Michelle Slade, former senior media relations manager at Nationwide Building Society, has joined NatWest as media relations lead for commercial and institutional banking.
She has replaced Mike Johnston, who has been promoted to head of franchise media. Slade reports to Johnston and started her new role this month.
She had spent more than a decade at Nationwide before leaving in May this year. Prior to that Slade worked as a press and PR officer at the Moneyfacts Group.
She told In.Comms that after leaving Nationwide due to a restructure she took some time out but added: “I knew a couple of people who had moved from Nationwide to NatWest and spoke positively about the bank, so when this role came up it felt like the right opportunity to build on my financial services experience while taking on a new challenge focusing on business finance.”
In her new role at NatWest, she heads up a three-strong team which focuses on promoting the firm’s business and corporate banking arms.
Slade’s initial priority is to “get up to speed” on the bank’s commercial and institutional banking products and initiatives.
“While at Nationwide I did cover business savings and lending, but I was primarily focused on retail products, so it’s a steep but exciting learning curve,” she said. “Thankfully the whole corporate affairs team has been extremely welcoming and invaluable in helping me build my network across the bank.”
And Slade is “looking forward to shaping a strategy to help further raise the profile of NatWest’s C&I work, such as its accelerator programme, university partnerships and support for the innovation economy”.