Furness Building Society has appointed Chris Wainwright as its new Chief Commercial Officer and he brings more than 25 years’ experience in the mutual finance sector to the role.

Joining Furness from Skipton Building Society where he spent a successful 18 years, Chris has enjoyed a varied career with responsibilities across financial services distribution, mortgage strategy and most recently, customer transformation. Chris has also held roles at Newcastle Building Society and Bradford and Bingley. 

At Furness, Chris will oversee and manage the 160-year old building society’s commercial operations which includes the product teams, branch network, digital distribution, direct mortgage and intermediaries functions as well as marketing and communications. Initial priorities will be to drive Furness’ ambition to be nationally known but locally famous and grow the society’s digital savings capabilities while also enhancing its mortgage proposition and services.

He steps into the role formerly held by Simon Broadley, who is now at the helm as Chief Executive Officer. 

Chris proudly resides in the village of Low Bentham on the edge of Furness Building Society’s Lancaster heartland, where he has lived with his family for seven years. When he’s not working, Chris is most often found outdoors with his wife and two children, running their smallholding. 

Simon Broadley, CEO of Furness Building Society, added: “I thoroughly enjoyed my three years as Chief Commercial Officer. It’s a vast and varied role and one I know Chris is going to thrive in. He brings an enormous amount of experience from the mutual finance sector which will serve us extremely well, not to mention a clear alignment with our human-led values and commitment to the local communities in our heartland. He is a great addition to our already hugely talented senior leadership team.” 

Chris added: “It’s an honour to step into Simon’s shoes as Chief Commercial Officer. What he achieved with the support of an incredible team of people is impressive - from the branch-wide transformation programme to the launch of Furness’ new digital platform. I will do my utmost to maintain this legacy and continue the society’s evolution as a building society for the future.”