Nationwide Building Society appoints Gunn Waersted to its Board and IT Strategy & Resilience Committee

SWINDON, 19-May-2017 — /EuropaWire/ — Nationwide Building Society today announces the appointment of Gunn Waersted, a senior financial services executive with a 35-year career spanning financial services, telecommunications and petrochemicals, to the Society’s Board and its IT Strategy & Resilience Committee. She becomes an independent Non-Executive Director with effect from 01 June 2017.

Gunn is currently Chairman of Norwegian telecommunications firm Telenor, where she is Chair of the People and Governance Committee and a member of the Sustainability and Compliance Committee. She is also Chairman of Petoro, a firm owned by the Norwegian government and responsible for managing the state’s oil and gas portfolio.

Throughout her career she has held senior positions within a range of large financial institutions, including DNB, SpareBank1 and most recently at Nordea, where she was a member of the Group Executive Management, CEO of the Wealth Management Division and Country Manager for Norway.  Previously, she had been CEO of SpareBank1 between 2002 and 2007, an alliance of mutually owned Norwegian savings banks which was the second largest retail bank in Norway. She was born in Norway and has an MBA from Oslo Business School.

David Roberts, Nationwide Building Society Chairman, said: “Gunn is a hugely experienced executive and a great fit for Nationwide. She has been a highly successful CEO of both public and mutually owned businesses, during which time she has driven through large-scale operational, cultural change and digital transformation programmes, all in pursuit of an improved experience for customers.  We are delighted that she has agreed to join the Society and look forward to working with her.”

Nationwide recognises that diversity is an important attribute of high performing boards and is committed to improving its gender and minority representation at all levels within the Society.  Gunn Waersted’s appointment means that almost 40 per cent of Nationwide’s Board and over half of the non-executive directors are now women.

About Nationwide
Nationwide is the world’s largest building society as well as one of the largest savings providers and a top-three provider of mortgages in the UK. It is also a major provider of current accounts, credit cards, ISAs and personal loans. Nationwide has around 15 million customers.

Customers can manage their finances in a branch, via the mobile app, on the telephone, internet and post. The Society has around 18,000 employees. Nationwide’s head office is in Swindon with administration centres based in Northampton, Bournemouth and Dunfermline. The Society also has a number of call centres across the UK.

SOURCE: Nationwide Building Societ

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