Hale expands role at Air; Sparks joins Nottingham BS board
Key Group and Nottingham Building Society have each announced leadership appointments, with Will Hale (pictured left) taking on additional responsibilities at Air, and Chris Sparks (pictured right) joining Nottingham Building Society as a non-executive director.
Hale, currently CEO of Key Later Life Finance, will now also serve as CEO of Air, Key Group’s later life lending platform. He replaces Paul Glynn, who will return to Key Group’s manufacturing division to lead business-to-business sales and marketing.
Hale, who became CEO of Key Later Life Finance in 2017, has been with Key Group since 2014, previously serving as corporate business development director. Before joining Key, he held senior roles in the later life market, including director of corporate partnerships at partnership and commercial leader for Genworth’s European retirement and protection business. He also worked in senior distribution roles at Lincoln Financial Group and began his career in fund management and investment banking with JP Morgan and UBS.
Hale acknowledged the challenges in the later life lending sector, but expressed optimism about its future.
“Later life lending is fast becoming a normalised part of financial planning for most over 50s customers,” he noted, pointing to the increasing complexity of products in the market, such as lifetime mortgages, retirement interest-only loans, and term interest-only options.
UK Finance recently reported significant growth in later life mortgage lending in the fourth quarter of 2024, with 35,840 new loans issued to borrowers aged 55 and over — a 28.2% increase from the previous year.
“I take on the leadership of Air at a pivotal point in the evolution of the market and look forward to listening to the requirements of new and existing members and then delivering what they need in order to help more customers safely use their housing wealth to achieve their financial needs and lifestyle aspirations in later life,” Hale said.
Meanwhile, Nottingham Building Society has appointed Chris Sparks as a non-executive director, succeeding Kerry Spooner as chair of the board risk committee, while Spooner will continue as senior independent director.
Sparks was chief risk officer at Atom Bank for nine years, where he played a key role in risk management and business growth. Before that, he held leadership roles in finance, data, and risk management at HSBC, GE Capital, Royal Bank of Scotland, and Virgin Money.
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