Our Team - Harpenden Building Society

We are run day-to-day by an Executive Committee and overseen by an elected Board of Directors.

The Board are responsible for directing and supervising the Society’s affairs. Ensuring that it meets its statutory and regulatory obligations and protecting the interests of our members. It also has a duty to ensure that the Society maintains proper accounting records and effective business control systems.

The Board delegates certain powers and responsibilities to Board sub-committees, chaired by Non-Executive Directors and attended by a blend of Non-Executive Directors, Executive Directors and members of the Executive Committee.

The Board

Chairman
Nigel Boothroyd

Nigel joined the Society as a non-executive director in March 2019 and was appointed Chair in April 2024 having previously held the role of Vice Chair. He is Chair of the Society’s Nominations Committee and a member of the Remuneration Committee.

He has significant executive-level experience within financial services, having spent some 38 years at HSBC Group. He has carried out a number of senior roles, with experience of corporate and commercial banking; credit risk; operational risk; retail banking and wealth management.

Nigel has served on a number of Executive and Risk Committees within the UK, Europe and North America. He was also the National Head of Corporate Banking with HSBC Canada between 2012 and 2015.

Nigel is an experienced non-executive director and in addition to his role at the Society, is Chair of the Remuneration and Nominations Committees at British Arab Commercial Bank plc.

Non Executive Director
Lesley Beecher

Read more

Lesley joined the Society as a non-executive director in July 2021. She is Chair of the Remuneration Committee and a member of the Audit Committee, Nominations Committee, and the Transformation Committee.

Lesley has worked in financial services for the last 25 years. She is a technology specialist and was a retail banking CIO in her previous role. In parallel, for the last 7 years Lesley was a non-executive director for a company offering services to the credit union sector.

Lesley has 4 grown up children and enjoys walking; having planned and completed several long distance trails.

Non Executive Director
David Green

Read more

David joined the Society as a non-executive director in October 2020. He is the Vice Chair, Senior Independent Director and chairs the Society’s Audit Committee. He is also a member of the Board Risk & Compliance Committee

He is a chartered accountant with around 40 years’ experience in retail
financial services. He joins us having recently retired as CEO of a leading private bank. He also served as an independent non-executive director for 7 years at a challenger bank.

Non Executive Director
Mark Willis

Read more

Mark joined the Society as a non-executive director in April 2019 and
is currently chair of the Board Risk & Compliance Committee and
member of the Audit Committee.

Mark has spent his career in financial services, most recently as Chief Risk Officer at National Counties Building Society which he joined in 2013. Previously, he served in a number of both operational and oversight roles in financial risk management at Nationwide Building Society (including Head of Market Risk) and with Nationwide Pension Fund as trustee.

Mark is currently a Reader in the Church of England and trustee of the National Counties Pension Fund.

He graduated in Philosophy Politics and Economics from Keble College, Oxford and is qualified as a Chartered Accountant and Corporate Treasurer. He also holds the PMI Award in Pension Trusteeship.

Finance Director
Mark Williams

Read more

Mark joined the Society as Finance Director in November 2023.

Mark is a qualified chartered accountant, with nearly 30 years’ experience within Financial Services. After qualifying, he spent many years within Investment Banking working at Standard Bank, Lehman Brothers and Deutsche Bank. More recently Mark has worked at various retail and commercial banks including Lloyds Bank, the Co-operative Bank and Jordan International Bank where Mark was CFO and Acting CEO as well as a Board member. He has extensive experience across Finance, Treasury and Risk roles.

Mark is a member of the Board and Executive Committee and chairs the ALCO Committee.

Non Executive Director
Trevor Barratt

Read more

Trevor joined the Society as a non-executive director in January 2025 and is Chair of the Transformation Committee and a member of the Board Risk & Compliance Committee. He is also the Consumer Duty Champion.

Trevor has over 25 years’ experience as a senior executive in governance and risk management, with the majority of this time spent in mainstream retail and commercial banking. For several years he was the Head of Strategic Risk for Lloyds Bank Plc, working within the Group Risk function, and subsequently he became the Chief Risk Officer of Charities Aid Foundation Bank, before moving to Duncan Lawrie Private Banking Group as an Executive Director, prior to moving to risk consultancy. He was a Non-Executive Director of a private bank, with an international clientele and more recently at Monmouthshire Building Society where he chaired the Risk Committee.

Chief Executive Officer
Tracie Pearce

Read more

Tracie joined the Society as Chief Executive Officer in May 2024.

Tracie has over 29 years’ experience in retail banking across three major financial institutions, Nationwide Building Society, HSBC and most recently Santander, where she was the Chief Customer Officer, Homes at Santander UK. At HSBC she started as Head of Mortgages before becoming the Director of Retail Banking for HSBC UK. Tracie started her career at Portman Building Society before moving to Nationwide Building Society following the merger of the two societies; in her 19 years in the mutual sector, she ran the prime and specialist mortgage portfolios and savings book.

Executive Committee

Chief Executive Officer
Tracie Pearce

Read more

Tracie joined the Society as Chief Executive Officer in May 2024.

Tracie has over 29 years’ experience in retail banking across three major financial institutions, Nationwide Building Society, HSBC and most recently Santander, where she was the Chief Customer Officer, Homes at Santander UK. At HSBC she started as Head of Mortgages before becoming the Director of Retail Banking for HSBC UK. Tracie started her career at Portman Building Society before moving to Nationwide Building Society following the merger of the two societies; in her 19 years in the mutual sector, she ran the prime and specialist mortgage portfolios and savings book.

Finance Director
Mark Williams

Read more

Mark joined the Society as Finance Director in November 2023.

Mark is a qualified chartered accountant, with nearly 30 years’ experience within Financial Services. After qualifying, he spent many years within Investment Banking working at Standard Bank, Lehman Brothers and Deutsche Bank. More recently Mark has worked at various retail and commercial banks including Lloyds Bank, the Co-operative Bank and Jordan International Bank where Mark was CFO and Acting CEO as well as a Board member. He has extensive experience across Finance, Treasury and Risk roles.

Mark is a member of the Board and Executive Committee and chairs the ALCO Committee.

Director of Operations
Gemma Fient

Read more

Gemma joined the society in March 2022 and is a member of the Executive Committee.

Gemma is an experienced Financial Services Operations Specialist, with a background spent managing Operational, Risk and Compliance functions for a variety of banks, building societies and mortgage lenders.

Gemma has been in the industry since 2003, during which she has held several senior positions, with experience of the end-to-end mortgage journey.

Gemma is responsible for the management and oversight of all our Operational functions within Mortgages and Savings (including the branch network).

Director of People and Culture
Shirine Vincent

Read more

Shirine is a career HR generalist, with most of her career spent in regulated financial services firms. She joins us from an early stage, dual-regulated digital bank with mutual origins and strong community links.

She founded, launched, and grew BiteSize Learning with two partners. It is a training company specialising in the design and delivery of short, modular training courses. As such, she has a strong focus on talent development and optimising performance and is committed to fostering an open, inclusive workplace where people can thrive.

Shirine lives in Bedford with her husband, Dominic, and they have two adult sons.

Director of IT & Transformation
Gary Richardson

Read more

Gary joined the Society’s Executive Committee in June 2021 as the Director of IT & Transformation. Gary has extensive experience in financial services having worked in the building society movement for all his 36-year career, in senior roles heading up IT and Operational Resilience.

Gary is a strong advocate of mutuality and the benefits this provides to our members. Gary plays a key role in ensuring IT services deliver the best possible service for business areas and supplying Transformation programs that provide safe and resilient future technology change for Harpenden Building Society.

He has an MSC in Leadership and Management.

Chief Risk Officer
Ian Jones

Read more

Ian joined the Society as Chief Risk Officer in March 2023 and is currently chair of the Credit Risk Committee and Operational Risk and Compliance Committee. Ian has been working in financial services for almost 30 years, most recently as Chief Risk Officer for the launch a new banking subsidiary of an overseas mutual financial institution.

Previously, he served in a number of both commercial and senior risk management roles at Lloyds Banking Group and Volkswagen Financial Services, both in the UK and overseas. Ian qualified as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG and graduated from Cambridge University in Natural Sciences.

Commercial Director
Ben Richardson

Read more

Ben joined as Commercial Director in August 2025 and is a member of the Executive Committee. He has over 15 years experience in Retail Banking and has held roles in both building societies and banks in intermediary distribution, marketing, product management and was most recently Head of Mortgage Propositions for Santander.

Ben is responsible for leading the marketing strategy, the intermediary sales team and the mortgage and savings product teams for the Society.

Society Secretary
Gavin Mullen

Read more

Gavin joined the Society in September 2021 as the Society Secretary and is a member of the Executive Committee. He is a solicitor and company secretary with over 20 years' experience working within financial services having previously worked at The Bank of New York Mellon and M&G Investments. He spent the first part of his career working at City law firms, Mayer Brown and Fieldfisher.

Gavin has extensive experience of advising boards and executive management on corporate governance matters, and implementing best practice and effective governance structures both in the UK and across the EMEA region.

In addition to his legal qualification, Gavin has a BA Hons in French.