About

From a farming family in Kent, Rob graduated in Rural Estate Management and qualified as a Rural Practice Chartered Surveyor.

He has a breadth of knowledge developed in a career spanning land agency and farm consultancy, as well as agricultural and rural finance.

Rob spent 3 years at NatWest Agriculture head office and 4 years as Regional Manager with Farming & Agricultural Finance (FAF) before launching R&BS with Jim in 2004.

Being of farming stock with hands-on business management experience, Rob can approach each situation with empathy and vision. His clients' needs are at the heart of every proposition.

Jim is an agriculture graduate and has an extensive rural education.

Early in his career he specialised in agricultural and rural finance working for some of the leading lenders including The Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (AMC), ING (the Dutch banking group) and the Royal Bank of Scotland Group before joining forces with Rob in 2004 to form R&BS.

He’s a successful consultant with specialist rural and banking knowledge, tenacity and a determination to succeed on behalf of clients.

With almost 39 years in the NatWest/Royal Bank of Scotland Group, John has a huge wealth of banking expertise from front-line relationship and credit risk roles in the commercial and agricultural sectors.

Most recently John was Relationship Director for Commercial Banking in Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, looking after businesses with an annual turnover of up to £50million, across several sectors including agriculture. Prior to that John held a specialist role as a Lending Director, supporting colleagues to accelerate lending deals through credit and drawdown.

Many of John’s earlier roles in the bank were in rural areas of Wales with a large concentration of agricultural customers. His strong analytical skills led him to roles in credit sanctioning as an agricultural specialist and, latterly, a regional management role where he provided debt structuring solutions for customers.

John’s expertise in agriculture and relationship management, and his strong risk assessment and credit skills will ensure our clients get the most appropriate funding solutions for their needs.

Charlie is from an equestrian background and has recently graduated with a MSc in Applied Animal Behaviour & Welfare from University Centre Askham Bryan near York. This follows her First Class BSc (Hons) in Equine Science, with additional excellence awards too! 

Having been brought up around horses from an early age, studying equines and experiencing multiple equine sectors, Charlie brings an excellent blend of practical experience and leading-edge equestrian knowledge to R&BS.

With her venture into the finance arena with R&BS, Charlie is primed to become a unique and formidable addition to the team.

Born into a farming family, Laura is a graduate of BSc Hons degree in Animal Management and Science.

With a keen interest in agriculture throughout her life, Laura is presently helping a local and progressive farmer, gaining a wealth of hands-on practical and technical farming experience. 

Her can-do attitude, caring nature and efficient approach will ensure that our clients are well supported throughout their journey with R&BS.

Seamus joined R&BS in 2007 and is our longest serving consultant. Over this time, he has seen every possible customer circumstance or borrowing scenario and always goes that extra mile to deliver appropriate funding solutions.

He has developed a specialism in equestrian and leisure businesses and is the go-to consultant in the North for kennels and catteries. 

Seamus guides and assists our clients with his gentle and efficient approach.  His depth of knowledge of the market and our lending partners ensures that our clients get the very best support from beginning to end. 

Kim is a client of R&BS. She liked us so much she decided to work for us!

Having been brought up working closely with her farming family in Yorkshire, Kim has been immersed in practical farming all her life - she now farms in her own right running a mixed livestock enterprise.

Kim is a graduate in Animal Science and combined with her extensive practical farming experience, she brings technical expertise and first-hand farming knowledge to the R&BS team, which will be invaluable for understanding our clients' requirements and translating that into credible lending proposals. 

Paul brings a wealth of experience in banking and farming to the team. He has spent over 40 years with Lloyds Bank in Commercial Banking, with the last 16 years as an Agricultural Relationship Manager covering the Central Midlands.

In this role, Paul looked after a large portfolio of high net worth farming businesses. He understands that farming isn’t just a business – it’s personal, and therefore any business decisions also have a deep impact on a whole way of life.

Through his excellent customer relationship skills, agricultural knowledge and banking expertise, he’ll be delivering clients a choice of the best lending options from across the whole finance market – which in turn will enable them to live the lives of which they dream.

Graham has a total of 44 years of experience in banking. Working his way up through various commercial banking roles in Lloyds Bank, he spent 16 years as a Regional Agricultural Manager for agricultural and rural businesses in Sussex and Surrey before joining R&BS in 2014.

His huge amount of business and agricultural banking knowledge and experience helps Graham ensure his clients are structuring their business plans and lending applications in exactly the right way for the right lenders to get positive lending responses.

Graham epitomises the R&BS ethos of putting clients first. He knows when and where there is room to negotiate with lenders and finds clients the best and most suitable lending rates and terms to enable them to take their businesses forwards.

David has over 40 years’ experience with Lloyds Bank in a variety of roles. He spent 15 years as Regional Agricultural Director in East Anglia looking after a diverse range of agricultural and rural businesses.

David joined us in 2016, after he'd been with Robinson and Hall Land and Property Professionals, where he was a consultant looking after their Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (AMC) clients.

He has a huge amount of experience from the agricultural banking industry and provides clients in East Anglia with independent access to the most suitable lending products, rates and terms.

Nic is a progressive farmer running a mixed livestock enterprise. She manages a flock of 300 ewes, including a Maedi Visna (MV) accredited pedigree Texel flock alongside a commercial flock of mules. Nic also runs a small suckler herd with a Hereford bull and bucket-rears around 100 calves annually.

Prior to her successful farming career, Nic graduated with First-Class Honours in Pharmaceutical Science and gained valuable experience in the healthcare sector. Nic now applies her scientific knowledge, analytical skills, and industry experience to continuously advance her farming operation by embracing modern technical practices.

This unique blend of skills and expertise positions Nic perfectly to support R&BS clients in achieving their ambitions, combining insights from both a farming and farm finance perspective.

Farmers’ daughter and now a partner in her family farm, Polly not only understands our audience, she is our audience. A graduate of Seale-Hayne, she’s been fully immersed in farming all her life, and in marketing and communications to farmers for over 20 years.

Crucially for R&BS, 15 of those years were in the marketing team of The Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (AMC) and Lloyds Bank Agriculture. She holds a Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) Post-Graduate Diploma in Marketing and is a member of the Guild of Agricultural Journalists. 

Polly brings tremendous experience of communicating financial services to our farming and rural professional audience, and applies that through our website, social media, newsletters, events and local marketing support.