Room151’s Housing151 2024

A highly regarded and well-known expert in the sector, Jonathan has worked in local government for more than 20 years, including seven years as strategic director at London Borough of Barking & Dagenham and the creator of B&D Reside, the council’s affordable housing company. Jonathan continues to support councils on the development and delivery of affordable housing and regeneration schemes. He has been a board member of Barnsbury Housing Association since 2017.

Jackie Sadek has over 35 years’ experience in property, specializing in public-private sector partnerships.  A former Specialist Adviser to Government on urban regeneration, Jackie now runs Urban Strategy, an urban regeneration consultancy.  She was part of the Grimsey Review team on the future of the high street and an honorary Fellow of the Association of Chief Estates Surveyors.  She is a Member of the Property Week Hall of Fame and co-author of “Broken Homes”.   Jackie is chair of the UK Innovation Corridor, a bottom-up partnership of 15+ local authorities, six universities and hundreds of innovation and science companies in the London-Stansted-Cambridge sub region.

Tracie is an experienced leader having undertaken senior executive positions in both the public and private sectors. Tracie is currently the Chief Operating Officer and S151 Officer at Cornwall Council however has previously been the Strategic Director of Resources at Homes England, Deputy Chief Executive with responsibility for people services at Haringey Council, the Director of Resources for the Metropolitan Police and various other chief officer roles in the public sector. Tracie also spent seven years in the private sector gaining client management and product development experience at both Anderson and Bentley Jennison with associate assignments with Impower and Agilisys. Tracie says her drive comes from a belief that all things are possible, everyone has a contribution to make and magic dust can be found everywhere. Tracie is a qualified CIPFA accountant and has an MBA from Warwickshire University. Housing Finance has been part of Tracie’s portfolio of experience for many years and is currently a member of the Shareholder Board for Cornwall’s HRA Housing Company and a member of the Owners Board for Treveth, Cornwall’s Development Company.

Conrad Hall has over twenty years’ senior financial management experience in London local authorities, more than ten of which have been in chief finance officer roles.

He trained with the Audit Commission, qualified as a CIPFA accountant in 1998 and is a former winner of the Accountancy Age UK Accountant of the Year award for his work in transforming Lambeth Council.  He is currently the Corporate Director of Resources for Croydon Council, having previously held similar roles at Newham and Brent Councils.  He chairs the CIPFA/LASAAC board, which sets the financial reporting and accounting standards for UK local government

Steve is  a senior leader and highly regarded national expert in housing finance with over 30 years’ experience in the public and private housing sectors in business planning, investment appraisal, financing and the development of new homes.

Steve leads Savills’ work on business planning, financial advice, funding and delivery capacity with local authorities and housing associations, to help deliver new homes at scale, and also specialises in working to bring new sources of private investment and housing providers together to introduce new ways to bring private finance into affordable housing.  

Steve is an acknowledged national lead on the HRA, leading work with individual authorities, trade and professional bodies and as an advisor to DLUHC officials.

He also leads Savills work on setting up new housing providers, raising capital for investment into non-profit and for-profit housing providers, and helps traditional housing providers access these new sources of capital.

Omar Al-Hasso is the CEO of SimplyPhi, with over 20 years’ experience in housing delivery. He is a Chartered Surveyor (Investment and Finance) and holds an MSc in Property Investment from the College of Estate Management. Within the business, Omar leads on bridging the communication and thinking gaps between the public sector and the private sector. Completely committed to finding a better way of doing things, he believes that through collaborative partnerships the affordable housing crisis can genuinely be solved. Last year, Omar led the process of helping SimplyPhi become a fully Certified B Corporation, cementing SimplyPhi’s commitment to using business as a force for good.

Pat joined Slough Borough Council as executive director of regeneration, housing & environment in October 2022.

Prior to this Pat was Managing Director of Be First, Barking and Dagenham Council’s independent regeneration arm, with a mission to accelerate growth. Be First aims to capitalise on the borough’s position as London’s hottest investment and development opportunity to deliver 50,000 new homes and 20,000 jobs in the next 20 years.

Previously, Pat was Executive Director of Regeneration & Housing with Ealing Council during which time the borough became one of the most successful in London at attracting in new developments and transforming its public housing stock.

Pat was responsible for bringing forward the Southall Waterside development with the Berkeley Group, South Acton Estate with Countryside Properties and the delivery of Ealing Film Works with St George.  He oversaw the evolution of the Council’s housing company Broadway Living as a major build to rent developer.

Before joining Ealing, Pat worked for Transport for London as Director of Borough Partnerships and prior to that, spent four years at Lewisham Council as Executive Director for Regeneration and Environment. Pat has also worked for five other boroughs during a 25-year career in local government.

Outside work Pat cycle races, has an allotment and watches Leyton Orient Football Club.

Andy is the Head of Housing Impact Services at TGE, working with clients to design impact measurement and management systems and deliver independent impact reports. 

Since joining in 2018 Andy has overseen TGE’s growth in impact services for housing clients – now working with clients with assets under management of over £24 billion. He works collaboratively with clients to develop robust, practical impact measurement, management and reporting systems that help both prove and improve impact. Andy is actively involved in the development of TGE’s impact assessment methodologies drawing on international good practice and first-hand experience.

He plays a key role in TGE’s collaborations having led the development of the Sustainability Reporting Standard – now used by over 130 housing providers and lenders – and the Equity Impact Reporting project for social housing in partnership with Big Society Capital. He also managed the collaboration with a group of Local Government Pension Funds and asset managers to create TGE’s Place-Based Impact Investing Reporting Framework.

Andy joined The Good Economy from Social Finance, where he worked on a range of additional strategy and business development projects and was the project manager of an innovative tech product that helped local authorities provide better support to young people leaving the care system.

Dan has twenty years’ local government experience, for London boroughs and two Mayors of London, and currently leads Kensington and Chelsea’s work on housing and property.  This includes building the borough’s first new council homes in a generation; the development of a new ‘social investment’ approach to municipal assets; and the wider transformation of services, strategy and culture following the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

Before that, Dan was Director of Housing, Regeneration and Planning at Haringey Council; Head of the London 2012 team at the Greater London Authority; and former Mayor Ken Livingstone’s senior advisor on planning and development. 

Marie-Alix Prat is an Investment Manager at Big Society Capital, the UK’s leading social impact investor. Their mission is to grow investment tackling social issues and inequalities in the UK. At BSC, her work focuses on investing in social and affordable housing, including supported housing for people who are experiencing homelessness and improving impact measurement in the sector. She has also worked on community investment to create economic growth in deprived areas. Before joining Big Society Capital five years ago, Marie-Alix spent a year on the social enterprise leadership programme On Purpose during which she worked with a community transport charity on their impact measurement. Prior to that, she worked for a few years in international development as a finance and economics consultant on the financing of water and sanitation programmes in developing countries. Marie-Alix holds a Masters in Management from ESCP Business School in Paris and a Masters in Development Management from the London School of Economics.

Omar Al-Hasso is the CEO of SimplyPhi, with over 20 years’ experience in housing delivery. He is a Chartered Surveyor (Investment and Finance) and holds an MSc in Property Investment from the College of Estate Management. Within the business, Omar leads on bridging the communication and thinking gaps between the public sector and the private sector. Completely committed to finding a better way of doing things, he believes that through collaborative partnerships the affordable housing crisis can genuinely be solved. Last year, Omar led the process of helping SimplyPhi become a fully Certified B Corporation, cementing SimplyPhi’s commitment to using business as a force for good.

Gemma leads Big Society Capital’s property investment and market building strategies which aim to increase the supply of good quality, safe and secure affordable housing in the UK. Gemma’s built environment experience spans impact investment, property and regeneration, consultancy and Local Government.

Prior to Big Society Capital, Gemma worked at Lendlease, a global investment, property and construction company, with roles across construction ops, corporate sustainability and urban regeneration. Gemma was previously the Head of the Lendlease Foundation and a social enterprise, Be Onsite, that supports long-term unemployed including current serving prisoners and ex-offenders into employment. Gemma’s earlier career was in environmental consultancy as a Contaminated Land and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) specialist working on due diligence for land acquisitions, remediating heavily contaminated sites and delivering environmental protection programmes for some of the UK’s largest infrastructure projects.

Gemma is a Trustee and a volunteer, has a degree and Masters in Chemistry from the University of Surrey and is a Chartered Environmentalist.

Eamonn is CFO of the Peabody Trust, which owns and manages 107,000 homes across London and the Home Counties. Eamonn has been involved in establishing a number of joint ventures that bring public and private investment together to increase the delivery of new genuinely affordable homes.

Peabody has a strong pipeline of new homes and a commitment to deliver these. Peabody uses its own balance sheet, external partnerships, cross-subsidy from sales, and some public investment to do this.

Bio Below:

Matthew is Head of Pensions at the Gloucestershire Pension Fund. Matthew joined Gloucestershire in 2020 from the Brunel Pension Partnership where he was Client Relationship Director. Before joining Brunel, Matthew spent 11 years with the Cornwall Pension Fund working across both benefit administration and investments. In his current role, Matthew is responsible for the total management of the Gloucestershire Pension Fund, including the Fund’s strategic allocation, governance, day-to-day investment and administration operations. Matthew is committed and enthused to continue the future development of the Fund, in all aspects of its activities, for the benefit of the members and employers who are the Gloucestershire Pension Fund.

Aoifinn is passionate about financial markets, knowledge sharing and education. She strives to demystify the world of investing for clients by educating them rather than merely offering advice. Her commitment to reducing complexity has empowered countless clients to make informed decisions.

In her role as Managing Director – Global Wealth, Aoifinn is responsible for leading the team’s overall investment efforts and serving as a liaison to Moneta’s in-house investment department. Aoifinn also operates as the team’s Chicago Market Leader with an emphasis on serving the Family Office Practice.

Originally from Ireland, Aoifinn began her career in London as an investment banking associate at Goldman Sachs International and a specialist consultant at Cambridge Associates Limited. She subsequently founded Clontarf Capital, a pan-alternatives research and consulting firm. She later served as CIO for the Policemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago and head of investment for Ireland at Hermes Fund Managers Ireland Limited.

When Aoifinn joined Moneta in 2021 as CIO, she brought with her a wealth of experience in institutional client management and alternative investments, coupled with a robust background in portfolio oversight. Her illustrious global career, spanning key financial hubs such as London, Hong Kong, New York City, and Chicago, has enriched her perspective and nurtured her creativity, innovation, and adaptability. Over the years, she has cultivated a vast network of industry contacts and gained exposure to a diverse array of investment manager talent. Most recently, Aoifinn excelled as Moneta’s Chief Global Market Strategist, leveraging her over two decades of experience in the financial industry to provide a truly global investment outlook.

Aoifinn is also a licensed attorney and has been a member of the New York Bar since 1996. She holds law degrees from Trinity College Dublin and Oxford University, an MBA from INSEAD in France, and an MSc in Applied Neuroscience from Kings College London.

In addition to her professional achievements, Aoifinn hosts and produces The Fiftyfaces Podcast, which highlights diversity and inclusion within the investment industry and other professions. She has completed 55 marathons, speaks German, French and Spanish, and enjoys traveling, particularly when it involves some skiing in the winter months.

Jamie Broderick is a Lead Expert and Deputy Chair of the Board of the Impact Investing Institute, an independent, non-profit organisation which aims to accelerate the growth and improve the effectiveness of the impact investing market in the UK and internationally.

Before working with the Institute and its predecessor Impact Investing Taskforce, Jamie was head of UBS Wealth Management in the UK. Jamie joined UBS after nineteen years at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, latterly as Chief Executive of its European operations.

Tina has been Chief Executive of Watford Community Housing since its formation in 2007. She is a qualified accountant who has been in the housing sector for over 30 years, working as a Finance Director in three housing organisations – CHP, Worthing Homes and New Era – and as a financial analyst at the Housing Corporation.

As part of Watford Community Housing’s wider Group activities, Tina serves on the Clarendon Living Board and as a Clarendon Living representative to our Hart Homes joint venture with Watford Borough Council. She is also Chair of both our Three Rivers Homes and Hertsmere Living Ltd joint venture companies with key local authority partners, and is co-founder of the Greener Herts partnership, which is working to make Hertfordshire’s homes more sustainable.

Tina has been a Non-Executive Director for a number of housing and charitable organisations, and is currently the Chair of Parasol Homes.

Bringing over two decades of private practice experience to his role, John currently serves as the Founder and Group Managing Director of Madison Brook, a real estate company with a strong affordable housing and construction focus. Under his leadership, John has cultivated a team-driven ethos that places a strong emphasis on societal and environmental impact.

Since 2018, Madison Brook has successfully acquired and transformed more than 1,650 homes across the affordable housing sector, with reflects the entire teams commitment to addressing homelessness and the pressing need for scalable, accessible and decent quality housing. Testament to that dedication, Madison Brook has, in partnership, invested over £350 million of private and public investment into the sector.

John believes passionately in the positive and life changing impact that a decent home can have on a family. John is qualified by PropertyMark in the Housing Act and Residential Management and completed his Advanced Leadership Training with Cambridge University in 2021.

Andrew Davey is the Fund Manager of the CBRE Affordable Housing Fund, overseeing the Fund’s investment strategy and capital deployment. As part of the UK Residential Investment vertical, Andrew leads the implementation of strategy, sourcing and execution of UK residential transactions with a focus upon the UK Affordable Housing Fund.

Andrew joined CBRE IM in 2018 from a UK based private property Investment Manager. As part of his role he focused on residential development, planning, rezoning, and financing of a variety of housing schemes. This also included strategic partnerships with REITS and joint ventures with registered providers.

Prior to this, Andrew spent 10 years at Aviva Investors where he was primarily focused upon fund management, strategy and acquisitions for a range of residential and long income funds. Andrew was part of the team responsible for the launch of Aviva’s flagship Social Housing Fund and subsequently held the position of Fund manager on this Fund. Prior to this he was the Assistant Fund Manager on Aviva Investors alternative asset portfolio, responsible for the management of assets including residential PRS assets, general needs affordable housing, retirement housing and shared ownership assets.

Andrew is a Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and has held his Investment Management Certificate since 2007. Andrew graduated from Cass Business School, at the City University in 2007 where he obtained a BSc (Hons) degree in Real Estate Investment and Finance.

Joanne has worked across the UK for central, regional, and local government, for housing associations and a national social justice charity, driving transformation and the delivery of better outcomes for people, places and the planet. At LB Enfield as well as the housing agenda she leads a large-scale, housing-led growth and regeneration project, and the levelling up of the three wards of Edmonton. LB Enfield is also co-lead Borough for the London Council’s pan-London Climate Change programme for warmer and greener homes through housing retrofit. And Joanne is also co-chair of the London Housing Directors Network.

Richard heads the Governance team outside of London and is based in the Manchester office at Trowers & Hamlins. Richard specialises in working with registered providers (RPs), local authorities, and private sector clients undertaking work in the affordable housing sector. Richard has over 25 years’ experience advising clients in the affordable housing and public sectors. He possesses considerable expertise in housing law and regulation, charity law, governance, mergers, joint ventures and partnering, PFI/PPPs, stock transfers, and group structures.

Richard has led on many of the case studies referred to in our submission – including overseeing the wide-ranging work undertaken for Guinness in relation to it admitting Shepherds Bush HA into the Guinness Partnership.

Graduating with a first class honours degree in Housing Studies, Darren has worked in local government for over 30 years and been a Chief Officer/Director in 5 local authorities, specialising in Housing, Regeneration, and service change and transformation. During this time, he has also set up and chaired a development company, an award winning joint venture, and started one of the first young persons’ foyers project in the country. In addition, he has been co-Director lead for Retrofit London; a member of the national reference group on homelessness; and pan London housing lead for adult safeguarding. He is currently Strategic Director for Housing and Property Services at Dacorum Council in Hertfordshire, where he is responsible for services including housing, property services, and community safety.  

Anees is a Chartered Environmental Health Practitioner with over 25 years’ experience in Housing and Regeneration, Energy Efficiency, and Fuel Poverty.

He has been leading the delivery of over £100m of funding through the Green Homes Grant Local Authority Delivery Scheme (GHG LAD), Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF), Energy Company Obligation (ECO4), Great British Insulation Scheme (GBIS), Local Authority Flexible Eligibility Scheme (LA Flex), and Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) across Greater Manchester. He is also involved in negotiating the inclusion of some of this retrofit funding in a Single Settlement under Greater Manchester’s Trailblazer Devolution Deal.

Previously, Anees managed eco-friendly, affordable, and specialist housing developments, multi-million-pound PFI contracts, and the Housing Revenue Account and Capital Programme at Oldham Council and Wigan Council.

Steve is the Director of 3Ci – the Cities Commission for Climate Investment. Working with the Advisory Board he has overall managerial responsibility for the implementation of 3Ci’s strategy and operations working closely with leaders from cities, industry, finance and government. As a recognised leader in innovation and sustainability he has over 25 years of experience working in both the public and private sector. Previously, he was Digital Cities Leader for Arup where he delivered sustainability focussed technology strategies for some of the largest developments in the UK, Europe and the Middle East, representing £billions of investment. He has held several senior positions across local government, primarily in London and Manchester. As Head of Low Carbon Economy in Greater Manchester he established the UK’s first Low Carbon Economic Area and a joint venture alongside the Green Investment Bank. He also established the city’s widely admired sustainability innovation programmes, Triangulum and CityVerve.