Wesleyan appoints Gillian Cass as CFO

Commercial insurance and financial services provider, Wesleyan, has announced the appointment of Gillian Cass as CFO.

Cass will take on the role in November having more than 20 years experience in financial services.

She currently holds the position of CFO of customer savings and investment operations at M&G (previously Prudential).

Prior to Prudential, Cass held senior positions at Aviva including director of global finance operations, chief accounting officer of Aviva Investors and Chief accounting officer of the UK Life business.

In addition to her financial duties, she will have accountability for Wesleyan’s company secretary and strategy teams and will be a member of the society board.

She succeeds Ahmed Farooq, who joined Wesleyan in 2010 and became CFO in 2015. He will leave Wesleyan at the end of the year after a complete handover to Gillian.

Group chief executive Mario Mazzocchi said: “I am impressed with Gillian’s breadth of knowledge and her ability to interpret how a proactive and knowledgeable finance function can support and enable a firm like Wesleyan to better serve its customers and enhance returns for our members.

“As a member of my group executive committee I know Gillian will push us toward this goal and complement the diversity of thinking within this team.”

Cass added: “I am really looking forward to joining Wesleyan later this year to play a key role in delivering the strategic plans they have in place. 

“I bought into Mario’s vision for the business from our very first conversation and know that as a financial mutual they have their customers’ needs and members’ interests at heart – and that is a great model upon which we will build.”