We’re shining a spotlight on the people that make up the Mortgage Brain family by asking them a few questions to find out what makes them tick. So, join us for a coffee break with…

Iain MacKenzie

Iain is a long-serving member of the Mortgage Brain team. After a recent change of roles, he now heads up specialist projects helping to deliver our data and insight offering for lenders and intermediaries.

Iain, thanks for letting us get to know you better. Firstly, let’s start with a few questions about your time at Mortgage Brain. How long have you been working with the company?

Since June 2004. The industry was going through a lot of compliance and regulatory changes, and I was one of several who started with Mortgage Brain around that time after a big recruitment drive.

Would you say much has changed within the industry during your 17 years with Mortgage Brain?

The industry is now beyond recognition. When I started, we used to post out CD updates to brokers by the thousand and had banks of modem lines for daily FTP product updates.

Today’s cloud-based infrastructure is a technological world apart and we wouldn’t have known a penetration test (a cybersecurity technique) if it had leapt out and bitten us. With always-on, modern technology we have to guarantee that we have stringent measures to protect our customers, lenders and partners - ensuring the disk doesn’t fall out of the envelope is a far cry from today’s security measures.

You mentioned that you have recently taken on a new role with Mortgage Brain, what does that involve?

I’ve handed more than 15 years of project delivery over to our fantastic Head of Project Management Office and I am now delivering specialist projects that draw on my experience here. 

I’m just loving how analysing our data can provide unique and powerful insight for lenders and intermediaries alike. I’m also keeping a modest delivery presence by heading up our testing teams.

Now let’s dig a little deeper into Iain MacKenzie with some personal questions.

Do you have a claim to fame?

I’m proud of my Northumbrian heritage. I’m descended from a long line of lighthouse keepers and lifeboatmen that included Victorian national treasure, Grace Darling. Apart from that, the MacKenzies have their name sprinkled throughout 120 years of Newcastle United history.

In more recent times, I went to the same school as Mark Knopfler from Dire Straits and football legend, Alan Shearer.

What do you like to do to relax away from work?

In a word, ‘outdoors’. I live to dig, clear, plant, chop and saw. I have a few landscaping projects on the go and I will never run out of things to do at home. But I’m also now involved in amateur dramatics, I play in a brass band, I enjoy a game of badminton once a week, and there is always the odd pub quiz too.

If you could visit anywhere in the world, where would you go?

I’m very happy with my lot and enjoy being at home. I am not an ambitious traveller. However, I’d love to head east and go to Japan. I’m told that Vietnam is very lovely too. 

If you were asked to take one item to a desert island with you, what would it be?

My Swiss Army knife. I feel undressed without it and so it goes every with me, before my phone even.

What is your all-time favourite music track?

My roots are founded in the John Peel days. I remember recording his shows and he was very much an influencer.

Another Girl Another Planet by the Only Ones is probably my favourite track. The guitar intro used to introduce the ground-breaking Tube on Channel 4 and still makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.

I also love the band Half Man Half Biscuit and enjoy Nigel Blackwell’s lyrical wit and irreverent takes on everyday life. There would have to be a bit of New Wave and Ska thrown in too.

Red sauce, brown sauce, or no sauce at all?

Red

Do you have any phobias?

I conquered a brief fear of bats. I had to, I have so many flying around the house these days but it’s ok, they find their own way out.

What achievement in your life are you most proud of?

My three children. Without a doubt.

At Mortgage Brain, I am proud to have delivered solutions for some of the largest corporates and networks, that have all stood the test of time.

Have you ever met anyone famous?

I haven’t to be honest, I don’t pay much attention to celebrity. This is the pub quiz round I’m worst at, I can never place a famous face. Therefore, if I have met anyone famous, I haven’t realised it.

Cats or dogs?

Easy answer - dogs (Pickle & Pepper), always a joy and good company. And not only that, they keep you fit.

Coffee or tea?

Builder’s tea, thank you very much – no sugar. I don’t drink much coffee.

You’re having a dinner party. Which four celebrities would you invite?

If I’m allowed anyone from history it would be a Civil Rights leader; Martin Luther King, Gandhi or Nelson Mandela. 

Today I’d invite David Attenborough to join them because he is just fascinating. Who wouldn’t love to have Dave Attenborough at their dinner party with all his tales and anecdotes? And maybe there would just be room for John Peel as a gate-crasher.

Do you have a secret that nobody else should know about?

I have a knitted Alan Shearer doll at my bedside, knitted for me by a friend of a friend. It’s so old, Alan has hair.

Iain, many thanks for talking to us.