Global Jet Capital announced the appointment of Graeme Shanks as sales director, Northern Europe and sub-Saharan Africa.

Prior to joining Global Jet Capital, Shanks was vice president for Sales, Business Aircraft Finance at CIT, where he led the company’s sales and origination activities across the Middle East and Africa regions.

Based in London, Shanks’ primary responsibility will be coordinating and overseeing business jet financing and leasing for clients across the UK, Scandinavia and northern Europe as well as key sub-Saharan markets such as Nigeria and South Africa.

Shanks began his career as an officer in the British Royal Navy before entering the world of aviation consulting, first with roles at European defense and aerospace company Thales, and then joining leading London-based aviation consultancy AMS Aircraft as head of marketing. At AMS, Shanks was responsible for the development of the company’s business aviation services with a wide range of clients, including banks, leasing companies, multinationals and high-net-worth individuals.

Robert Gates, Global Jet Capital’s managing director, EMEA and APAC Sales, said: “I am pleased to welcome Graeme to the team at Global Jet Capital. Europe is one of our core markets and Graeme’s wealth of knowledge and experience of European and African business aviation will be invaluable to our expansion plans. Graeme is the third important hire in recent months as we have moved quickly to build out of our international origination team.”