Meet the next generation of housing association chief executives

Mr Harris became chief executive of Midland Heart in March, being promoted from executive director of corporate resources.

He previously worked for the East Midlands Development Agency and before that worked in the NHS as a management accountant before, and rose to become deputy chief executive of NHS Logistics. He received an MBE in 2012.

Mr Townshend took over as chief executive last month, after serving more than three years as Southern’s development director.

Previous to this he worked as interim chief executive of Wandle, and has worked for Sanctuary and Circle (now part of Clarion).

Mr Johnston was promoted to the top job in April following eight years as deputy chief executive.

He is described by Bernicia as ‘having a wide breadth of experience across all aspects of the housing sector, including stock transfer, merger and major regeneration activities”

Ms Gibbons started her role as chief executive of CHP in August, following two years as chief executive of Cambridge-based Hundred Houses Society.

Before that she worked at Swan Housing Association for nine years, including two years as executive director, strategy and support. Until recently she also chaired Iceni Homes, a house building collaboration between three housing associations.

Mr Roche began his role as First Choice Homes’ chief executive at the beginning of 2018.

This followed five and a half years as deputy chief executive. A First Choice Homes spokesperson said “it was key achievements such as streamlining and developing a more outcome focused business strategy for First Choice Homes that helped shape his candidacy for the role of CEO.”

Mr Hepworth took over the reins at Lincolnshire-based Ongo in April, after stints as deputy chief executive and operations director.

He previously served as district manager at North Lincolnshire Council.

Mr Harris was appointed as chief executive of the newly-formed Stonewater in 2016, having previously been chief executive of Raglan Housing Association since January 2010

He also served as chief executive at Raven Housing Trust for seven years and group operations director for the Swaythling Housing Group for seven years.

Mr Orr takes over at Radian this month.

He has worked in housing for more than 22 years, most recently as chief executive of Yarlington Housing Group.

Before that, he was chief executive of Homes in Sedgmoor. He is vice-chair of the National Housing Federation South West and also served as a board member at Clanmil Housing Associations.

Mr McCullough became chief executive of Abbeyfield in 2017. He previously served as chief executive of the Royal Voluntary Service and deputy chief executive of Oxfam.

Mr Hill joined One Housing Group as chief executive in September 2017.

Before that he led Spectrum Housing for three years as chief executive, taking the association into its merger with Sovereign. He previously also held a number of senior roles at the Homes and Communities Agency (now Homes England), including deputy chief executive and director of programmes.

Ms Evans was appointed chief executive of Grand Union Housing Group in July 2017, after stints as group director of operations and director of housing and communities at the organisation.

She was elected vice-president of the Chartered Institute of Housing in August.

Photo: Bron Afon

Mr Brunt joined Bron Afon Community Housing in early 2017 from Daventry and District Housing (Part of Futures Housing Group).

He had been an interim chief executive in the housing sector for a number of years including organisations such as West Devon Homes, Newport Housing Trust, and Maryhill Housing Association.

Mr Hoyland joined Orbit as interim chief executive in January before landing the top job on a permanent basis.

He was previously managing director of Balfour Beatty and has held positions at property manager First Port (formerly Peverel) and City West Homes.

Ms Nanda joined Metropolitan as chief executive in October 2017, after nine years as chief executive of Thames Valley Housing.

Her former and current employers will merger this month.

Mr Dolan took on the Accent Group chief executive role in 2017, after serving three years as chief executive of Johnnie Johnson Housing Trust, reforming the organsiation’s governance and steering it regulatory compliance.

He has also served as chief executive of Sadeh Lok.

Mr Thomas joined Trivallis in 2017 after a combined 28 years in the health, social care, education and housing sectors. He previously served as head of supported housing at United Welsh and in a community care role at Hafod Housing before becoming chief executive of charity Age Cymru.

The three people listed below will start their new chief executive roles in the new year:

Mr Wilson takes over in January following a difficult few years for the Sunderland-based association.

He joins from Wythenshawe Community Housing Group in Manchester, where he has served as chief executive. Mr Wilson is chair of JV North, a consortium of associations, he was a housing co-operative tenant and activist before working as a housing officer.

Mr McDermott will become chief executive of Catalyst at the end of 2018, replacing Rod Cahill, who stands down after 26 years.

Mr McDermott will be leaving Aldwyck Housing Group, where he has been chief executive since October 2016. Before that, he spent five years as chief operating officer at Sanctuary.

He has also been chief executive of Shaftesbury Housing Group, Riverhaven and Stonebridge Housing Action Trust.

Craig Moule will replace David Bennett in January, who is standing down after leading the organisation since 1991.

Mr Moule joined Sanctuary in 1989 and has been finance director since 2000 and chief finance officer from 2013.

Inside Housing is launching the Inclusive Futures Summit

Our high-level summit will bring together respected people leaders and exemplars from the across sector and wider business to debate, discuss and learn how to embed diversity and inclusion in your organisations and harness the myriad benefits that this creates and to ensure that your workplace is reflective of the diverse communities you serve.

Themes being discussed include why being an inclusive organisation can help you be more successful, how to make inclusion visible in your organisation and the best approaches to encourage diversity at board level.

Discussions will also focus on how to future-proof your recruitment processes, promote inclusion through talent management, build working environments safe from prejudice and tackle unconscious bias.

The summit will take place on October 11 at the Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester.

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Inside Housing’s Inclusive Futures campaign aims to promote and celebrate diversity and inclusion.

We are pledging to publish diversity audits of our own coverage.

We are also committed to proactively promoting positive role models.

We will do this through the pages of Inside Housing. But we will also seek to support other publications and events organisations to be more inclusive.

Our Inclusive Futures Bureau will provide a database of speakers and commentators from all backgrounds, for use by all media organisations.

We are also challenging readers to take five clear steps to promote diversity, informed by the Chartered Institute of Housing’s diversity commission and the Leadership 2025 project.

Click here to read more or to sign up for more information

THE INCLUSIVE FUTURES CHALLENGE

Inside Housing calls on organisations to sign up to an inclusive future by taking five steps:

Prioritise diversity and inclusion at the top: commitment and persistence from chief executives, directors and chairs in setting goals and monitoring progress.

Collect data on the diversity of your board, leadership and total workforce and publish annually with your annual report. Consider gender, ethnicity, disability, sexuality, age, and representation of tenants on the board.

Set aspirational targets for recruitment to the executive team, board and committees from under-represented groups.

Challenge recruiting staff and agencies to ensure that all shortlists include candidates from under-represented groups.

Make diversity and inclusion a core theme in your talent management strategy to ensure you support people from under-represented groups to progress their careers.

THE CASE FOR CHANGE

34%

of housing association chief executives are female

1%

of housing association executives have a disability

1.6%

of housing association board members are LGBT

Women make up 46% of the UK workforce, but Inside Housing research found that they are under-represented on housing association boards (36%), executive teams (39%) and among chief executives (34%).

Almost a fifth of working-age adults have a disability (18%), yet associations reported only 1% of executives and 4.5% of board members with a disability. Many were unable to provide details.

Nationwide, 14% of the working-age population come from a BME background, climbing to 40% in London and Birmingham. Yet our research found that 6.8% of board members identified as BME, compared with 4.5% of executives.

Statistics on representation of LGBT people in the workforce are in short supply, but official statistics suggest that 2% of the total UK population identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual, rising to 4.1% for 16 to 24-year-olds. Our survey found that 1.6% of board members and 10 executives were LGBT – but most organisations were unable to provide figures.

Click here to read the full research

The media plays a key role in championing diverse role models, so we designed a project to measure Inside Housing’s track record.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE RESULTS

Mr Wilson took over as chief executive in the first week of January following a difficult few years for Sunderland-based association Gentoo.

He joins from Wythenshawe Community Housing Group in Manchester, where he served as chief executive. Mr Wilson is chair of JV North, a consortium of associations, and was a housing co-operative tenant and activist before working as a housing officer.