Faisal Islam
Economics Editor, BBC News

Faisal Islam is Economics Editor for BBC News. After earning a post-graduate diploma in newspaper journalism Faisal worked as an Economics Correspondent for The Observer before his move into television in 2004 when he joined Channel 4 News, first as a Business Correspondent and later as Economics Editor. 2014 saw Faisal move to Westminster as Political Editor for Sky News where he covered two elections in quick succession, the EU referendum and the Scottish Independence Referendum. In 2019 Faisal joined BBC News as Economics Editor. He also occasionally presents Newsnight when the show’s regular presenters are unavailable. He’s exposed the Icelandic banking crisis, watched Lehman Brothers' fall from Wall Street, investigated emerging economies in India and Singapore and interviewed everyone from Prime Ministers to the President of the World Bank. In his own words ‘Covered economics and there was a massive economic crisis. Covered Europe and there was a massive eurozone crisis. Covered politics and there’s a never-ending political crisis.

Matthias Barker
Policy Leader, National Housing Federation

Matthias is the Policy Leader for finance at the National Housing Federation, having joined in 2024. His brief covers rent policy, the financial sustainability of the sector, and new investment models in affordable housing, as well as a range of other finance policy issues including coordinating the housing SORP. He previously worked in L&Q's strategic research team, where he led on policy development and research on behalf of both L&Q, and the G15, whilst L&Q were in the chair.

Marc Burns
Head of Affordable Housing UK Residential - Value and Risk Advisory, JLL

Marie Chadwick
Strategy Manager, Regulator of Social Housing

Andrew Chapman
Head of Group Development Finance, Riverside

Andrew has worked on a number of joint ventures across a variety of sectors over the last 15 years and has led The Riverside Group Development Finance team since 2019. He has worked with a number of different JV partners across the full scheme lifecycle. He currently supports the TRGL Group Development Programme across Homes England and Greater London Authority areas including AHP21-16 and SAHP26-36 programmes as well as eleven joint ventures covering both regeneration and place-making. Andrew is passionate about relationship management, commercial rigour and transparent reporting of JV performance to support better decision-making by housing associations.

Adam Gravely
Policy Officer, National Housing Federation

Adam leads the NHF’s policy work on shared ownership and accessible housing, and supports policy development across new housing supply and sector finances. He joined the NHF in 2024. Prior to this, he was a Graduate Trainee and later a People & Purpose Strategist at the John Lewis Partnership, owner of John Lewis and Waitrose. Adam is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He holds a Master’s in Public Policy from the University of Warwick and a Master’s in Business and Management from De Montfort University. Adam grew up in social housing and has lived experience as an involved resident and as a young carer.

Kate Henderson
Chief Executive, National Housing Federation

Kate is Chief Executive of the National Housing Federation (NHF), the voice of housing associations in England. Kate is passionate about tackling the housing crisis, inequality and climate change. She is a member of several government panels including the Rough Sleeping Advisory Panel and the Social Housing White Paper Expert Challenge Panel. Kate become a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2021. Prior to joining the NHF in 2018, Kate was Chief Executive of the Town and Country Planning Association.

Dani James
Executive Director of Finance, Onward Homes

Dani joined Onward in 2022 and oversees the financial viability of the organisation and ensures value for money is achieved through its operations. Prior to joining the organisation, Dani was the Head of Financial Accounting at Riverside and held a number of senior finance positions in both the public and private sector. She was the Finance Director at Liverpool Airport for seven years and the Chair of Audit and Risk at South Liverpool Homes. Dani is qualified as both a Chartered Accountant and a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Rebecca Jason
Partner, Winkworth Sherwood

Rebecca is a highly experienced finance lawyer in social housing, public sector and real estate finance, heading up the WS Social and Sustainable Finance team. Her practice includes all forms of lending arrangements involving clearing banks, institutional investors, registered providers and public sector bodies on both a secured and an unsecured basis with a focus on affordable housing delivery. She acts for both RPs and funders in connection with refinancings and new lending, as well as public sector bodies on the provision of loan facilities to unlock sites for building residential properties and the regeneration of key city centres.

Alice Lipczynski
Finance Director, Alliance Homes

Alice Lipczynski is the Finance Director at Alliance Homes, bringing extensive commercial and financial leadership experience spanning both the housing and financial services sectors. An ACMA-qualified chartered management accountant with a robust background in lending and business banking from senior finance roles at TSB and Nationwide Building Society, Alice has a proven track record of managing risk, optimising funding, and driving strategic growth. Combining her deep financial services expertise with a strong personal passion for sustainability, championing long-term environmental and financial resilience across the housing sector. In her previous role as Head of Financial Planning & Analysis at GreenSquare Accord, Alice led the delivery of 30-year financial plans and shaped asset strategies for environmental initiatives, including securing grant funding for warmer homes.

Monika Liskiewicz
Executive Director of Resources and Vice Chair, Habinteg Housing Association and SORP Working Party

Monika is a qualified Chartered Accountant (FCA) with over 19 years of experience working in finance across a variety of roles in highly regulated and customer-centric environments. She has provided assurance services and accounting advice to a range of organisations in both the public and private sectors, developing key skills in leadership, building relationships, and technical agility. Monika is passionate about the housing sector and the role it plays in society. That passion has led her to work with a number of housing associations in her professional life, initially as a financial advisor before moving into the sector, most recently serving as Director of Financial Resources at Accent Group and, now, as Executive Director of Resources at Habinteg Housing Association, leading the Finance, Governance, People and IT/Data teams. Monika is also Vice-Chair of the Housing Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) Working Party, which oversees the development of the Housing SORP.

Nathan Mallows
Director of Development, Partnerships and Growth, Coastline Housing

Nathan is a passionate and committed executive with a background in finance, development and partnership working in both the social housing and wider not-for-profit sector. He is responsible for strategic delivery of new affordable housing solutions, partnership and growth at Coastline as part of our wider mission to end Cornwall’s Housing Crisis. Nathan has been at Coastline for over 10 years - initially as our Director of Finance, People and Change and more recently as our Director of Development, Partnerships and Growth. At a national level Nathan is a member of the British Property Federation Affordable Housing Committee.

Paul McGrady
Chief Financial Officer, Magenta Living

Paul is the CFO of Magenta Living based in Birkenhead. Previous to this role, he spent two years on the board there before becoming a member of the executive team in 2024. Prior to Magenta he spent 10 years working for housing associations in finance executive roles. He has worked in local government as a finance director but also head of housing. He also was a founding director, and is chair of the board, of the WellFed social enterprise set up during Covid to provide healthy subsidised meals.

Priya Nair
Chief Executive, The Housing Finance Corporation (THFC)

A senior executive with over 25 years’ experience in financial services, infrastructure and housing, Priya is passionate about leveraging sustainable, long-term investment to help deliver positive economic and societal outcomes in the affordable housing sector. Before joining in March 2024, Priya was a Senior Director at abrdn in its infrastructure team. With a focus on infrastructure and housing, Priya was responsible for financing, capital raising and deal strategy across all its flagship infrastructure funds and investments. Prior to that, Priya spent over 13 years at the Royal Bank of Canada in their global private markets team and seven years at Citi. In addition to leading THFC, Priya acts as a senior advisor to organisations working across government, infrastructure and technology where she provides counsel on corporate finance, governance, risk management and investment strategies. She is a Non-Executive Director and the Chair of the Investment Committee at the Port of London Authority and a Senior Adviser to Good Governance Capital. Priya also supports several non-profit originations and charities with a focus on sport and education. She is currently a Senior Trustee of community sports charity, Sported, the UK’s largest network of community groups supporting half a million young people through the power of sport.

Tom O’Reilly
Senior Financial Analysis Manager, Regulator of Social Housing

Tom O’Reilly is a Senior Financial Analysis Manager at the Regulator of Social Housing. Since joining in 2018, he has led engagement across the regulatory standards with a range of registered providers, including some of the sector’s largest and most complex organisations. Tom previously worked in external audit at RSM UK Audit LLP, where his experience included auditing social housing landlords, pension schemes, owner-managed businesses and listed companies.

Tom Paul
Executive Director Strategy and Change, Southern Housing

Tom Paul is Executive Director of Strategy & Change at Southern Housing, having worked for predecessor organisations for more than a decade. He’s responsible for strategy, corporate finance and financial planning, business transformation, data and technology. He first moved into social housing in 2011 as a treasury advisor to Housing Associations. Earlier in his career he worked in infrastructure finance and public policy.

Will Perry
Director of Strategy, Regulator of Social Housing

Will is Director of Strategy at the Regulator of Social Housing, where he is responsible for developing corporate strategy, business intelligence and regulatory policy. He is also responsible for the Regulator’s relationships with the funding markets, investors and advisors. Will is a qualified chartered accountant, and has been a non-executive board member of The Housing Finance Corporation.

Julia Poulter
Head of Social Housing, Crowe

Julia leads the national social housing team and has over 20 years’ experience of auditing and advising a range of social housing providers as well as a mix of charities, social purpose and commercial organisations. Julia has also carried out advisory projects such as technical accounting advice and advisory reviews in areas such as reserves, efficiency and cost optimisation, structure and governance and due diligence. She has a keen interest in technical matters and training in the sector and represents Crowe as Technical Advisor to the Housing SORP Working Party, she regularly trains staff and clients on key sector matters, including accounting, risk, governance and Audit Committee responsibilities. In a voluntary capacity Julia is Chair of a homelessness charity providing housing advice, support and hosted accommodation. Julia is also a registered speaker for schools, regularly speaking to young people about routes into accountancy, apprenticeships and interview skills.

Greg Reed
Group Chief Executive, Places for People

A purpose-driven senior executive, in his 30-year career, Greg has led major finance, partnership, marketing, customer service, and commercial functions in global listed companies including Bank of America and RBS Group. Before joining PfP, Greg was UK CEO for international home assistance business HomeServe. Greg is a native of Smyrna, Delaware. He graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a Batchelor of Science in Finance and then received a Juris Doctor from Delaware Law School.

Saghar Roya
Partner, Devonshires

Saghar specialises in advising clients, ranging from Smaller Registered Providers to G15 members, on all aspects of the Securitisation process in the charging of security under varying loan facilities, private placements, public bonds and EMTN programmes ranging from £1 million to £1 billion. In addition, Saghar’s broad knowledge and experience includes acting for clients on mergers and group restructurings, large-scale refinancing transactions, and development finance. Saghar also heads the sub-team of the Securitisation Department dedicated to Smaller Registered Providers. This sub-team provides specialist advice on all securitisation matters as well as bespoke training aimed at helping Smaller Registered Providers maximise and enhance their property portfolios and upskilling their staff.

Alison Taylor
Chief Executive, CAF Bank and CAF Financial Solutions

Alison joined CAF Bank as Chief Executive Officer in December 2019 and, in June 2021 also became Chief Executive Officer of CAF Financial Solutions Limited. She is principally responsible for driving the transformation of the products and services we deliver to UK charities, including leading the Bank’s strategic focus on growing lending to charities and social enterprises, and becoming the preferred banking partner for UK small and medium-sized charities. Prior to joining CAF Bank, Alison spent six years at HSBC, leading various teams across Corporate Banking and Real Estate Finance. She also served on the Executive Committee of HSBC UK as Chief of Staff and was instrumental in leading the establishment of HSBC’s ring-fenced bank. Before HSBC, Alison worked at Clydesdale & Yorkshire Banking Group PLC, where she was recruited to help establish and subsequently manage their Leverage Finance business in London. Alison began her career at Deloitte where she trained as a Chartered Accountant before moving into Corporate Finance, working on a range of public and private M&A and Consulting projects in the UK and overseas.

Agnieszka Thakur
Finance Director, Financial Control and Operations, Peabody

Agnieszka Thakur Finance Director of Operations at Peabody and a Fellow of Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, with over 20 years in the social housing sector. Previously the Director of Financial Services at Catalyst Housing, she played a crucial role in successful merger activities involving Aldwyck Housing and Rosebery Housing. Passionately involved in technical matters, Agnieszka is a member of the Housing SORP Working Party.

Becky Tucker
Non Executive Director, Westward Housing Group

An Audit & Risk professional with over 10 years of Housing Sector experience. Becky is passionate about making the management of risk accessible and relevant. Measuring success as effectively working with Boards, Committees and Executives to enable them to make strong risk based decisions within their strategic business planning processes, without inhibiting getting things done!

Becky is Chair of the South East GDPR Network, and works with the National Housing Federation, leading a working group on the development and maintenance of the members guide to Data Retention.

Jonathan Walters
Chief Executive, Regulator of Social Housing

Having previously been at Ernst and Young working in social housing consultancy, Jonathan has been at the Regulator since 2004. He has worked across the organisation and has extensive experience in dealing with funders, government and housing associations.

Catherine Wilson
Director, Housing Valuation, Savills

Leading the Savills Affordable Housing Valuation team of circa 30 RICS Registered Valuers, Catherine has over 16 years experience providing valuations for a range of funders and borrowers across the UK. Specialising in Loan Security valuations, Catherine has worked on some of the largest own name bond issues in the sector and leads a team of specialist valuers providing valuations for acquisition, disposal, loan security, privatisation, and investment portfolios, as well as strategic property advice to residential and commercial occupiers. The Savills Affordable Housing provides a range of strategic and property consultancy advice to housing associations, local authorities, For Profit Registered Providers, funders, investors and developers.

Steve Willingham
Executive Director Debt, National Housing Bank

Currently Head of Global Investment Partnerships – Debt at DRC Savills Investment Management, Steve has more than 35 years of experience in real estate finance, including as Global Head of Real Estate Finance for HSBC in London and Hong Kong and as a Managing Director at Blackrock and Merrill Lynch. He brings deep expertise across debt, structured finance and global capital markets.