EVENT: Leading for Mutual Value – Speech by Joe Garner, Chief Executive, Nationwide

Wednesday 11th October 2017, 9am, The Attlee Suite, Portcullis House

Leading for Mutual Value” – A Speech by Joe Garner, Chief Executive, Nationwide – please click here to read a transcript of the speech and the Q&A

Joe Garner

Nationwide is the world’s largest building society and a top-three player in mortgages, savings and new current accounts in the UK. In his first speech in Parliament in a Nationwide capacity, Joe will set out his philosophy of leading for mutual value.

Joe will explore how financial services needs a new model of leadership if it is ever to regain the trust of society after the traumas of the last decade. Joe believes that business with a social purpose can and should play a role in improving society by tackling some of the big issues of the day, such as the housing crisis.

The fundamental belief that we can do more together than we can apart, is something that has lessons for all types of businesses. Joe examines how that plays out for an enterprise with a 150-year heritage in a world of technological disruption, zero-hour contracts and nearly a quarter of Britons over 75 within 15 years.

Joe Garner joined Nationwide as CEO in April 2016, inspired by the Society’s principle of mutuality and service ethos.

Consumer-focussed organisations have been at the heart of Joe’s working life. He spent his early career with consumer products companies, Procter & Gamble and Dixons Carphone. He was then invited to lead larger organisations, first as Head of HSBC’s UK retail and commercial businesses from 2010 to 2012. Then, in 2014 he became CEO at Openreach, the UK’s digital infrastructure provider. Joe was also Chair of the Financial Services Authority Practitioner Panel from 2011 to 2013, and a non executive director of the Financial Ombudsman Service from 2007 to 2010.

Since joining Nationwide, Joe’s mission has been to inspire colleagues to remain true to the Society’s social purpose; using the power of the collective to improve people’s lives. Joe is passionate about Nationwide’s core purpose of ‘building society, nationwide’. Joe is Chairman of the British Triathlon Trust. He lives in South London with his wife and son.

This is the third event in a programme of research supported by Pension Insurance Corporation into the purpose of finance. This programme was inspired by Andy Haldane’s speech to the New City Agenda annual dinner examining how we can restore public trust by improving financial education and establishing and communicating the purpose of financial services.

To register please email dominic.lindley@newcityagenda.co.uk