Awards special
Ambassador Award
December 2007
The Ambassador Award recognises diplomatic and spokesman skills which have reflected well on the industry generally, as well as the recipient's own organisation and is prepared to champion the industry whatever the issues.
Previous winners have included Martin Ritchley, former chief executive of Coventry Building Society; Michael Coogan, director general of the Council of Mortgage Lenders; Adrian Coles, director general of the Building Societies Association; Chris Cummings, director of the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries; Philip Williamson, formerly chief executive of Nationwide Building Society; and last year’s winner was Peter Williams, who has just stepped down as deputy director general of the Council of Mortgage Lenders.
This year’s Ambassador Award goes to Matthew Bullock, chief executive of Norwich & Peterborough Building Society, the 14th largest building society in the UK. Matthew joined the society as chief executive in 1999 and had an amazing year as chairman of the Building Societies Association 2006 to 2007. He played an important role in the Butterfill Bill - a significant piece of primary legislation which relaxes important funding constraints on building societies’ balance sheets. Another cause he championed was the lost accounts issue, which involves tracing the owners of lost and dormant savings accounts. Matthew also helped to resolve the BSA’s pension scheme deficit and the BSA’s office move from Saville Row to Holborn. All this was set against a lively 12 months for the building society industry and Matthew undertook scores of interviews.
Combined with record results at Norwich and Peterborough, the society was the first financial organisation to gain the Basel II waiver. This achievement has already been recognised in the Mortgage Finance Gazette Awards this year winning the Innovation Award for Small to Medium Sized Lenders. N&P was also the first building society to achieve the CarbonNeutral quality mark and has long been a strong advocate of green mortgages, launching the first carbon neutral mortgage in 2000.
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