Leading experts join advisory board

Birmingham-based financial mutual Wesleyan has welcomed a number of leading experts from the medical, dentistry and education professions to its Members Advisory Board.

The Board has been restructured to ensure it provides representation at every career stage, strengthening Wesleyan’s ability to identify and anticipate customer needs and allow the mutual to be truly customer centric.

The move supports Wesleyan’s aspiration to be a lifelong partner to its professional customers helping them to create brighter financial futures.

Dr Judith Husband, an associate dentist in Northamptonshire, who has sat on the Members Advisory Board for almost 10 years now, has been appointed co-chair alongside Richard Gill. Richard leads Arthur Terry Learning Partnership, a multi academy trust.

Dr Husband said: “I'm very excited to be co-chair and to see how we can expand the insights from our doctors, dentists and teachers to make sure Wesleyan continues to provide customers with the right financial guidance and services for them.”

Richard Gill added: “Teachers are going through some challenging times, and I am very pleased to be able to represent the profession and share my insights, helping ensure they get the kind of tailored financial support they need throughout their teaching careers and beyond.”

The Board has also welcomed eight new members:

• Dr Thuva Amuthalingam, a locum GP, associate non-executive director at the Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust and a board member of the Royal College of GPs Midland Faculty.

• Dr Lauren Harrhy, practice owner of Sparkle Dental Centre and a British Dental Association representative and former member of the Principal Executive Committee. Founder of Mental Dental, a group for dentists in crisis, and co-founder and trustee of the Confidental Helpline.

• Dr Sabena Jameel, a practicing GP in Birmingham for over 23 years and a clinical associate professor in Medical Professionalism and Academic Quality lead at Birmingham University.

• Professor James Kingsland OBE, a primary care physician with over 40 years’ service to the NHS. A clinical professor in the School of Medicine at UClan, Clinical Director in Saving Lives International CIO and Chair of the UK Digital Clinical Excellence Forum. 

• Adrian McLean, an executive leader at a Multi Academy Trust who undertakes a number of voluntary roles in the School Governance and diversity, equity and inclusion spaces.
• Dr Dilsher Singh, a GP Partner with the Modality Partnership in Birmingham and GP Training Programme director for the West Midlands. 
• Jason Skyrme, a head of Sixth Form and assistant headteacher with 25 years’ experience of working in education including as a senior teacher in a range of educational settings. 
• Dr Harpreet Sood, a Wesleyan non-executive director and practising NHS GP, also a Health Education England board member and co-founder of the NHS Digital Academy.

Mario Mazzocchi, Wesleyan Group chief executive, said: “As a mutual, we have no shareholders so we can focus on our members, customers and colleagues.

“As such, it’s really important to us that we are plugged into the views of our members and the insights from the Members Advisory Board help inform how we continue to evolve our services to reflect their needs. All of the Board members have hugely impressive credentials and bring with them many years of experience in their respective professions.

“Their knowledge will help us to make sure that we deliver a positive impact and an unrivalled service to all our customers across the medical, dentistry and education sectors.”