Hampshire Trust Bank (HTB) has hired Jake Sweeney as lending director in its development finance team and made a number of promotions. He will be based in the North West and support developers and advisers across the region and work with contacts nationwide. Sweeney joins the firm from Goldentree Financial Services, where he worked for nearly a decade, starting as an administrative assistant and then becoming a business development manager (BDM). The firm has also promoted Joseph Gibson to lending manager and made Andrew Dignum and Sarah Dix senior lending directors. Neil Leitch, managing director for development finance at HTB, said: “These appointments and promotions reflect a very deliberate approach to how we build our development finance team.