She joined the board as non-executive director in 2021 and takes over from Robert Derry-Evans who is retiring.
Derry-Evans joined the board in 2014 and then became chair in 2015. He was a partner for 23 years at CMS Cameron McKenna specialising in corporate finance and project finance.
He is currently a director and shareholder of Omnia Legal, a solicitor practice in Bath.
Evans started her career in financial services as a management trainee at the mutual, where she focused on risk management in financial services.
After that, she held a wide range of roles at a number of companies. This includes the Financial Conduct Authority’s predecessor Financial Services Authority for around five years as a supervision manager for around five years.
Following that she worked at Deloitte as a senior manager, before spending nearly 11 years at Canada Life in various compliance, marketing and strategy roles.
From there, she held compliance director roles at Tesco Bank and Partnership, and then worked at Barclays for nearly five years in senior compliance roles.
‘First female chair in our history’
Kevin Gray, Bath Building Society’s chief executive, said: “Joanne takes over the position of chair from Robert Derry-Evans upon his retirement. We are delighted that Joanne has moved from being a non-executive director to being the first female chair in our history.
“She has been with the Society just over two years and has brought a wealth of risk and regulatory knowledge with her already. I look forward to working with her as the Society aims to significantly ramp up its investment in people, process and technology over the next two years in order to deliver productivity benefits and to improve customer journeys”.
