Lending her skills to many major projects since joining NFU Mutual in 2015, Director of Marketing and Digital, Bev Mitchell has helped shape NFU Mutual into the company it is today. From her start as a graduate trainee to building entire brands around the globe - we sat down with Bev to hear her inspiring story, and to chat about her experiences as a successful woman in finance.
Thanks for taking the time to talk to us, Bev. You’ve had quite an interesting life that led you here – could you tell us a bit about your career before NFU Mutual?
My start in finance was very traditional, I got onto a graduate trainee programme with a major bank straight out of university. I was there for eight years hopping about – moving sideways into different teams every 18 months or so. I’d encourage anybody to do that, especially women, simply for the breadth of experience it gives you. I had the most amazing female role model who became Managing Director of the bank, and she’s still a major player doing extremely well in financial services.
But after eight years I started looking for a different job closer to home since I’d been travelling four hours every day. I got wind of a job opening that was very mysterious, they didn’t tell me what the role was until the final interview! It turns out it was a digital and brand management role for a bank that was being launched in six months. The role was right up my street, so I was there for a while, but then I followed my husband’s career and we moved to Australia, where I was lucky to find a job leading a huge programme for a local bank. By then, we’d both reached our early thirties, and we realised we’d kept taking all these risks with our careers, but we’d never taken any time out - so we decided to travel around Australia for a year, living in a tent. It was something we were able to afford, and we felt confident that we had good CVs to get jobs again when we came back to the UK.
By the time we moved back to London, the financial crisis had hit, but my old managers at the bank I’d done digital and brand management at reached out, asking me to come back and take the Head of Propositions role, to try and stop the money flooding out. Never fall out with your old boss as you never know when you might need a role! Then after a while, my husband got another job overseas, so we moved our family out to Qatar. I was sitting in a coffee shop there and I remember reading in the newspaper about the breaking down of the telephony monopoly. So, I literally guessed the email address of the CEO of Vodafone and sent him my CV. I got a call back that same afternoon, and the next day I was in a temporary office with four other people trying to launch this entire brand! It was bonkers - but such a remarkable experience. Sheikha Moza was our sponsor (the King of Qatar’s wife), so we had access to some unbelievable VIP events. One day I found myself paying for David Beckham to come out to Qatar to play a football match! But while that was going on I was also developing our brand and creative strategy as well as ordering printer paper! Talk about strategic to hands-on work!
Once our roles in Qatar were complete, we moved back to Australia – which is when I got my first role in insurance. I landed a fantastic role as Head of Marketing, Products and Digital at one of the country’s leading health insurers, a mutual with a very similar story and similar values to NFU Mutual. It was a really special organisation, and I made lifelong friends there. Life brought us back to London and got a job with a different insurance firm, where I was lucky enough to work on a private equity reset project. During a board meeting, I got a text from my husband telling me he’d been offered a job in Japan – and I told him to go for it! We had two children by this point, but they were still young, so we decided to take the risk again. We were there for 18 months, and as well as homeschooling every day on top of the international school my children were attending, I was working on projects back home too like renovating a house we had. It was all good and I got to meet great people from all over Asia and the world, but the time came when we knew it was time for our children to be back in the UK so they could settle down at school. It was at that time I got in touch with an old boss who happened to work at NFU Mutual who needed some help.
Sounds like a very interesting journey! How has it continued since joining NFU Mutual?
I joined NFU Mutual in April 2015. It was originally going to be in a 12-month consultancy role, however, there was a Head of Marketing vacancy, so I applied for the role and was successful. I was delighted to have the opportunity to grow the Head of Marketing role and work on new exciting strategic projects as well as run our BAU marketing and digital functions. Here at NFU Mutual, I have been given so many chances to develop and feel that the leadership team have really encouraged me to reach my full potential. When my old boss told me she was planning to retire, we discussed the possibility of me becoming her successor as Marketing and Digital Director. I’d never planned on being a director, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to do it! And now I’m the Marketing and Digital Director and truly delighted to be.
You mentioned a few people who could be considered role models in your career. How important is it to have women in senior roles at NFU Mutual?
It’s exceptionally important. When I first started at NFU Mutual, there were only a handful of women in senior roles. It’s definitely changed and is continuing to change, which is great, and I feel lucky that I’ve worked for some very successful women in my career.
And now people see me as a role model, which feels a bit strange! I was having a chat with my manager recently and as I was walking up the stairs everyone was saying hello to me. My manager said, “You don’t realise the impact you have on people now. People know you and look up to you.” It felt a bit funny, but it’s true!
Sadly, I think what holds a lot of women back in finance is that it’s hard to balance family life. I’m generalising, but women are often seen as the primary child carer, so they take maternity leave and sometimes find it difficult to come back to work. That’s why I always encourage women to come in and do what we call “keeping in touch days”, where women come in for a paid day of work as often as they can during their maternity leave. And when women do return to work, we try our hardest to accommodate flexibility.
How is NFU Mutual supporting opportunities for female colleagues?
Flexibility is a big part of it. We have an informal home working policy which allows employees to work a portion of their week from home, which is great for parents. You need to be open-minded and support people to fit their career around their lives. I could name so many women who only work three days because that’s just what their lifestyle dictates – but each of them goes above and beyond because they care, and they feel supported. There’s no point spending years investing in talent and then watching it walk out the door. If someone comes to you and says: “I can’t work five days right now as I’ve got family life to juggle – I need Fridays off”, what are you going to say? Many companies would say no – but to me, it makes sense to offer flexibility when it’s needed, providing it’s ok for the business needs.
Representation of women in senior levels is a big focus at NFU Mutual. We’ve recently appointed two female directors, who were developed internally, which I think sends a positive message to the business. It feels like there’s a lot of care and support. It’s not just for women either, I’m passionate about social mobility, diversity and inclusion. I’ve lived abroad and worked with so many different people and cultures, and I know how important it is to be open-minded to everyone. It’s about your talent and what you can bring to the business, nothing else.
What would you say to a woman considering getting a start in insurance and finance?
I wouldn’t have chosen any other industry over finance – I find the fact that the products are intangible, and for insurance, you are marketing a promise, then it’s more of a challenge if you were marketing widgets. Working at NFU Mutual is super special because it’s not about money, it’s about doing the right thing for our members. The profit we make goes to protect our future and our members’ future. Pretty cool, I think.
Thanks for your time, Bev. What’s next for you?
The two areas where we’re going to see a lot of changes are Digital and Data – so I’m very much focused on them for the foreseeable future. Those are the areas that are going to have the greatest impact on our business moving forward, and there are some exciting things in the works regarding emerging tools, such as AI.
As for my personal future, I’d like to work at NFU Mutual until I retire. I don’t know when that will be, I’ve got no plans. But I’d like to work here as long as they’ll have me, and as long as I’m doing a good job. I love working here – I love the brand, the mutuality aspect. I love hearing about claims and the things we’re doing for our customers. And I think there is use for my skills in the future of the business. So, I want to show up, work with great people, feel valued and fulfilled and do the best I can. Honestly, I’m really quite simple.
After a career that took her across the globe, Bev has found a place to settle down at NFU Mutual. Why not follow in her footsteps? Click here to see our latest opportunities.