Bibby Financial Services announced Kate Smith has been promoted to head of operations, Midwest. In her new role, Smith will be responsible for managing the operations team and growing the portfolio while mitigating risk. She will report directly to Sue Duckett, managing director, Midwest.

Smith joins the Midwest team with 15 years of experience. She previously worked for the Bibby Financial’s international division in Banbury, UK as operations manager. In this role she helped develop the company’s international trade offering, linking Bibby Financial offices worldwide to facilitate international collections and money management across currencies, time zones and language barriers. Prior joining Bibby Financial, Smith worked in all areas of operations, including audit and relationship management at Aldermore Invoice Finance, Close Invoice Finance, IGF Invoice Finance and RDM Factors.

“We are thrilled to have someone with Kate’s background lead our operations team,” said Duckett. “At Bibby Financial Services we often recruit from our 146 offices across the world to fill key positions. The U.K. factoring market is quite mature so Kate will be able to bring the benefit of that knowledge and experience to our U.S. clients.”

Duckett added, “International opportunities are not only a way to share best practices; it’s also one of the truly great benefits of working at Bibby Financial Services. I myself started my career in the UK. We encourage our staff to take advantage of opportunities all over the globe for personal and professional growth.”