Bath Building Society has appointed Tom Leach as finance director designate ahead of current finance director Kevin Gray’s promotion to chief executive later this month.
Tom, pictured, joined the society in February as an executive director from Cardiff-based Principality Building Society.
In his new role he has responsibility for the society’s accounting, liquidity management and treasury functions, together with IT.
He started his career at accountancy firm Deloitte in 2002 and worked with a diverse range of businesses and industry sectors in the South West and Wales.
He qualified as a chartered accountant in 2005 before specialising in financial services in 2006. He joined the Principality in 2010, initially as a management accountant, before moving on to head the finance change function, leading a number of significant regulatory and systems change programmes. He was most recently group financial controller at the Principality.
Tom will become finance director on April 26, the same day that Kevin Gray’s takes over as chief from Dick Jenkins, who is retiring after 15 years with the society.
Dick Jenkins said: “We are delighted to have someone of Tom’s calibre and experience joining the society. I have no doubt that he will make an excellent contribution and be part of a successful proven management team able to take the society into the next chapter of its history.”
The management changes take place shortly after the society reported that mortgage lending at an all-time high.
Its mortgage book in 2017 increased in value by 4.9% to end the year at a record high of £242.5m, with gross mortgage lending up 9.1% at £47.6m.
The society’s assets increased by 4.4% to £311.7m and it also achieved an 11.9% increase in its reserves to £33m.
While pre-tax profit rose by 23.5% to £4.2m, it included a number of one-off items, including the sale last November of its subsidiary Bath Property Letting to Berkshire-based independent property services group Romans.
Dick Jenkins said: “We have had another excellent year in which, despite huge competition and a rather lacklustre housing market, we have once again grown our mortgage book and successfully targeted groups of customers that are poorly served by the big banks.
“Over the years, this building society has, quite rightly, won acclaim for being innovative and being prepared to be flexible in the way that we lend to and service our customers. As I bring my career at Bath Building Society to a close, I am proud to leave behind a business that is in good shape, in good hands and at the top of its game.
“It has been a pleasure and a privilege to steer this organisation through the troubled waters of the financial crisis to a place where it has a distinctive place and a promising future in an increasingly challenging financial services marketplace.”
Bath Building Society, which was set up in 1904 to offer savings, investments and mortgages to the local community, today provides services to more than 10,000 savers,and 1,200 mortgage customers.
It employs around 50 staff in its head office in Queen Square, Bath, and its branches in Wood Street and Oldfield Park. It also provides services through agents in Bristol, Ilminster, Midsomer Norton, Shaftesbury, South Petherton and Wellington.
