Former LMS CEO Nick Chadbourne has joined Novus Strategy as Non-Executive Chair.
As a transformation consultancy for the mortgage and home buying industry, Novus has had a long-standing association with Chadbourne, who led the conveyancing service provider since 2017 and announced his departure in June.
At Novus, Chadbourne will be helping to shape the strategic direction of the business as it begins to expand its consultancy offering and help lenders transform the mortgage journey, the beating heart of which is its new mortgage journey simulator, Pathfinder.
Coming so soon after the Government announced ambitious homebuying reforms, Chadbourne joins at a crucial moment for Novus and the entire homebuying industry.
He brings extensive expertise and connections accumulated during a career spanning nearly 30 years across lending, conveyancing and insurance. Not only was he a founding board member of the Open Property Data Association (OPDA), today’s announcement comes on the same day that he also becomes Chair of the Conveyancing Association, underlining the leadership position he holds in the homebuying industry and his value to Novus.
Pathfinder is central to Novus’s plans and will remain central to its growth plans. The first-of-its-kind platform was launched last month and unveiled in front of lenders at Novus’s annual Digital Disruption Live event, held this year in Manchester.
Novus designed Pathfinder to help lenders understand how they can solve problems like prioritisation and sequencing, and make the most of Smart Data and upfront property information. It helps lenders understand where opportunity sits across their mortgage journey, model the impact of change and decide what to prioritise before committing investment.
Chadbourne began his career at HBOS, where he was Director of Private Banking, and Birmingham Midshires before stints as managing director at Freedom Finance (now ClearScore) and insurance intermediary Amity Financial Solutions.
Nick Chadbourne, Non-Executive Chair of Novus Strategy, said: “Novus pairs deep industry and subject matter expertise with a unique way to test change before committing to it. That gives lenders and enterprise businesses the tools to prioritise and then deliver successful change with maximum impact.
“The end result is transformation where success is baked in, which is a departure from what I saw earlier in my career when many well-intentioned change programmes lost their way.
“With significant reform facing our industry over the coming years, Novus is the perfect partner to support it and I'm thrilled to be joining as Chair.”
Chris Williams, Founder of Novus Strategy, added: “Nick understands this industry exceptionally well but, just as importantly, he understands Novus.
“He knows what we’re trying to build, brings a huge amount of experience and isn’t afraid to challenge our thinking.
“We’re entering an important stage of growth. Pathfinder is now live with lenders, our work across the market is growing and the industry itself is moving quickly. But ultimately, all of this has to translate into a better experience for people buying and selling homes.
“Having Nick around the table gives us another experienced voice as we help lenders transform the mortgage journey and make the decisions that will shape the next stage of Novus.”
