Shepherds Friendly has announced the appointment of Michael Williams as its first Chief Change Officer, a strategic hire that reflects the society’s commitment to modernising its future platform and product offering in line with evolving member needs.
Williams joins Shepherds Friendly with more than 15 years of experience in change, helping businesses establish best practice project management frameworks and steering them through complex transformations. He also has a proven track record in programme and project oversight.
His appointment comes as Shepherds Friendly embarks on an exciting period of growth ahead of its bicentennial in 2026. The mutual society has recently signed new partnership agreements with SimplyBiz and The Money Group as part of its goal to widen its intermediary footprint.
Williams will form a key part of the C-suite and his remit will include leading key transformation initiatives, ensuring these are aligned with the organisation’s business plans.
Williams joins from Schroders Personal Wealth, a financial planning startup backed by Lloyds Banking Group and Schroders. He took up the role of Portfolio, Programme and Project Lead in 2020, not long after the company entered the UK financial services market.
Prior to that, he worked as a senior manager at PwC for nine-and-a-half years, most recently as the North Change Team Leader. At the professional services firm, he worked on assuring the delivery of projects across a wide range of industries, with clients ranging from small start-ups that were just beginning to scale to multinational corporations.
Michael Williams, Chief Change Officer at Shepherds Friendly, said: “I’m extremely excited to join Shepherds Friendly, an organisation of like-minded people with a very attractive workplace culture. I look forward to working with teams across the society to determine which initiatives are best aligned with its strategy and provide the best value to members, then delivering on these with integrity.”
Ann-Marie O’Dea, Chief Executive Officer at Shepherds Friendly, added: “We’re delighted to welcome Michael into our team at what is a pivotal time for both our organisation and the mutual sector. We anticipate significant growth and change in the near future and Michael’s experience in guiding businesses through similar processes will be invaluable as we move forward.”
