Shepherds Friendly Appoints Laura Gauden as Head of Sales
Market Updates

Shepherds Friendly Appoints Laura Gauden as Head of Sales

By Dr. Priya Sharma, Property Markets Analyst · 11 July 2026 · 1 min read

Editor's note: This brief was summarised by The Property AI Newsroom from a report by Mortgage Strategy. Read the original article for full details.

Shepherds Friendly Appoints Laura Gauden as Head of Sales

Shepherds Friendly has appointed Laura Gauden as its new head of sales. Gauden joins the Manchester-based mutual from Newcastle Building Society, where she was national sales manager.

At Newcastle Building Society, Gauden was responsible for the lender’s mortgage broker business strategy and managed both the field and telephone business development teams. Her previous experience also includes roles at the Chartered Insurance Institute, Paymentshield, CHL Mortgages, Virgin Money, and Northern Rock.

In her new position at Shepherds Friendly, Gauden will oversee the sales team, work to increase revenues, and develop the friendly society’s proposition. The mutual has stated its intention to work with more brokers and recently announced a partnership with Primis, a network with almost 3,000 mortgage advisers and over 1,000 mortgage and protection firms.

Shepherds Friendly has also entered into distribution agreements with SimplyBiz, Next Intelligence, Mortgage Intelligence, Paradigm, and The Money Group in recent years. These partnerships are part of the society’s strategy to expand its reach within the UK mortgage and protection market.

For UK letting agents and inventory clerks, the appointment signals Shepherds Friendly’s ongoing commitment to strengthening its broker relationships and expanding its distribution network, which may impact the range of mortgage and protection products available to clients in the property sector.


Source: Mortgage Strategy
About the author
Dr. Priya Sharma
Property Markets Analyst

Dr. Priya Sharma writes The Property AI's data-led coverage of UK property markets — rental indices, sold-price trends, mortgage flows, and regional analysis. Articles bylined Dr. Sharma cite ONS, Land Registry, Bank of England, and primary research data.

PhD Economics. Specialises in: ONS Index of Private Housing Rental Prices, Land Registry data, regional rental analysis, mortgage approvals trends.

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