Nationwide has issued a "lovely surprise" announcement for its 16 million members. Hannah Bernard, Director of Business Banking at Nationwide, has been appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in this year's King's Birthday Honours.
Recognition for Female Entrepreneurship
The award recognises Hannah's services to female entrepreneurship and access to finance for women. She is co-chair of the UK's Invest in Women Taskforce, which has brought together government, financial institutions and the investment community to secure more than £600 million in capital for female-led funds and founders, while challenging the systemic gender bias in the allocation of capital.
Taskforce Achievements
The Taskforce's other co-chair, entrepreneur Debbie Wosskow, was also awarded a CBE. Dame Debbie Crosbie, Nationwide's Chief Executive, said: "This is so well deserved. Hannah has helped to transform how the UK investment community views and supports female-led businesses and founders. That will unlock growth across the UK economy that simply would not have happened without Hannah's passion and the work of her Taskforce team."
Previous Honour
A CBE is one of the UK's highest honours and this award follows the OBE that Hannah received in 2021 for services to Financial Services during Covid-19. Hannah said: "This was a lovely surprise and recognises the importance of unlocking the depth of female talent in this country for everyone's future prosperity."
Nationwide's Role
Nationwide is one of the Invest in Women Taskforce's founding partners and provides investment capital, sponsorship and administrative support for its work. Nationwide is the world's largest building society, with over 16 million members. Following its acquisition of Virgin Money UK PLC, Nationwide is connected with one in three people in the UK and is the second largest provider of mortgages and retail deposits. The building society, which has branches in Birmingham, is rivalled by the likes of HSBC UK, Santander, Lloyds and more.
