Helia Ebrahimi
Economics Correspondent, Channel 4

Channel 4 News' Economics Correspondent Helia Ebrahimi reports on the big changes in the economy and the public finances - and how they'll influence the world you live in.

Nabeel Alhassan
Financial Planning Manager, Accent Group

Nick Atkin
Chief Executive, Yorkshire Housing

Nick has a track record of leading organisations through transformational change, driving performance improvement, with a focus on maximising the untapped potential from businesses and people. Born and brought up in Doncaster he joined Yorkshire Housing in 2019. Since this time, he’s delivered transformational change throughout the business to meet the future opportunities and challenges. Nick has previously introduced a fully flexible/ remote working approach. He also led the move to 90% of customer led transactions to be delivered through online self-service channels. He is a keen advocate of innovation and uses digital as an enabler to drive fundamental change in how businesses operate. He is also a disruptor in the ‘future of work’ debate and has been paperless for 19 years.

Gemma Bell
Partner, Devonshires

Gemma advises on a range of areas including social housing regulatory, charity law, governance, company and community benefit society law, corporate restructuring projects, joint ventures, stock transfers and mergers and acquisitions. Gemma acts for a range of clients nationally including housing associations, local authorities, charities and social enterprises.

Peter Benz
Chief Financial Officer, Sovereign Network Group

Prior to his appointment at SNG Peter was Executive Director of Finance at Network Homes which he joined in 2019. Overall, he has nearly two decades worth of senior finance experience in housing, advertising and retail, in both public and private sectors.

He has a strong, diverse approach to analysis, financial planning and value addition.

Corinna Bishopp
Executive Director of Financial and Commercial Services and Deputy Chief Executive, RHP

Corinna joined RHP as Executive Director in July 2017. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and has operated at Director level in a wide variety of industries. Before joining RHP she was Interim Group Finance Director at Thames Valley Housing, and a consultant advising on the Thames Valley and Genesis Housing Association merger. She also worked on the successful IPO at the UK’s Leading Retirement Builder McCarthy & Stone, was Interim Chief Financial Officer at Eversholt Rail and spent over 10 years in Bupa, including as Chief Financial Officer of Bupa Latin America in Miami.

Declared Interests: Corinna is a Director of RHP Finance plc and a Non-Executive Director of Peter Bedford Housing Association.

John Bristow
Senior Vice President of Customer Success, Plentific

Duncan Brown
Chief Finance Officer, VIVID Homes

Responsible for maintaining our financial strength and sound governance, Duncan, Chief Finance Officer, makes sure our development plans are fully funded and our technology helps us deliver our services and ambitions. Duncan’s a chartered accountant with over 15 years’ experience in the housing sector. He previously spent six years with KPMG where he provided financial planning and risk management services to some high-profile clients before moving into the housing sector.

Marie Chadwick
Policy Leader, National Housing Federation

Marie leads the National Housing Federation’s policy work on supply – from the Affordable Homes Programme right through to Voluntary Right to Buy and everything in between. Marie’s background is in policy and public affairs, both in the housing and charity sectors.

Sarah Cole
Head of Safety and Improvement Finance, Innovative Funding, Welsh Government

Ruth Cooke
Chief Executive, GreenSquare Accord

Ruth is passionate about the importance of housing and care and support services, having spent virtually her whole career working in and with housing associations. A highly experienced chief executive and finance director, Ruth has held Chief Executive positions at Clarion Housing Group and Midland Heart, followed by two years as Group Chief Executive of GreenSquare. She has also held several senior finance positions.

Ruth has spearheaded major programmes to improve the service delivery of housing associations including the development of new corporate strategy, the transformation of financial and operational performance and the redesign and refocus of customer services. Ruth is dedicated to ensuring that GreenSquareAccord is a brilliant landlord.

Matt Cooper
Tax and Treasury Director, Places for People

Matt started his career at PwC and Deutsche Bank before moving into corporate treasury, having held positions at Old Mutual, Expro and Affinity Sutton. He is currently a member of the National Housing Federation’s Finance Policy Advisory Group and formally a non-executive director of Soho Housing. Matt is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales and Fellow of the Association of Corporate Treasurers.

Anne Costain
Chief Financial Officer, Stonewater

Anne is a qualified Chartered Accountant and Corporate Treasurer. She has worked in housing for over 10 years at a senior level. Before working in housing, Anne worked in manufacturing for a number of organisations, from SME to Fortune 500 and FTSE 250 – latterly as Finance Director for De la Rue in its Currency and Supply Chain division.

Jonathan Cox
Chief Data Officer, Housemark

Jonathan has over 15 years' experience providing data analysis and business support to the social housing sector. He previously worked for two large London housing associations before joining the Housemark data team in 2012. Jonathan has delivered a range of data consultancy projects, and recent clients include Catalyst Group, Trivallis, Solihull Community Housing, Stonewater Group and Aster Group.

Ilona Cristea
Assistant Finance Director, Peabody

Angela Cross
Head of Tax – North West, BDO

Angela is the Head of Tax in the North West, providing both advisory and compliance services to a wide range of corporate clients. She has specialised in tax for the last 20 years, joining BDO in January 2014. Angela helps a wide range of corporate clients, ranging from small owner managed business, to private equity backed groups, and listed clients operating internationally in terms of minimising their tax bill. She also leads the provision of tax services to the Not for Profit sector across the Midlands and the North, having particular experience of working with clients in the Housing, Charity and Education sectors and therefore understanding the commercial parameters in which they operate.

Max Curtis
Director of Corporate Affairs, Diversity and Inclusion, MTVH

Max is Director for Corporate Affairs and Diversity & Inclusion at Metropolitan Thames Valley (MTVH), a 57,000-home housing association. He is a past chair of the G15 Strategy and Coordination Group, the voice of London’s large housing associations. Max previously worked for The UK Government, as Head of Communications Strategy and External Affairs at The Department for Transport, making the case for large-scale infrastructure investment. Prior to that, he spent eight years at Tesco where he managed community relationships around an ambitious UK and international development programme. Max is a member of the Housing Operations Committee at J Living, a sheltered housing provider in London and The South East. He holds a Diploma in Law, a foundation certificate in transformational coaching, and is an accredited mental health first aider.

Stewart Davison
Board Member, Elim Housing

Stewart has had a diverse career including nearly 10 years in the British Army. Stewart has worked in the field of Social Housing and Proptech for over 25 years and is passionate about how technology can be a force for positive change, having worked in both front line social housing and for technology companies he strives to inform, educate and implement new technologies to improve the lives of tenants and residents across the UK.

Karen Doran
Director of Regulatory Engagement, Regulator of Social Housing

Karen is part of the senior leadership team at the Social Housing Regulator. Prior to joining the regulator at the end of 2013, Karen worked at CIH and for the Council of Mortgage Lenders leading work on affordable housing lending as chair to the panel of social housing lenders. With previous experience in housing in a LA and HA context as well as in central and regional government in policy and operational roles, Karen has a range of perspectives and insight into the housing sector.

Chris Evans
Director, Newbridge Advisors

Chris joined Newbridge in 2020, having spent 10 years at Lloyds Bank where he helped develop their Debt Capital Markets franchise, leading transactions across multiple geographies, sectors and currencies. Chris’s area of expertise is Social Housing where he has led various public bond transactions for debut and repeat borrowers, as well as Taps, MTNs and Private Placements. Chris also has experience in the establishment of Programme debt, to assist frequent and nimble access to the Capital Markets, as well as arranging funding linked to Environmental, Social & Governance (“ESG”) principles. Chris is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and has a qualification in ESG Investing (CFA UK Level 4 Certificate).

Paul Eyre
Head of Residential and Housing Finance, NatWest

Paul leads for NatWest on its support of all types of home occupation across the UK, from Housebuilding - across the spectrum of National to SME - Private Rental Sector, including the growing Build to Rent sub-sector and vital homes for families through the Housing Association sector.

Jonathan Fabris-Rotelli
Director of Corporate Finance, A2Dominion

Jonathan is a qualified accountant with over 15 years’ finance experience within the housing sector. He joined Dominion Housing Group in 2005 and has progressed through the organisation to become Corporate Finance Director. Jonathan is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.

Edward Farnsworth
Deputy Group Finance Director, L&Q

Ed has worked at L&Q for 18 years in various Finance roles and was appointed Deputy Group Finance Director in 2019. He is a qualified accountant with extensive experience of working in the social housing finance sector. He has been instrumental at L&Q in forging a financial strategy, based on strong commercial discipline while setting risk appetite and tolerance levels that maximise output of news homes delivery while safeguarding social housing assets and maintaining customer, investor, regulator and board confidence. He has extensive experience of property investment and holds board positions on L&Q’s strategic land business, L&Q Estates, which holds 50,000 land plots and on Barking Riverside a joint venture with the GLA delivering 10,800 new homes, as well as experience of board membership on multiple joint ventures with volume housebuilders. He also chairs L&Q’s Senior Leadership Group and L&Q’s ‘Investment & Property Group’ responsible for approving and monitoring individual development projects up to £100m total cost. Ed also sits on the Board and chairs the audit committee of the North London Muslim Housing Association (NLMHA) that operates in his home community.

Rosemary Farrar
Chief Financial Officer, Platform Housing Group

Rosemary Farrar, Chief Financial Officer Platform Housing: Rosemary joined Platform in March 2020. Prior to this she carried out a number of interim change roles in London and the South-East, Liverpool, Glasgow and the North-East over four years including supporting associations in regulatory difficulty and supervising transformation. Rosemary trained as a Chartered Accountant with PWC and has been working in housing for nearly forty years. She has been CFO of a number of associations including Notting Hill (now Notting Hill Genesis), Circle (now Clarion) and Southern. Rosemary has carried out a number of non-executive roles on the Boards of housing associations, schools and not-for-profit companies. She currently sits on the Boards of Soho HA, Oxford City Council Housing Ltd and SBHA.

Mike Figg
Head of Social Housing, Barclays

Mike is Head of Social Housing at Barclay’s, leading a national team of Relationship Directors serving over 200 Registered Providers throughout the UK. Mike has over 20 years of experience in Financial Services, predominantly at HSBC where he started in debt origination but spent the last 14 years focused on relationship coverage. His last role at HSBC was Deputy Head of Housing, part of the leadership of a team covering Social and Affordable Housing, traditional housebuilders, private rental sector and student accommodation.

Lauren Fradgley
Assistant Director of Treasury, Stonewater

Lauren is part of the Treasury team at Stonewater, a leading social housing provider who delivers good quality, affordable homes to people who need them most. Prior to joining Stonewater in 2016, Lauren worked at BNP Paribas in the M&A and then Equity Capital Markets teams. She studied at the University of Nottingham, gaining a Physics degree and then a Masters degree in Banking and Financial Markets.

Mike Gerrard
Chief Financial Officer, Great Places Housing Group

Mike has responsibility for ensuring Great Places’ finance, assurance, procurement, governance and colleague health and safety functions provide high-quality support to the rest of the Group. He also ensures that the Group’s regulatory and statutory requirements are satisfied. One of Mike’s key challenges is balancing the need for the long-term financial viability and stability of Great Places with risks posed by the Group’s strategic growth and development objectives. He started his career in auditing and professional services and has worked in the housing sector for 20 years.

Alison Gray
Head of Social Housing Debt Finance, Barclays

Mike Grimditch
Director of Financial Strategy, Greensquare Accord

Samantha Grix
Partner, Devonshires

Samantha advises Private Registered Providers and Local Authorities across a spectrum of matters across the sector, specialising in rent and consumer regulation. Samantha regularly advises her clients on how to achieve and maintain compliance with the regulatory framework and how to remedy issues that have been identified. She provides strategic and pragmatic advice on regulatory considerations and implications for new developments, complex lease structures, acquisitions and disposals.

John Hargreaves
Managing Director, Hargreaves Risk and Strategy

Simon Hatchman
Executive Director of Resources, PA Housing

Simon joined the former asra Housing in 2016. He is responsible for finance, treasury, IT and HR. Simon has worked in the social housing sector since 1995, including senior roles with various housing associations, as a regulator, and working for a body which provides loan finance to housing associations. He is CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) qualified. He is a Board member at Trident Group, another housing association based in Birmingham, and a Trustee at Linkage Community Trust.

Mark Hattersley
Chief Financial Officer, Clarion Housing Group

Mark is Chair of Clarion Housing Group’s Investment Committee and is responsible for all aspects of our finances, with a focus on financial strategy. He’s a chartered accountant and prior to joining Clarion spent five years as Chief Financial Officer at Sovereign Housing Association. Mark has also held senior roles at Staffordshire University, where he was Director of Finance & Infrastructure; and Birmingham International Airport, where he was Finance Director.

Keely Henderson
Head of Treasury – Property, Riverside

Yasmin Holley
Finance Director, Amplius

Helen Hunter
Partner, Addleshaw Goddard

Helen is a London based Partner in the Finance team at AG, specialising in Social, Sustainable and Green Finance and Social Housing Finance. She is ranked as a "Next Generation Partner" for social housing finance in the Legal 500. Helen has over 15 years of experience in the social housing sector and extensive experience of acting for all types of private debt funders and investors in the social housing finance market. She regularly advises funders on all aspects of social housing finance, including large merger transactions and high value transactions to housing associations. Increasingly, her experience covers advising funders on sustainability / social impact linked loans and green finance.

Rachel Hurst
Head of New Funding and Investor Relations, Bromford

Rachel joined Bromford’s Treasury team in 2023 as Head of New Funding and Investor Relations. Rachel is a qualified Chartered Accountant and previously worked in the International Public Finance team at Fitch Ratings, providing credit ratings for housing associations and government-related entities. Prior to this, Rachel was a financial auditor at the National Audit Office, leading audits of central government departments and Arm's Length Bodies across Health & Local Government.

Rebecca Jason
Partner, Winckworth Sherwood

Rebecca is a highly experienced finance lawyer in social housing, public sector and real estate finance. Rebecca’s practice includes all forms of lending arrangements involving clearing banks, institutional investors and public sector bodies on both a secured and an unsecured basis. Rebecca has acted for clearing banks in connection with refinancings and new lending on both investment and development LMA-based facilities, as well as for various public sector funders (such as local authorities and government departments) on the refinancing of existing loans, and the provision of new bespoke development loan facilities to unlock sites for building residential properties and the regeneration of key city centres. She also acts as borrower-side counsel for real estate clients in respect of their funding arrangements for investment property portfolios as well as single asset spvs, and where required liaising with registered agents and family offices in a wide range of jurisdictions (including Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man and the British Virgin Islands).

Chris John
Strategy, Performance and Risk Lead, Newport City Homes

Tony Johnson
Senior Technical Advisor and Strategic Lead, HMRC

Sarah Jones
Chief Executive, Anchor

Sarah joined Anchor as Finance Director in September 2014. She has held a variety of senior finance roles across large corporate and private equity businesses, including being Chief Financial Officer of Spicers Ltd, Director of Finance - UK & Republic of Ireland at Carpetright Plc, and senior roles at HMV and The Burton Group/Arcadia. Sarah is a Trustee of Arthritis Action, a UK charity helping people with arthritis improve their quality of life, and a Non-Executive Director and Chair of Audit & Risk for Chelmer Housing Partnership, a charitable housing association based in Essex.

Kal Kay
Chief Financial Officer, Your Housing Group

Kal joined YHG in October 2023 having started out her career in the private sector. The last 20 years, however, have been spent working across the public and not-for-profit sector, holding senior finance roles in Local Government, Health, Charities, Housing, and Education. Kal was also a member of the NHF advisory board shaping the content of this year’s conference as well as being on the NHF Finance Policy Advisory Group. Responsible for ongoing financial sustainability and viability and identifying and implementing operational improvements and business development opportunities. All the while, embracing our culture of continuous improvement to support Value for Money throughout our organisation, Kal has been helping to shape the new strategy and enable the aspirations of the Group through finance and growth.

Tariq Kazi
Group Treasurer, Peabody Trust

Zoe Kleinman
Technology Editor, BBC

Zoe, a leading technology journalist and presenter with a real passion for all things tech and over ten years of broadcasting experience. From cybersecurity and hacking to artificial intelligence and driverless cars, she brings tech stories to a mainstream global audience of millions across international radio, TV and online outlets including Radio 4’s Today programme and BBC World News. She also travels the world in search of the Next Big Thing – flying selfie-taking drones in the Nevada desert, spending the night in a house full of robots, being turned into a human beatbox, climbing Mount Everest (using Virtual Reality, in a hotel room in Las Vegas) and trying to survive for 48 hours using only Bitcoin on the Isle of Man (she discovered it was easier to buy beer than breakfast). A confident and entertaining speaker who is in demand as a host, chair, panellist and lecturer, Zoe’s expertise and knowledge of the tech sector is brought to life by her engaging style.

Fiona MacGregor
Chief Executive, Regulator of Social Housing

Fiona became Chief Executive of the standalone Regulator of Social Housing in October 2018 having been Director of Regulation at the Homes and Communities Agency from November 2015. The Regulator is responsible for the regulation of registered social housing providers. Previously, as Director of Programmes, she was responsible for HCA’s Affordable Housing and Help to Buy programmes. Fiona has over 25 years housing experience, covering development investment, programme delivery and policy development. She has worked at the HCA since it launched in 2008, before which she was Deputy Director of Investment at the Housing Corporation, and prior to that, Head of Development at London & Quadrant.

Jo Makinson
Chief Investment Officer, Abri

Jo has held a number of finance director and chief executive roles in the health, housing and charity sectors over the past ten years. Most recently, Jo was Director of Finance and Transformation at St Monica Trust. She is particularly passionate about social housing and is a non-executive on the board at Abri. Jo started her career in London working with a social development consultancy. She then moved to Bristol and spent six years in PwC’s public sector team. During that time, Jo trained as a chartered accountant and worked alongside a range of purpose-driven organisations working to make lives better for vulnerable people and communities.

Nathan Mallows
Director of Finance, People and Change, Coastline Housing

Nathan is the Director of Finance and ICT at Coastline Housing in Cornwall since January 2016. Prior to that, he worked as a consultant for 4 years supporting various charities, start-ups and Housing providers. Nathan has worked in and around housing for nearly 20 years and been fortunate to be involved with amazing organisations of all shapes and sizes supporting communities and delivering much need new homes predominately across London and the surrounding counties. Nathan is also the current chair of the National Housing Federation’s Finance Policy Advisory Group which exists to inform and respond to the NHF’s wider policy agenda with particular reference to financial implications for its members.

Scott Martin
Executive Director of Resources, Karbon Homes

Scott started his career with KPMG before moving into senior finance and management roles in the housebuilding sector. He spent 10 years at Barratt Homes North East as Finance Director and Managing Director before taking the position as Group Finance Director for Story Homes. Scott joined Karbon Homes in 2020 as Executive Director of Resources, responsible for finance, treasury, ICT and people and organisational development. During his time at Karbon, Scott has worked on the issue of £100m of listed loan notes and the merger of three organisations into the Karbon Group (Byker Community Trust, Leeds and Yorkshire Housing Association and South Tyneside Housing Ventures Trust), growing homes under management by 4,000 to 32,000. Scott is a member of the National Housing Federation’s Housing SORP working party, an audit committee member of Prosper Procurement Limited and governor of Teesside University.

Ian McDermott
Chief Executive, Peabody

Ian has 30 years’ experience in the housing sector. Before joining Peabody, Ian was the, CEO at Catalyst Housing, Chief Executive at Aldwyck Housing Group and Chief Operating Officer at Sanctuary Group. Ian has also held Chief Executive positions at both Shaftesbury Housing Group and Stonebridge Housing Action Trust. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Housing, a Chartered Surveyor and an alumnus of the Harvard Business School.

Professor Stanimira Milcheva
Professor of Real Estate Finance, University College London

Prof Stanimira Milcheva is a professor in real estate finance at UCL. She is also the director of the Affordable Housing Centre at UCL and chairs the Shared Ownership Data Initiative SODI as part of that, working closely with affordable housing stakeholders. Stani has published over 20 articles in the top real estate and finance peer-reviewed academic journals, including the Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Banking and Finance, Regional Science and Urban Economics, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Journal of Housing Economics, etc. Stani is the author of the most recent report on Shared Ownership and also led the scoping study for the Affordable Homes Programme 2021-2026 for DLUHC. She has produced research for RICS, NHF, Shelter, CASE, G15, among others, and provided evidence on housing policy to the Welsh and English governments.

Caroline Moore
Chief Financial Officer, Abri

Caroline is Chief Financial Officer of Abri Group, and a member of the Board. Caroline manages the Finance, Treasury & Financial Planning and Safety& Resilience directorates, Caroline also oversees compliance with legal and regulatory obligations. Caroline was previously CFO at Yarlington, and has also held several non-Exec roles, including Chair of the Audit Committee at Yeovil NHS Trust, and the Employers’ elected member on the Somerset Local Government Pension Fund Committee. Caroline joined Yarlington from PricewaterhouseCoopers. She also spent an early part of her career in financial regulation at the Housing Corporation. Caroline is a member of the Chartered Institute of Housing.

Steve Morrice
Group Development and Sales Director, Hyde

Imran Mubeen
Independent Member (Non Executive) - Finance Committee, Stonewater

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.

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 and the regulation of for-profit providers. Will is a qualified chartered accountant, was until recently a non-executive board member of The Housing Finance Corporation.

Richard Petty
Head of UK Residential Valuation, JLL

Richard Petty is the Head of UK Residential Valuation at JLL, with responsibility for all the residential valuation teams across the country. The Residential Valuation teams cover the full range of residential property and specialist sectors including affordable housing, prime residential, PRS, build-to-rent and strategic advisory work on residential portfolios. The JLL Residential Valuation team is made up of 120 specialist staff, based in nine cities: London, Bristol, Exeter, Birmingham, Nottingham, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle and Edinburgh,together giving complete, national coverage. Richard has over 37 years’ professional experience, with the last 28 years principally focussed on the affordable housing sector. He and the JLL affordable housing team advise on all aspects of the valuation of affordable housing, acting for all the lenders in the sector and for over 300 RPs, large and small, including all members of the G15; as well as leading equity investors, private developers and local authorities.

Dominika Phillips-Blackburn
Head of Product, Mobysoft

Dominika is an extremely organised and motivated technology professional with experience in Software Delivery, Product Management, Business Analysis in media and financial services industries. She strives to achieve timely incremental delivery that adds value to the business, with excellent stakeholder management skills and constantly driving for improvement, excellent user experience and automation in software delivery. She’s passionate about building great software, design and ensuring seamless customer journeys giving business benefit always. Specialties: Financial Services, Insurance, Banking, Media, Payments

Gareth Phipps-Williams
Assistant Director, Programme Management, Affordable Housing Grants, Homes England

Gareth joined Homes England in July 2024 as the Assistant Director for Programme Management. His team looks after overall delivery and financial reporting for the Affordable Homes Programme, alongside the detailed work on their policies and products that underpin that delivery. Before joining the Agency Gareth had a long (almost 25 year) career in the civil service working on a variety of policy areas in criminal justice, policing, and learning and development. However, immediately before coming to Homes England he worked for the Ministry for Housing, Communities, and Local Government where he looked after overall delivery of the Affordable Homes Programme.

Arun Poobalasingam
Chief Partnerships Officer, The Housing Finance Corporation (THFC)

Arun joined THFC in 2021 as Head of Relationship Management and Business Development and is now Funding and Marketing Director. He joined from HSBC where he helped set up and then lead their Social Housing business focussing predominantly on larger housing associations. Having started his career working at Diageo, he moved to Network Rail where starting as a financial modeller he moved on to the Treasury team that raised over £20bn of debt through the Global Capital Markets during his stint. He left to join HSBC in 2007 to join their Real Estate team at an interesting time for the sector and specialised in property for most of his time there.

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.

Alessandra Raja
Business Transformation Partner, RSM UK

Mike Richardson
Partner, LCP

Mike is a partner in LCP’s social housing and not-for-profit consulting teams. He heads up LCP’s Social Housing practice and has extensive experience of advising employers who participate in the Social Housing Pension Scheme (SHPS) and the Growth Plan, both of which are part of The Pensions Trust (TPT), and who participate in the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS). He is also the appointed Scheme Actuary to a scheme operated by a large housing association.

Will Roberts
Vice President, Venn Partners

Lian Rogan
Head of Financial System Analysis and Reporting, Magenta Living

Naomi Roper
Partner and Head of Banking, Capsticks

Naomi is a partner and the Head of Banking at Capsticks. Naomi specialises in social housing finance where she has years of experience acting for borrowers and lenders in the social housing sector. Naomi provides advice and guidance on social housing finance and development finance, including advising on all types of loan agreements, security and security trust arrangements, debt restructuring, complex intra-group arrangements, joint ventures, private placements, derivatives and debt capital markets transactions including own name bond issues and EMTN programmes. Naomi is also an ESG specialist working in the fields of green, social and sustainable finance and impact measurement. Naomi provides advice on green loans, social loans and sustainability linked loans and bonds. Naomi sits on the City of London Law Society’s ESG Committee.

Matthew Rose
Director of Treasury, Bromford

Matthew joined Bromford in July 2024 to lead the treasury team and function at Bromford. Since joining Matthew has led a refresh of the Sustainable Finance Framework and the related filings and recruited some key members for the team. In addition he has been heavily involved in planning actions and funding issues for the merger with Flagship Housing Group. Matthew is a qualified Chartered Accountant and Corporate Treasurer, and has previously led Treasury and Tax teams at a range of organisations including Royal Mail, De La Rue, Taylor Wimpey and BT. His career has included a number of high profile transactions, mergers and demergers as well as leading the debut bank syndicate and public bond financing activities and credit rating for Royal Mail following the IPO in 2013, and the subsequent award by the Association of Corporate Treasurers of Treasury Team of the Year in 2015.

Josh Ryan-Collins
Professor of Economics and Finance, University College London

Josh is an economist with research expertise in money and banking, the economics of land and housing and sustainable finance. He has a particular interest in the financial system and its role in housing markets and environmental transition. Josh is a Senior Policy Fellow with the UK Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government advising on housing affordability issues and is a council member of the Progressive Economy Forum (PEF) think tank. He has advised the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) group of central banks on nature-related financial risks. Prior to joining UCL in 2017, he worked for over a decade for the New Economics Foundation (NEF), one of the UK’s leading progressive think tanks. He previously worked in strategic communications in the UK civil service and for a marketing consultancy. Josh has been convenor of IIPP's "Rethinking Capitalism" political economy module since 2019, available to graduate students across UCL. He also teaches macroeconomics and finance on IIPP's Masters in Public Administration. He overseas IIPP's PhD program as Departmental Graduate Tutor.

Vicky Savage
Executive Group Director, Development and Sales, L&Q

Vicky joined L&Q in 2018 after four highly successful years as Executive Development at Network Homes. She worked the previous seven years at a senior level at Network Homes in development roles. Vicky trained as an Urban Planner, but housing was her main passion and so moved to post graduate Housing Studies at the London School of Economics. Previously Vicky has worked in a range of housing development roles for over 25 years including time at Origin Housing Group and English Churches Housing Association. At L&Q Vicky has strategic responsible for all development growth activity including JVs/partnering, estate regeneration and sales in London. Vicky is also responsible for L&Q innovative in-house construction function. L&Q have an ambitious growth target of delivering 100,000 homes in the next 10 years. Vicky leads a multi skilled expert team of circa 600 staff. Vicky is L&Q’s lead Director in the innovative Build London Partnership Project. Developing new homes for small and BME Housing Associations. Vicky is currently Chair of the London G15 Development Directors Group and plays an active role on this influential London forum. Vicky is particularly interested in achieving greater representation of women in the built environment sector and currently mentors several up and coming female development professionals.

Mona Shah
Chief Financial Officer, Amplius

Mona began her career in the media sector after qualifying as an accountant. She has over 25 years’ experience working in housing and loves working for organisations that make a difference. Mona joined Grand Union in February 2019 from Sovereign Housing Association where she was finance director for three years. Prior to that, she was at Catalyst Housing. She is also a Non-Executive Director at another housing association. Mona has also worked in media, insurance and has run her own travel business. In her current role as Executive Director of Finance and Business Services, Mona oversees the Finance, IT, Corporate Services and Governance teams.

Grant Shipley
Executive Director of Finance, Wandle Housing Association

Grant is an experienced finance director who has worked in the housing sector for over 30 years in executive, interim and consultancy roles. He has a clear focus on providing high quality management information and delivering business improvement services for clients, both directly and through his own consultancy company. He joined Wandle in 2021.

Charmaine Simei
Chief Executive, Tuntum Housing

Charmaine has been working in social housing and related fields for some 28 years. Since graduating in 1995, she has enjoyed a wide range of roles from front-line worker to CEO. Charmaine was voted 'Professional of the Year' at the Women in Housing Awards 2021, primarily for establishing the Community Investment arm at Longhurst Housing Association. Charmaine has previously been a mentor with the Housing Diversity Network, and has sat on a number of steering Groups including HACTs Racial Equality Group. She is currently a serving board member with Communities that Work.

Rachael Sivewright
Head of Treasury, LiveWest

James Tarrant
Director, Savills Financial Consultants

James is a Corporate Finance and Treasury specialist. James joined Savills Financial Consultants in April 2024 from GreenSquareAccord where he was Director of Corporate Finance & Treasury for ~five years. Prior to working in the housing sector, he held senior treasury roles in insurance, funds management and banking both in Australia and the UK. James has significant experience in managing, restructuring and simplifying complex debt portfolios and acquiring and divesting real asset portfolios. James has Won or been Highly Commended at the ACT Deal of the Year Awards a number of times for a different transactions and for leading teams across different sectors.

Agnieszka Thakur
Finance Director of 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.

Annique Verkoeijen
Senior Consultant, Ortec Finance

Frank Vermeij
Managing Director Real Estate Management, Ortec Finance

Ortec Finance is a leading global provider for risk and return management headquartered in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Frank and his team help more than 90% of the Dutch housing associations with a diverse offering of software solutions and advice in the fields of financial forecasting, asset management, investment decision making and property valuation. Frank is eager to share social housing knowledge across borders. He is committed to help English providers make long-term business plans with maximum social impact and taking financial means and risks into account. Franks drive for continuous improvement ensures that Ortec Finance’s social housing solutions remain cutting-edge and effective.

Jonathan Walters
Deputy 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.

Mark Washer
Chief Executive, Sovereign Network Group

Mark has over 25 years’ experience in the social housing sector. He joined Sovereign as CEO in June 2018, and following the merger with Network Homes on 1 October 2023, he became the inaugural group CEO for the Sovereign Network Group. Prior to this he was the CFO at Clarion for 17 years and is a chartered accountant having qualified with Deloittes. SNG has over 82,000 homes, and over 210,000 customers across London, Hertfordshire, and the south of England. Mark was formerly a Board member and vice chair of the National Housing Federation and has been involved with a number of national charities, including Citizens Advice and Stonewall. He is a Trustee of Leadership 2025, a charity developing BME leadership in the housing sector. He is also a board member of Pallant House Gallery and chairs their Finance, Audit and Risk Committee.

Suzanne Whelan
Director of Financial Reporting & MI, The Guinness Partnership

Suzanne is Director of Financial Reporting and MI at the Guinness Partnership, responsible for leading Finance and Data Analytics operations across the Group. She has over 20 years’ experience in social and supported housing sectors and has worked at Guinness since 2017.

Piers Williamson
Chair, Sustainability for Housing

Piers Williamson was appointed the chair of Sustainability for Housing (SfH) in September 2024. Piers stepped down as chief executive of The Housing Finance Corporation (THFC) in 2024, the leading bond aggregator for the social housing sector, after 22 years in charge. During his time at THFC, the group’s loan book grew to more than £8bn and the organisation created its sustainable bond framework as well as THFC Sustainable Finance, a vehicle aimed at helping housing associations tackle net zero targets. The aggregator also became the first lender in the sector to publish an ESG report.

Trevor Williams
Author, Academic & Consultant

Trevor Williams is the former Chief Economist at Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking, a position he held for well over 10 years. During this time he established a highly-regarded, award-winning, team of economists analysing global and domestic data to support clients ranging from financial institutions, large corporates to SMEs with bespoke insight. He is a visiting Professor at the University of Derby, rotating Chairman of the Institute of Economic Affairs Shadow Monetary Policy Committee (SMPC) and author of Trading Economics: A Guide to Economic Statistics for Practitioners (with Victoria Turton). Trevor also lectures at CASS business school and Cardiff University. He is on the editorial board of Economia and the Journal of Corporate Treasury Management. He previously lectured in Economics and Business Statistics, before working in the UK Government Economic Service (GES). He sits on various charities, including as Patron of Reach Society, Chairman of Ballet Black, and Through the Looking Glass. He regularly writes articles for publications, such as Moneyfacts, Clear Path Analysis, and Economia to name a few. He appears in the financial press and on television to discuss and comment on economic issues. Trevor now runs a consultancy which specialises in economic analysis encompassing ‘big data’ – the large information set being created from the 4^th industrial revolution sweeping the world – to better understand a fast changing global economy, and its political context: i.e. its political economy.

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.

Sophie Wint
Director of Finance and Procurement, Newport City Homes