Graham Beale

Graham John Beale CBE (born 19 October 1958) and former Chief Executive of the Nationwide Building Society.

Beale joined Anglia Building Society in 1985 as a chartered accountant in the internal audit function.

Anglia Building Society merged with Nationwide Building Society in 1987. At Nationwide Building Society, he was involved in a number of major transactions including the buying and selling of subsidiary businesses. This included the sale of Nationwide Estate Agents in 1994 and the acquisition of UCB Home Loans in 1995.

Beale was appointed Managing Director of a Glasgow subsidiary in 1997.

In 2002 he became Divisional Director, Commercial and then joined the Board in 2003 as Group Finance Director. He was appointed Chief Executive on 1 April 2007.

In his first year as Chief Executive, Beale oversaw the successful merger of the Portman Building Society – the largest merger the mutual sector had ever seen.

During the financial crisis, Beale also oversaw mergers with three smaller building societies; the Derbyshire Building Society and Cheshire Building Society in 2008 and the Dunfermline Building Society in 2009. In 2012, plans were announced to integrate these three brand names into one ‘Nationwide’ brand.

More recently, he has overseen a £1 billion five-year investment in infrastructure to improve the Society’s core savings, mortgages and banking systems. This has resulted in the launch of two new current accounts (FlexPlus and FlexDirect), a mobile banking app, a new online bank, an ISA track and trace service, new mortgage processing software and a new data centre.

Beale has been a member of the FCA Practitioner Panel – representing Building Societies – since 1 August 2011. He was appointed Chairman of the FCA Practitioner Panel from 1 April 2013.

He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to the financial services sector.

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