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BPHA appoints former Saffron chief as interim finance boss
Housing association BPHA has appointed former Saffron chief executive Francesco Elia as its interim chief finance officer (CFO).
Mr Elia replaces Paul Gray, whose departure at the end of next month was announced earlier this week.
The 18,500-home association, which is located in the corridor between Oxford and Cambridge, will have both men in position next month as it searches for Mr Gray’s long-term replacement.
Inside Housing has asked if Mr Gray will continue to carry out any of the CFO’s responsibilities during April.
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Mr Elia recently left his job as interim chief executive of B3 Living, where he bridged the gap between the departure of Joe Chambers and the arrival of his replacement Steve Woodcock.
Mr Chambers left in order to join Auckland Home Solutions, a housing association whose business is based on striking lease deals with investment funds, but Inside Housing understands he has not taken up this position.
According to Mr Elia’s LinkedIn page, he has occupied a number of interim roles during his career, including interim chief executive at Saffron Housing Trust.
There he replaced Adam Ronaldson after he resigned following the 5,000-home association being downgraded to a non-compliant rating for governance of G3.
In the regulator’s judgement, it criticised Saffron for keeping quiet about failings since 2011 and only informing the regulator in June 2016.
After two months as interim chief, Mr Elia took over on a permanent basis in March 2017, only to resign eight months later, shortly before chair Catherine Guelbert also resigned.
Since then, he occupied three separate interim roles at B3 Living before leaving and accepting the job offer at BPHA.
Kevin Bolt, chief executive of BPHA, said: “We are delighted to appoint Francesco as our CFO on an interim basis.
“Francesco has lots of experience in senior executive roles in the housing sector, driving significant organisational change and operational efficiency, and we look forward to working with him while we undertake the recruitment for a permanent CFO.”
The Bedford-based landlord saw an increase of 44% in its surplus in September last year, thanks to a boost in income from shared ownership sales.
