Meet Me – Our Head of International Operations, Jenefer Morgan

From leveraging her wide professional network to the importance of a morning coffee, get to know the person helping spread Growth Lending’s impact across the globe…

Growing Growth Lending’s international footprint is what gets Jenefer out of bed in the morning. Knowing where to start, who to speak to and keeping the momentum going on this important strategic objective for the Group sounds a bit daunting, so we asked Jenefer a bit more about it.

What do you do at Growth Lending?

I’m the Head of International Operations at Growth Lending. My focus is growing our business internationally by investigating the best continents and locations for us to expand into.

I’m constantly reaching out to people in my network who are either based in the location we are looking into, or who have been on a similar expansion journey to learn the dos and don’ts. It is fascinating and daunting in equal measure. I see it as a big puzzle and each fact, data point, anecdote is a step closer to the full picture.

Why the focus on growing internationally in 2023?

We’ve experienced amazing growth in the UK during the past decade and to continue growing, one of our strategies is to look for new markets for that growth. We are fortunate that our investors support us in this mission, as it provides them with diversification in their investment portfolio as well.

What experience do you have that made this the right role for you?

I started out my career as a chartered accountant and then followed my passion for people and personal growth into professional development and ultimately to becoming head of our People Team at Growth Lending.

I’ve always been fascinated with the internal workings of a business, so a next step for me was leveraging my finance and people background to expand our business into new locations. I’ve had to learn a lot about our products and our investors too, which has been excellent. I’m learning about legal structures, tax structures, marketing a brand on a new continent and structuring employee packages.

What has been one of your biggest learnings in this role?

How generous people are sharing their experiences. In the US, for example, I’m speaking to experienced legal and financial advisors who gladly take the time to answer our questions and put us in touch with the right people. I’ve been very impressed by that. It has reminded me of the power of leveraging who you know.

How did you end up at Growth Lending?

I previously worked in Johannesburg with Dunya Ansems, our Chief Operations Officer. Dunya looked me up on LinkedIn and sent me a message about Growth Lending opening a new office in Bristol. I went along to the opening, met Organisational Psychologist Heather Bingham and we immediately started chatting about ways in which we could collaborate. It was a very natural, organic process of getting to know an organisation and I was really impressed by the calibre of the people I met.

Which item can you not work without?

A cup of coffee in the morning, to tell my brain that it’s time to start firing. I get up quite early, but I normally save my coffee for around 9am. It’s more important than my laptop, my phone, my pen…