Interview with Sinead Moynihan - Mint Bridging BDM

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Given the chance to meet any famous woman past or present, Sinead Moynihan is only interested in going straight to the face of the money, apt for the head of sales at (not quite The Royal) Mint Bridging.

“The Queen. I would love to have a completely open, no holds barred conversation with her on how she has handled being the monarch of this country and what she makes of the changes she has seen,” she says.

Intel on how the head of the royal family has handled the many professional (not to mention personal) trials and tribulations of leadership would no doubt come in handy for marshalling clients at Cheshire-based Mint.

Moynihan joined the lender – which last year won Best Bridging Lender at the SME News awards – in January 2017, and by September the company was reporting its best ever year up to that point.

Her path to bridging followed a decision not to go to university and instead launch straight into her career, by first falling into the financial sector via a quite different end of the industry, insolvency practice.

The experience of working with individuals trying to dig themselves out of unmanageable debt taught Moynihan some valuable lessons. “It’s massively helped with assessing risk as I have been at the end when transactions have gone wrong,” she says.

Finance often struggles to attract younger people and women. Many criticise the sector as a boy’s club culture of less than progressive attitudes, where women can struggle to break through the glass ceiling to reach senior management level, as Moynihan has.

With sales being particularly male-dominated, has she ever encountered sexist attitudes or assumptions?

“With older generations, yes,” she admits, adding “I believe in the main it’s a generational attitude”, perhaps in a signal the industry is finally changing for the better with younger cohorts who have not cut their teeth on the excesses of decades back.

Luckily there have also been a wealth of role models around Moynihan to guide and grow her ambitions in the last three years, who she was smart enough to listen to when in doubt about which course of action to take.

“There isn’t one single person, I’ve learnt from my colleagues within Mint Bridging, and my peers within the industry,” she says.

“I do think role models or mentors are important, it’s always good to listen to someone with experience and to get their opinion and to make your own decisions based off of those conversations and experiences.”

Mint Bridging may be the best lender to work for in the country, or perhaps Moynihan is getting some serious hush money, but when pressed to name a single annoyance she would change about her role, she couldn’t muster a thing.

“Fortunately nothing springs to mind,” she says, “I love the challenges of my job.” Sometimes, it seems, the glass really is half full.