Nationwide customer seeking election to board hits out at lender for ‘unfair’ treatment | Nationwide
A nationwide customer seeking election to the board of his building society has criticized the lender for “unfair” treatment and undermining democratic governance after he said he would tell members to vote against him.
James Sherwin-Smith said Nationwide turned the field against him after confirming it would give members a default “snap vote” option that would include voting against his candidacy at the annual meeting in July.
Nationwide, the UK’s largest construction company, is jointly owned by its member customers. The last member to sit on Nationwide’s board retired in 2002, but Sherwin-Smith launched a campaign to change this, arguing it would help increase the lender’s accountability, amid concerns that members did not have enough say.
But Nationwide’s chairman, Kevin Parry, said on Thursday that Sherwin-Smith’s “selection would not be in the best interest of the community” because he lacks the necessary experience. It has 17 million members nationwide and assets of more than £377bn.
“They largely used that against me and also attacked me for my suitability for the board,” Sherwin-Smith said.
The quick vote option is available to members throughout the Nation as an easy way to comply with the board’s recommendations. Last year, 87% of nearly 670,000 votes cast used the express ballot system, meaning Sherwin-Smith will face an uphill battle to inform members of the proposed election.
He said the move to default to voting against him was a “dangerous precedent for reciprocity and democratic governance.” Labor MP Navendu Mishra last week criticized “emerging governance issues” in the construction industry sector.
He also said he blocked Sherwin-Smith nationwide from making changes to election materials and informing members that they should not use swing voting if they wanted him to join the board.
Sherwin-Smith also sought to rebut criticism that Nationwide had no experience on the issue. He is a former executive at payments company Vocalink and worked as a management consultant at Oliver Wyman, focusing on retail banking.
Sherwin-Smith in an update on its campaign wrote: “Boards benefit from diversity of perspectives and thought, not just similarity of background. Ultimately, I believe members should have the right to be represented by one of their own who is nominated and elected by them. I do not believe it is right for an incumbent board to act in a way that entrenches their own position and disadvantages a member-nominated candidate.”
Parry said: “No board, whether a partner or a public company, should ever recommend the appointment of a director who does not have the necessary skills and experience to do the job.
“Although our members will make the final decision in this election through the normal voting process used for all directors, Nationwide’s board of directors was unable to recommend Mr. Sherwin-Smith for election following its evaluation.”
