Cirencester Friendly has announced that Jo Wilkie has been appointed as their new strategic partnership manager.

Jo, who will take up her position on March 6, has more than 20 years' experience in financial services, working at a senior level in both relationship management and business development roles.

Much of her experience has been with leading technology providers, having worked at both iPipeline and Iress.

In addition to that, Jo has had a variety of roles with product providers, including Vitality, The Exeter and Guardian. She firmly believes that innovative technology is the key to bringing greater accessibility and affordability to the protection market.

Jo said: "I'm really excited to be joining Cirencester Friendly as strategic partnership manager, where I will focus on cementing our current distribution relationships while looking for new partnerships to ensure our distribution network continues to grow.

"The ethos of a friendly society resonates strongly with me and I'm delighted to be working for a mutual society with a proud history and innovative plans for the future. Income protection remains massively undersold, leaving too many people vulnerable, something I hope, together with our partners, we can change."

Distribution director Alan Waddington said: "I am delighted to welcome Jo to our team. It's fantastic that we could attract someone of the calibre of Jo to Cirencester Friendly.

"This reflects the enormous strides we are making and will continue to make as an organisation over the next few years. We have ambitious plans to grow the business significantly and Jo will play a leading role in helping these to become a reality. I can't wait for her to get started."