Society Welcomes New Non-Executive Director Mike Jones

Mike has a wealth of experience and is highly respected in the financial services industry with a career spanning over 40 years.

He spent over 25 years at Principality Building Society, holding a number of senior leadership positions, before becoming Chief Risk Officer in 2009 and being appointed to the board in 2013.  He was also their Interim Chief Executive Officer for a period in 2019 and 2020.

Mike also holds a Non-Executive Director position at POBL Housing Group and was a member of the UK Finance Mortgage Product and Service Board from 2019 until 2022.

On starting his role, Mike comments “I am very much looking forward to working alongside a talented team with such a strong focus on serving local communities. At a time when banks, and so many other businesses are withdrawing from face-to-face interaction with customers, I believe the Society’s commitment to the high street is becoming increasingly important.”

Will Carroll, Chief Executive Officer at Monmouthshire Building Society comments “We’re pleased to have Mike join as a new Non-Executive Director, it’s great to see us adding to the diverse thinking around our board. Mike’s wealth of experience in the financial sector and particularly with his knowledge of Building Societies is a great addition; after we welcomed James Greenwood late last year, who has experience in startups and technology in the financial service sector. I look forward to working with him in implementing our strategy and continuing to support our colleagues, members, and communities to thrive.”

Meet our new NED – A spotlight on Mike Jones

What has been the most rewarding part of your career?

I have spent over 40 years working in a variety of different financial services roles: often in Head Office departments which really helped me to understand strategy, but I think the roles I have found most rewarding have been those where I was dealing directly with customers, in both retail and commercial lending environments. I think that gave me a real appreciation of some of the different challenges faced by customers of all types, and a great deal of satisfaction when some of the decisions I took and the advice I offered made a positive impact on people’s long-term prosperity.

What’s been the best piece of advice you’ve been given?

When I started out on my career [it now feels like a very long time ago!] I was always told to ‘look, listen and learn’ to see how others succeeded or dealt with failure when responding to challenges and opportunities. I tried to follow that advice and although not obvious to me at the time, I eventually realised that many of the great [and not so great] things I saw helped me to decide what to do when faced with similar circumstances. No one is infallible, and I learned most from the humility and honesty of some of the managers I worked for who were willing to acknowledge and share those experiences with me- I owe them a great deal.

If you had to choose another career path, what would it be and why?

Hmm, that’s a difficult one…. I did consider a career as a journalist while still at school. My grandfather was, in his day, the editor of a couple of well-known regional newspapers. I drew a great deal of inspiration and encouragement from him and for a while I thought seriously about following in his footsteps. He did try to teach me shorthand [an essential skill for a reporter in those days] and that proved to be a great struggle, although I have often wondered whether I would have enjoyed a career on Fleet Street if I had followed things through instead of heading into the world of banking.