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Sovereign appoints third finance chief in a year
Sovereign Housing Association has appointed a new chief financial officer, its third in the past 12 months, who joins the business from drinks giant Diageo.
Tracey Barnes, a PwC-trained chartered accountant, will start work at Sovereign on 21 October.
Sovereign has been looking for a new permanent finance director since previous incumbent Mark Hattersley left to join Clarion, the UK’s largest housing association, as its finance chief in mid-2018. Sovereign initially appointed Rita Akushie as interim chief financial officer in October 2018, but she left the organisation after just one month to take up a permanent position at Cancer Research UK.
Since then, Barry Nethercott has held the role on an interim basis.
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During her career Ms Barnes has held a wide range of senior roles, and most recently was leading the set-up and day-to-day management of Diageo’s largest global business service centre in Bengaluru, India.
She has also been a vocal advocate for working women across the world.
Mark Washer, chief executive of Sovereign, said: “I’m delighted to welcome Tracey on to our executive board. Her unique sets of skills will add real strength and depth to what is already a strong team. I’ve been impressed with her enthusiasm, strategic approach and big picture thinking, alongside her clear focus on delivering change.”
Sovereign is one of the country’s largest housing associations, managing more than 58,000 homes. It aims to build around 1,900 homes a year, and as part of a new five-year strategy, has stepped up its development programme with a greater emphasis on major land-led schemes.
Ms Barnes said: “I’m thrilled to be joining Sovereign at such an exciting stage of its transformation. While it has big ambitions to grow fast and build more homes, it hasn’t forgotten its roots and is clearly determined to keep the customer at the centre of everything.”
