faced by lawyers and their clients. And so Affiniti Finance was launched in 2016.

​Nick worked for the 3i Group for 20 years including a number of years as Group Treasury Director. Nick ​has managed financial service companies, has built two companies successfully from scratch and ​has experience of the management demands of fast growing financial businesses. Nick has many ​years ​experience of managing and pricing financial risk and has an outstanding record in the management of ​people. His great passions are yacht racing, skiing and gardening.

Grant is our Director of Marketing and heads up Business Development. He has held a number of high level roles over the last 18 years within the insurance and legal sector and is highly regarded in his field allowing him to build strong relationships and contacts with a large number of law firms and insurance companies.

Following a number of years working for an ‘A’ rated insurer and helping develop their ATE policies he was instrumental in growing an ATE insurance brokerage.

He has an excellent technical understanding of the legal sector relating to ATE insurance and funding and works closely with law firms to develop business and relationships.

Outside of work you will find Grant spending time with his family, out on his bicycle or hacking his way around the golf course before retiring to the 19th.

Elaine is responsible for overseeing the our general office .  It is a varied and busy role and involves managing all new deals (from inception to drawdown), ongoing monitoring & maintenance of the loan book, general financial and compliance matters, lots of administration, and a bit of HR thrown in for good measure!

Elaine’s previous roles include New Business Underwriter and Risk Manager in a Trade Finance/Asset Finance Company and a Relationship Manager at Bank Leumi Plc.

In her spare time, Elaine enjoys keeping fit (boxing in particular!), trips to the theatre, she loves books and has a keen interest in travel.

Lauren heads up our schemes and class actions department based in Chester.

Her role at Affiniti involves meeting with lawyers to build long term relationships at a personal level and to seek to support the growth of their firms. Lauren enjoys a busy work schedule and is already thriving building on Affiniti’s success.

People remember Lauren’s friendly and approachable personality once they have met her. She enjoys meeting people and exceeding expectations on a daily basis.

Out of the office Lauren enjoys running, mountain biking and attending spin classes. Lauren has successfully completed many 10k runs, Tough Mudder twice and the Total Warrior endurance event. When she isn’t running you will find her with her head in a good book.

Sue works for us as both an underwriter and a business developer. Sue is highly experienced in the litigation sector generally and the ATE market specifically, having worked for A rated Legal insurers for over 18 years. She has held various roles during her career including claims handler, liaison officer, solicitor auditor and business development manager.

Since Sue started her career back in 1999 she has seen many changes in the market, including increased costs in disbursements, increased court fees, loss of recovery of success fees and ATE premiums. Sue comments ‘often Solicitors are no longer able to finance claims on behalf of their clients due to decreasing margins. It is great that Affiniti can help by offering disbursement funding’.

In her spare time she enjoys walking her dogs and riding her horse. Sue is also involved in her local amateur theatre company.

Ffion recently joined the team based in Guildford to provide much needed support to the underwriters who receive the PI and Clin Neg applications. It’s a varied and busy role and involves ensuring the smooth running of the loan book.

Ffion gave up the dramatic views of Snowdonia from her home in Anglesey, to live in the gentle surrey hills. Her new working environment is also a little quieter as she no longer has to listen to the screaming fighter jet’s as they took off and landed at her former employer- RAF Valley. As such, her experience in finance and IT skills are often relied upon in a fast paced environment.

Ffion enjoys reading, walking and is a crack clay pigeon shot!

Emma is our Head of Operations and is responsible for the smooth running of our offices, and based in our Chester office.

The organisational experience that Emma brings has enabled the successful set up and opening of our Chester office.  She has worked for both large and small organisations and her last position saw her working for the  Board of Directors of a large company on a day to day basis, so involved organisation at a very high level.  Her role with Affiniti not only involves overseeing the offices and staff, but she also ensures that the client journey is at the forefront of everyone’s minds.  She is always there if any member of the team need her and luckily for us, Emma enjoys a busy working life and is currently working out how to create more hours in the day!!.

Away from the office, Emma has a busy family life with three teenage children!  As well as helping her husband to renovate their house in her spare time, she also enjoys sunny holidays, walking many miles with the dog and watching a good film where possible.

Leon is a Client Support Executive in our Chester office, where he works as part of a successful team who head the financing of Schemes. A typical day for Leon involves lots of detailed research and effectively communicating with both clients and solicitors. Before joining the Affiniti Finance family, Leon spent 13 years working in Banking for the likes of Bank of America, Lloyds Bank and TSB Bank. This is where he built a solid understanding of the banking industry and a reputation for being straightforward, transparent and responsible, this is something he is very proud of.

Leon is a very active individual, so most weekends will involve walking up a mountain, mountain biking, running or paddle boarding.

Lauren is a part of the Client Support Executive team in Chester. Her day to day responsibilities consist of liaising with and assisting new and existing client’s and Solicitors alongside carrying out our usual checks and following processes.

Lauren’s previous role was an Underwriting Support for an Insurance Company where she spent five years providing professional insurance advice to both insurance brokers and clients.

Away from the office, Lauren enjoys watching football and attending live games when possible as well as spending time with her family

Gary has recently joined us as a Client Support Executive, he has over 10 years’ experience working within the Banking and Insurance sector.

He is situated in our new Chester office where he is responsible for being a source of contact for clients and solicitors providing support in respect of the Affiniti loans that are being taken out.

Out of the office, Gary is a big football fan and regularly spends his weekend at the Theatre … of Dreams.

Aside from the Beautiful Game, Gary is very much a family person who enjoys dog walking and socialising with friends.