Wesleyan, the specialist financial services mutual, has bolstered its Group executive team with a number of new appointments and internal promotions, as it enters the next phase of its ambitious growth strategy.
Nathan Beckett was promoted to the role of Chief Financial Officer on 1 April from his position as Managing Director of Dental, General Insurance and Direct. He now sits on the Society’s Board of Directors.
Nathan joined Wesleyan in 2008 as part of the corporate audit team. He has held a number of senior roles across the Group, including Managing Director of Practice Plan Group, a Wesleyan subsidiary specialising in providing practice branded dental membership plans. He successfully led the Group through a period of record growth in dental membership plans.
Nathan is a qualified chartered accountant and, prior to joining Wesleyan, held roles in audit practice and financial training. In addition to finance, he is responsible for the company secretarial and legal teams.
Katie Wadey joins the business as Chief Product and Commercial Officer from Simplyhealth, where she held a similar role. She has over 20 years’ experience working in in a range of customer-focused and commercial roles within blue chip companies including British Gas, BT and Tesco, where she was Customer Experience Director. She was also Group Customer Director at Aviva and Chief Customer Officer at LV=.
Katie will play a key role in setting Wesleyan’s future direction as it evolves its strategy of sustainable growth, focusing on meeting the changing needs of customers. She will lead Wesleyan’s corporate strategy, new business development, products, proposition, marketing and communications teams.
Karen Blatchford joined Wesleyan in February as Managing Director of Dental, Direct and Intermediary Distribution, after eight years at Quilter. Her most recent role there was Distribution Director, responsible for the UK platform and associated products. She has over 25 years’ experience in the financial services sector, including 17 years at Legal & General, and has held senior roles in distribution, products and proposition development, sales and marketing.
Karen will oversee the work of Wesleyan’s direct and intermediary channels, as well as lead Practice Plan Group.
Linda Wallace joined Wesleyan in 2017 and has held various roles within our advice business Wesleyan Financial Services (WFS). Linda was promoted to Managing Director of WFS and GI in January of this year and joined the Group Executive Committee to support Wesleyan’s growth agenda.
Prior to joining Wesleyan, Linda had over 25 years’ experience within the Financial Services and Healthcare sectors and has held a number of Distribution leadership roles within several major Financial Service businesses including Aviva, AXA, Bupa and NFU Mutual.
Faraz Tasnim has also been promoted to the Group Executive Committee as Chief Transformation Officer having served as Group Transformation Director since 2022. Faraz’s experience is helping to drive Wesleyan’s exciting transformation activities as the business aims to be a more sustainable and modern mutual.
Faraz has over 20 years’ experience spanning transformation, commercial, finance and consulting roles; and most recently he spent six years working at Quilter. Prior to that, he spent time at Direct Line Group, Hastings Direct, Lloyds Banking Group and Rolls Royce.
The new executives join David Stewart (Chief Operating Officer), Jon Welsh (Chief Risk Officer) and Lisa Perkins (HR Director) to complete the Group’s Executive Committee, chaired by Group Chief Executive Mario Mazzocchi.
Mario said: “This is an exciting time for Wesleyan. Over the past four years we have made significant progress in delivering a complex transformation strategy, designed to strengthen the foundations of the business and giving us a strong and sustainable base on which to grow.
“We are now ready to focus on unlocking the huge potential we have to increase the reach and depth of our specialist offering, while evolving to meet changing customer needs and also strengthening our position in the intermediary market.
“I’m delighted to have Katie and Karen join the business to work alongside our promoted internal talent on our Executive team. I’m confident that, together with our colleagues, we’ll lead Wesleyan successfully through the next chapter of its 183-year history.”
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