{"id":542976,"date":"2026-07-15T16:48:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T16:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/542976\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T16:48:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T16:48:14","slug":"nationwide-customer-vows-to-fight-on-after-failed-attempt-to-join-board-nationwide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/542976\/","title":{"rendered":"Nationwide customer vows to fight on after failed attempt to join board | Nationwide"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Nationwide<\/a> customer has vowed to fight on after losing a historic attempt to join its board and is plotting a fresh campaign to boost democracy at the building society.<\/p>\n

James Sherwin-Smith secured about 12.5% of the vote, representing support from 75,939 Nationwide members, at the mutual\u2019s annual general meeting on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

That left him far short of the 50% threshold needed to become the first customer to join the 142-year-old building society\u2019s board in nearly a quarter of a century<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It came after a tense few months<\/a> between the West Sussex resident and the board, which vetted and ultimately rejected the 45-year-old\u2019s boardroom run, saying he did not have the experience required to help direct a \u00a3368bn high street lender.<\/p>\n

The board recommended that members vote against the former Oliver Wyman consultant. The move hindered his chances<\/a> of being elected, given boardroom recommendations are bundled into a single \u201cquick vote\u201d option that allows members to back all boardroom views with a single click of a button.<\/p>\n

Sherwin-Smith also hopes to trigger a special general meeting aimed at reforming Nationwide\u2019s rules<\/p>\n

Last year 87% of about 670,000 votes cast used the quick-vote system. Nationwide has about 19 million members, though only a fraction of those usually cast votes.<\/p>\n

Sherwin-Smith said he would not be deterred by the outcome, adding that he was launching a fresh campaign agitating for change at Nationwide, which critics claim has been drifting from its democratic ethos<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He announced on Wednesday<\/a> that he would stand for election again at the 2027 AGM and planned to start gathering member nominations immediately. He encouraged others interested in becoming board candidates to come forward, saying he would \u201cshare what I\u2019ve learned\u201d with other members.<\/p>\n

Building societies, which are owned by their members, remain one of a few UK sectors that legally give customers the right to nominate peers for boardroom elections.<\/p>\n

However, the last member to sit on Nationwide\u2019s board retired in 2002 and there are no member-nominated directors sitting on any of Britain\u2019s 42 building society boards.<\/p>\n

Sherwin-Smith said he would also launch a campaign to trigger a special general meeting aimed at reforming Nationwide\u2019s rules.<\/p>\n

It includes proposals to end the quick vote system, guarantee at least two board members are nominated by members and introduce binding votes on executive pay, in line with shareholder-owned companies.<\/p>\n

The special meeting would call to reinstate hybrid AGMs, which are currently online-only, and give members a \u201cmeaningful vote on major strategic decisions\u201d to avoid the kind of <\/a>controversies triggered by the lender\u2019s \u00a32.9bn takeover of Virgin Money<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Nationwide bosses faced a range of questions at the AGM on Wednesday, including many raising concerns about its governance, rising executive pay and the board election process.<\/p>\n

About 95% of votes were cast in support of Nationwide\u2019s pay report, which was recommended by the board, after the building society nearly doubled<\/a> the pay of Debbie Crosbie, the chief executive, to \u00a34.7m.<\/p>\n

Debbie Crosbie, Nationwide\u2019s chief executive, with Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, in 2024. Photograph: Isabel Infantes\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question is no longer whether governance at Nationwide should evolve, the question is how quickly members want that to happen,\u201d Sherwin-Smith said. \u201cI intend to spend the coming year helping members answer that question.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nationwide said: \u201cThis year\u2019s AGM demonstrated the strength of engagement across Nationwide\u2019s membership, with the highest attendance in 15 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe board\u2019s recommendations received overwhelming support and 88% of our members decided that electing Mr Sherwin-Smith to Nationwide\u2019s board would not be in the best interests of the society or its members.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Nationwide customer has vowed to fight on after losing a historic attempt to join its board and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542977,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[114,85,46],"class_list":["post-542976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}