An Expert Team.
Our multi-disciplinary team draw from their diverse backgrounds and extensive deal experience to ensure transactions are sourced, evaluated and executed in an effective and thorough manner. We are committed to offering our clients a professional and personalised service.
David Kaye
Chief Executive Officer, Puma Investments
David graduated from Oxford with a degree in law and was called to the Bar in 2000. He practised as a barrister at a leading London set of chambers for five years, specialising in advising on a range of complex commercial legal issues with a particular focus on financial investments and real estate. He joined the Group in January 2006 as Deputy General Counsel and in 2011 became Commercial Director and General Counsel. In 2012 David was appointed CEO of the Asset Management division of the Group and Puma Investments. David has led the Puma Property Finance business since inception.
Paul Frost
Managing Director
Paul graduated from Oxford University with a degree in Modern History and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2003. Following roles at BDO, SEGRO and Capita Real Estate, he joined the Puma business in 2014. Paul combines both a finance and real estate background, and has focused on raising institutional capital to support the expansion of the business’s lending activities. In 2021, he was appointed as Managing Director to lead the Puma Property Finance business
Tarinee Pandey
Chief People Officer
Tarinee joined the Shore Capital Group in 2011 to head up the HR function. In 2022 Tarinee became the Chief People Office of Puma Investment Group. Prior to joining, she spent 6 years at Financial Dynamics (now FTI Consulting) working across the group with a broad remit both within the UK and across 26 offices internationally. She also spent some time in the Executive Search sector and worked briefly for the NHS. Tarinee graduated from Warwick with a degree in Psychology and also has an MA in Personnel & Development. She is fully CIPD qualified and a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
Eliot Kaye
Managing Director
Eliot joined the Group in 2006 following seven years at leading city law firm, Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP, where he advised on a substantial number of M&A and private equity deals, and was short-listed as a nominee for the Associate of the Year Award at the Legal Week Awards. Eliot has been involved in the management of all the Puma VCTs, and has also been involved in the management of The Puma (II) Fund. Eliot’s role focuses on origination and executing property finance transactions across multiple sectors on behalf of Puma Property Finance.
Kevin Davidson
Managing Director
Kevin has more than 30 years’ lending experience in commercial and residential real estate finance in the UK and across Europe. He brings a full spectrum of investment, development and bridging lending knowledge, joining Puma Property Finance after spending four years at Aeriance Investments, where he was an Executive Director and lead originator for their real estate debt platform, with over £300m of new development, bridging and mezzanine loans originated and closed in 3 years across residential, student and most commercial sectors. Prior to Aeriance, Kevin worked in a number of real estate finance roles at Situs, Deutsche Pfandbriefbank, JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank and Nationwide.
Isabela Castro
Head of Legal
Isabela advises Puma Property Finance on all aspect of its loans, from term sheet and structuring stage to repayment. Since she joined in 2019, she has been closely involved in Puma Property Finance’s loan execution process and also advises the Group on general legal matters. Prior to joining the Group, Isabela worked at Linklaters’ banking team. She has also worked as a lawyer at HSBC’s Global Banking & Markets division and BP’s Upstream Procurement team (on secondment from Linklaters), as well as Linklaters’ Singapore office. Isabela graduated from University College London with an LLB in Law with Italian Law.
Tom Walsh
Head of Risk
Tom has been involved in commercial real estate finance for over 25 years, both from an origination and a credit risk background. His most recent role was with Hudson Advisors UK as Head of Loan Asset Management where he had lead responsibility for the management and recovery of a large debt portfolio acquired by Lone Star from Anglo Irish Bank UK. Prior to this role, Tom was Head of Credit Risk at Anglo Irish Bank UK for seven years.
Kevin Davidson
Managing Director
Kevin has more than 30 years’ lending experience in commercial and residential real estate finance in the UK and across Europe. He brings a full spectrum of investment, development and bridging lending knowledge, joining Puma Property Finance after spending four years at Aeriance Investments, where he was an Executive Director and lead originator for their real estate debt platform, with over £300m of new development, bridging and mezzanine loans originated and closed in 3 years across residential, student and most commercial sectors. Prior to Aeriance, Kevin worked in a number of real estate finance roles at Situs, Deutsche Pfandbriefbank, JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank and Nationwide.
Eliot Kaye
Managing Director
Eliot joined the Group in 2006 following seven years at leading city law firm, Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP, where he advised on a substantial number of M&A and private equity deals, and was short-listed as a nominee for the Associate of the Year Award at the Legal Week Awards. Eliot has been involved in the management of all the Puma VCTs, and has also been involved in the management of The Puma (II) Fund. Eliot’s role focuses on origination and executing property finance transactions across multiple sectors on behalf of Puma Property Finance.
Shane Ryan
Director
Shane joined Puma Property Finance as a Director 2021.Shane joins us after spending 7 years with Investec’s Real Estate team where he was responsible for the origination and management of a loan book in excess of £300m across various sectors including residential, commercial, student accommodation, planning and mixed-use. Prior to that, Shane spent 4 years managing the orderly realisation of a distressed UK real estate portfolio on behalf of NAMA for both Anglo Irish Bank, and Capita.
Prior to moving to the UK, Shane qualified with a BComm in Commerce and International Business from University College Dublin.
Tony Throp
Director
Prior to joining the Group in 2012, Tony spent several years at PriceWaterhouseCoopers in both the Debt Advisory and Corporate Finance team where he advised on over $20 billion of transactions, including the debt restructuring of Rusal, Samsonite and Fat Face. Tony then joined the M&A division at RBS where he worked across a variety of sectors including retail, telecoms and utilities. Tony graduated with a first in Chemical Engineering from the University of Birmingham. Tony has a particular focus on healthcare development finance transactions in his role as a Director of Puma Property Finance.
Paul Murphy
Senior Manager
Paul joined Puma Property Finance from Lendinvest where he worked as a Senior Financial Analyst for two years. Prior to this, he was a consultant in PwC’s actuarial department where he spent four and a half years. Paul graduated from the University of Manchester in 2011, where he studied Mathematics.
Kent Lawrence
Manager
Kent previously worked at Investec Bank PLC as a Senior Analyst within the Real Estate team working on Investment and Development Senior Debt deals whilst managing a £180m loan book for the last 4.5 years. Prior to that he worked for Investec Bank Ltd out of the Johannesburg Head Office in South Africa primarily servicing the Project Finance and Resource finance lending desks. Kent qualified with a BCom Hons in Finance and Business Strategy from the University of Stellenbosch and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).
Rahul Malde, CFA
Senior Manager
Rahul joined Puma Property Finance from Hermes Investment Management, where he worked for three years – most recently as an Investment Manager. Prior to this, he worked in Nationwide’s Commercial Real Estate Finance division for two years. Rahul graduated from Cass Business School with a degree in Banking & International Finance.
Sarah Milne
Senior Manager
Prior to joining Puma Property Finance, Sarah worked at The Property Box Company plc, a specialist mezzanine development finance lender, where she was an Assistant Director. Sarah graduated from the Leeds Metropolitan University in 2013, where she studied Human Geography and went on to represent Great Britain playing badminton.
Chris Whyte
Manager
Chris joined Puma Property Finance as a Manager in 2021 after recently heading up HSBC’s Transaction Execution function for Real Estate across Continental Europe. He has 10 years’ experience in Real Estate Finance having joined HSBC’s team in Manchester on their graduate scheme.
Chris graduated from the University of Reading with a degree in Classical Studies.
Louise Peters
Manager
Louise joined the Puma team in 2022 after 15 years at Investec Bank. She is originally from South Africa having received her undergraduate degree at the University of Cape Town and is currently qualified as a chartered management accountant. Louise managed a loan book portfolio in the region of £300m at Investec including various large and complex mixed use developments within a lending club, as well as multiple lien positions including senior, mezzanine, preferred and standard equity.
Tom Walsh
Head of Risk
Tom has been involved in commercial real estate finance for over 25 years, both from an origination and a credit risk background. His most recent role was with Hudson Advisors UK as Head of Loan Asset Management where he had lead responsibility for the management and recovery of a large debt portfolio acquired by Lone Star from Anglo Irish Bank UK. Prior to this role, Tom was Head of Credit Risk at Anglo Irish Bank UK for seven years.
Isabela Castro
Head of Legal
Isabela heads up the legal function at Puma Property Finance. She advises colleagues on lending transactions undertaken by the business, with involvement from term sheet and structuring stage to repayment. She also advises the team on legal issues from a strategic and operational perspective and is involved in structuring and executing new funding lines. Prior to joining the Group, Isabela worked in the banking team of Linklaters LLP. She has also worked as a lawyer at HSBC’s Global Banking & Markets division and BP’s Upstream Procurement team (on secondment from Linklaters), as well as Linklaters’ Singapore office. Isabela graduated from University College London with an LLB in Law with Italian Law (Erasmus programme).
Marcus Bethel
Finance Manager
Marcus oversees the operational finance processes on real estate loans and projects managed by Puma Property Finance, from origination through to redemption. He joined Puma Investments in 2016 after qualifying as a Chartered Accountant having trained at a top 50 audit and accountancy firm in London, specialising in real estate and financial services sectors. He graduated from the University of Exeter in 2013 with a degree in Economics & Finance.