Wesleyan appoints new-look top team to lead next phase of strategy
NewsPosted by: Dental Design 25th April 2024
Wesleyan, the specialist financial services mutual, has bolstered its Group executive team with two new appointments and a Board-level promotion, including a new Managing Director for Dental, as it enters the next phase of its ambitious growth strategy.
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.
Elsewhere, 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.
All three roles report into Group Chief Executive Mario Mazzocchi who 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 Nathan, Katie and Karen join the Executive team and I’m confident that, together with our colleagues, we’ll lead Wesleyan successfully through the next chapter of its 183-year history.”
