Temporary Branch Closures
Due to unforeseen circumstances our Colchester branch will be closed -
Saturday 18 September
We apologise for any inconvenience caused. Please visit any of our other branches or call us on 0800 072 1100.
Meet the team
We are here for you
Our people are our greatest asset so we’d like to introduce you to some of them. If you’d like to meet more of our team why not pop into your nearest branch where somebody will be pleased to welcome you.
Biography
Amber has been with Saffron since October 2020 and is a People Administrator within the People Team. Her responsibilities span across the employee life cycle, covering; Recruitment and On-boarding, Induction, absence management, Psychometric assessment feedback, Health & Wellbeing initiatives and general team administration. She enjoys making a difference to colleagues and supporting individuals through the recruitment process. She is passionate about Diversity and Inclusion and health & wellbeing initiatives that educate and improve happiness both at work and at home.
Biography
Beth joined the Society in March 2020, supporting the Marketing & Product team with a focus on Savings and B2C Marketing. Her role varies from supporting in digital marketing campaigns to producing creative assets for print. Assisting in the research and development of Savings products is also central to her work. Knowing that she is able to make a real difference to the financial wellbeing of members through providing meaningful financial products is a huge driver in her career here at Saffron.
“What I love most about working for Saffron is that no two days are the same! I am particularly interested in helping to create a Greener and more sustainable Society for members and colleagues, which I am able help promote alongside the other wide-ranging areas of my role. I am proud to work for a company that truly cares about my career and the members we serve.”
Biography
Charlotte has been with Saffron for 7 years, and heads up the Marketing & Product team. Responsibilities include all promotions across B2B and B2C, brand, product development and customer insight. She has a passion for putting the customer at the forefront of all activity, an area that is echoed in the societies strategy and values. “Making a difference to the financial wellbeing of our customer base, whether a first savings account, planning for retirement or getting on the property ladder is what drives me to get up in the morning. Members are at the heart of everything we do”
Please contact Charlie with all media enquiries.
Contact Charlotte Townsend
- Tel: Ext: 1267 / 01799 582904
- Email: charlotte.townsend@saffronbs.co.uk
Biography
Christian has been with Saffron for 16 years after joining as Manager of the Ware and Royston branches. He is currently the Head of Facilities and Property after taking on this role in April this year. Christians focus this year is to drive the Facilities department to be focused on its customers who are of course Saffron staff and their working environments. He will also be working on a number of exciting projects from environmentally friendly vehicles to the review of the Head office buildings. “The variety of work within Facilities and the people we deal with make this a very rewarding role”
Contact Christian Draper
- Tel: Ext: 1302 / 07884 181404
- Email: christian.draper@saffronbs.co.uk
Biography
Claire Joined the Society in 2005 working in branch, moving on to support the Executive team as PA to the CEO, before making the case for and fulfilling the role of Community Business Partner. Claire’s role is to support and build strong relationships, understand community issues and support the society’s strategic goal of making a positive sustainable difference to the communities in which we have a presence.
We provide financial support, education, time and expertise to help the Society to achieve this. “Educating and providing essential tools for financial health is a top priority as well as grant giving via our Community Fund. Visiting those who we make donations to and seeing what they do first hand is both humbling and inspiring at the same time. I am proud to work at Saffron”
Please contact Claire for all community related enquiries.
Contact Claire Hunnable
- Tel: Ext: 1227 / 01799 582753
- Email: claire.hunnable@saffronbs.co.uk
- Branch: Saffron Walden
Biography
Claire has been with Saffron since January 2016 and has over 16 years’ experience as a recruiter, including being the Director of her own agency. She now leads the recruitment process at Saffron - her role is to attract, develop and retain quality talent for the society. Claire strives to make a positive difference to the society through its people. “I feel very privileged to work with some incredible talent at Saffron, and working together with my People team colleagues and forward thinking technology we’re able to identify and grow talent better than ever before.”
Please contact Claire to discuss our career opportunities at Saffron.
Contact Claire Jose
- Tel: Ext: 1319 / 01799 582892
- Email: claire.jose@saffronbs.co.uk
Biography
Ed has been with The Society since March 2020 and supports the Marketing & Product team, with a focus on Mortgages. Ed’s role is to support in delivering a variety of effective campaigns to drive mortgage sales and new product development, with the ultimate goal to promote financial wellbeing and money happiness. Key responsibilities include supporting his team with innovating The Society’s mortgage products and services, and working closely with the Saffron For Intermediaries team to develop broker and key partner relationships and reach new business through strong B2B marketing campaigns.
“Saffron has been a great place to start my career, and I love having the opportunity to help others improve their financial wellbeing through a company that really cares about its members and community.”
Biography
Karen has been with Saffron for 16 years, and has been in her current role as Vulnerable Customer SME for the last two years. She initially joined at 18 after doing work experience with the Saffron Walden County High School, and later returned in a full time position. Key responsibilities include supporting customers through their journey with Saffron, providing support to both customers and staff, and ensuring continuous training is provided and correct outcomes. "I am a big fan of Saffron and how we look after our customers in such a way they form part of our family. Talking, listening and helping customers and staff is really important to me which is why I enjoy this role and Saffron so much."
Biography
Kelly joined Saffron in 2005 as a Branch Manager and now heads up the Service & Sales teams including the branch and telephone channels along with saving and payments operations. Having worked within the front-line Kelly is able to use her knowledge and passion for customer service to ensure customers and our local communities are at the heart of all services we provide, no matter what channel.
Biography
Maurice has been with the Saffron for 4 years and heads up the financial reporting arm of the finance department. Responsibilities include preparation of the statutory financial statements including the responsibility for managing the statutory audit, regulatory compliance and support of our customer facing departments. He has a drive and desire to maintain the financial health of the organisation while managing the regulatory change to deliver the best outcome for the Society and its members, ensuring that we can be here to support and reward our members for many years to come.
“Continuing to strengthen the financial position of the Society while navigating the ever changing regulatory landscape has a tangible benefit to our current and future members."
Please contact Maurice with any finance related enquiries.
Biography
Michael has been with the Society for 20 years and heads up the Commercial side of the Society’s Finance function as well as Treasury. His diverse role encompasses business planning, assessing profitability, capital utilisation and risk management. He also manages the reporting and analysis of the Society’s performance providing strategic support to the business. The treasury aspects of his role encompasses ensuring the Society hold sufficient funding and managing its exposure to interest rate risk. Michael has a passion for the Society’s ‘mutual’ approach and working for a business that treats its employees wellbeing as a priority.
Biography
Natalie has worked for the Society for 9 years, starting in the Mortgage Processing Team before joining the Risk & Compliance function in 2013. It’s this opportunity within the Society which led to a passion for risk to occur, gaining considerable amounts of knowledge and experience along the way. Now leading the Operational and Credit Risk side of the function, main responsibilities include ensuring robust and resilient monitoring and control frameworks are in place throughout the Society and a cohesive oversight of all risk aspects.
Our fundamental purpose is to protect member interests and ensure the Society does not expose itself to inadvertent risk either internally or externally. It’s this overarching principle that defines are approach to risk management in everything that we do.
Biography
Nick has worked for the Society for 14 years having completed 2 spells of work experience during his time at Saffron Walden County High School and Sixth Form. He has recently completed a Building Societies Association Masters degree in Leadership and Management, having been sponsored by Saffron Building Society; a degree run at Loughborough University. His responsibilities in his current role as Service Support Manager include recruitment for the Branch network and Customer Solutions Centre teams as well as training, coaching and development of the network staff, performance management and data management on commercial activities. His background at the Society is primarily within the Branch network working as a Customer Service Assistant, Customer Consultant, Retail Management Support and Branch Manager of 4 teams, so is heavily motivated around providing a service which stands out to our members.
Biography
Oliver has 17 years of financial services experience and joined the Society in 2019 as an interim Compliance Specialist. Since, Oliver has taken the Role of Head of Compliance. Oliver is responsible for ensuring that the Society operates in accordance with its regulatory duties and delivers exceptional outcomes for its customers; balancing this with business requirements to help the Society grow. Oliver is also responsible for determining the impact of future regulation and mobilise appropriate staff members for its implementation.
Biography
Peter has worked with Saffron for the last 7 years and heads up the Property Development team. The team provides development finance to developers and small house builders to help them to fund residential housing developments, property conversions and refurbishments in loan sizes of between £500,000 and £3m. Prior to working as a property banker, Peter's earlier banking career was in retail and corporate banking with HSBC, before shifting to development lending around the start of the millennium. Since then, the house building industry has become a major passion for Peter and he is thrilled to still be in the industry and able to continue to add value to developers by calling upon his many years of experience.
"I am lucky in having a very experienced team of property lending bankers who work with me in my team at Saffron, and between us we work with our developer customers from the point in time when they acquire the land, through to the sale of the completed houses; and we are able to follow the progress of the projects by working with our panel of monitoring surveyors throughout this process. Recently we have found ourselves working in challenging times (our developers have found Brexit and Covid in particular significant recent issues which they have had to contend with) and so this close working relationship between developer and experienced banker has proven crucial to the success of the project. In short, we see this working relationship as a partnership, and something which our developer customers are very grateful for, as it sets Saffron apart from some of the other lenders in our niche lending sector."
Please contact Peter for any Development Finance enquiries.
Biography
Rob has been with Saffron for 6 years, and is Digital Campaign Manager. Responsibilities cover Saffron Building Society, Saffron for Intermediaries and Saffron Mortgage Finders and their retrospective digital channels, Social Media and promotions. He enjoys working with Member feedback and colleague input to create promotions that help to bring awareness of the benefits the society can offer to both new and existing members. He is passionate in developing online tools such as webinars, podcast and our websites to offer support to those unable to visit a branch, and replicate the excellent branch service online.
Biography
Tom joined the Society in 2019 and is responsible for Treasury Front Office operations. As part of the Treasury and Finance team, Tom helps ensure that the Society has funding on hand to meet obligations such as customer mortgage completions and withdrawals from savings members, and that the Society appropriately manages financial risks. “Saffron has a friendly and collaborative working culture, and is very supportive of its staff development”.