Group Board members
Our Board has several committees scrutinising our work. It has responsibility for our performance.
Our Board members have a wide range of skills, experience and knowledge. This includes expertise in finance, business and public administration.
We have a G1 rating from the Regulator of Social Housing for governance and a V2 rating for our viability, meaning we meet the regulatory expectations but that there are financial challenges which we will have to manage as a result of the national economic situation.
Group Board members
David has served on the boards of various housing associations for almost 20 years, notably as Chairman of the Boards of Saxon Weald Homes, Peabody subsidiaries CBHA and Gallions, and most recently Clarion's Housing Association.
David has also been a Non-Executive Director at property management company Gen2 and Cantium Business Solutions. Prior to his NED appointments David held various management roles in the global semiconductor capital equipment industry concluding as President of European Operations for Novellus Systems Inc.
John has a wealth of experience in financial and general management. He spent 11 years at global logistics group, Exel PLC, as CFO and latterly as Deputy CEO until retiring in 2006. Since then he has been a Director of publicly quoted and private companies across several sectors. Prior to that he spent 8 years in each of Tomkins PLC, an industrial conglomerate, and Arthur Andersen.
John is currently a Non-Executive Director of water group, Severn Trent PLC, where he is Chair of both the Audit Committee and the Treasury Committee. He also chairs their wholly-owned Welsh water group, Hafren Dyfrdwy. John is also a Non-Executive Director of facility services group, OCS Group Ltd, where he is the Chair of the Audit & Risk Committee.
John is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
Lord Barwell is a former Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Theresa May, and Minister for Housing, during a political career spanning more than 20 years. He was the Member of Parliament for Croydon Central from 2010 to 2017. Before that he had been a Councillor for the London Borough of Croydon for 12 years. Besides his roles on the Clarion Housing Group and Clarion Futures Boards, Lord Barwell is an adviser to:
- Arcadis
- Avonhurst
- Barratt Developments plc
- Community Fibre
- DLA Piper
- PwC
Graham is the Chief Executive of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council. He has a track record in leading both public and private sector organisations, with a background in housing and local government.
He has held CEO roles at:
- London Borough of Barking & Dagenham
- Brentwood Council
- HM Land Registry
- Leisure Connection
- pmpgenesis, a sport and leisure consultancy
- Thurrock Council
Graham has also worked in environmental health, housing and regeneration in local government.
As well as being Chief Financial Officer, Mark is Chair of our Investment Committee. He is a chartered accountant and his previous roles include:
- Chief Financial Officer, Sovereign Housing Association
- Director of Finance & Infrastructure, Staffordshire University
- Finance Director, Birmingham International Airport
Amanda is Place, Brand and Marketing Director at the Crown Estate, a £14.3bn UK real estate business, and a former UK Marketing Director at Ebay Inc. She has spent more than 25 years in marketing, having held a range of digital and consumer roles during her career to date. Amanda is a trustee of ABF The Soldiers' Charity.
Previous posts include:
- Digital Marketing Director at Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc
- Head of Customer Management at Debenhams
- Group Head of Research at Laura Ashley
- Research Manager at Selfridges.
Clare was appointed as our Group Chief Executive in 2018. A chartered accountant, with almost 30 years’ experience in the housing sector, Clare joined the Housing Corporation in 1992 as a financial regulator and over the next 18 years progressed to become its Director of Regulation.
She then became an Executive Director at the Tenant Services Authority, with responsibility for housing association regulation. In 2010 Clare joined Affinity Sutton as Group Director of Governance and Compliance. She took up the same role at Clarion in 2016, before taking on her current role two years later.
Doris is currently a freelance HR consultant. She has extensive global human resources experience gained in a career at Ford Motor Company. This included being she was Ford’s HR Director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Doris also led the African Ancestry Network at Ford, and Autocar named her as one of the top 100 most influential women in the auto industry.
She also serves on Clarion’s Housing Association Board and is a Non-Executive Director at:
- Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust
- Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital
- Chartered Institute of Legal Executives
Doris is also a Lay Member to HM Courts and Tribunals Service.
David is a former Chief Executive of the National Housing Federation. He has spent more than 35 years in the housing sector, in a career that has included roles as:
- Chief Executive, Newlon Homes
- President of Housing Europe
- Chief Executive, Scottish Federation of Housing Associations.
David’s current roles include:
- Associate Director for Homes at the Centre for Ageing Better
- Chair ReSI Housing
- Chair of Reall, an international development housing charity
- Board member of Clanmil Housing Association
- Member of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Housing, Church and Community Commission.
Rupert was on the Savills plc Main Board, followed by the Group Executive Board for 21 years. He became CEO of Savills UK Subsidiary which employed 2,000 people across 75 offices. Following that he was Head of Global Residential, growing the network to over 600 offices.
Previous Non-Executive Director (NED) roles have included Chairing a leading property web portal, a marketing company during flotation on AIM, and Bournemouth University. He now sits on some external Investment Committees, including Winchester College, and has a number of NED appointments including Pigeon Land Limited, a Development company, and On The Market, a property portal on AIM.
Rachel is a regulatory expert and Octopus Energy’s Director for Regulation and Economics. She was Chief Executive of Ofwat and held senior positions including at board level in Ofgem. Before that, Rachel worked as an energy strategy and policy consultant, having started her career in international development.
David Avery, Group Chair, Clarion Housing Group1/Of9
Clarion Housing Group committees
Our Board has several committees that deal with different aspects of our work:
- Group Audit and Risk Committee
- Group Remuneration, Nominations and People Committee
- Group Treasury Committee
- Group Investment Committee
Our four main committees meet regularly as part of our governance. Here are details of our committee members, along with information on those who are not on our Group Board.
Group Audit and Risk Committee
Group Board members on this committee:
- John Coghlan, Chair
- Graham Farrant, Non-Executive Director
- Tom Smyth, Non-Executive Director
Group Audit and Risk Committee members
Kirstin has more than 20 years' experience in economic and finance roles in the civil service. This includes holding the post of Finance Director at HM Treasury. She led the team responsible for co-ordinating public spending and managing many of the Treasury’s interventions in individual banks in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Kirstin was awarded a CBE for this work.
Her earlier career was in EU policy and she worked as a competition official in the European Commission. She has also worked for the Scottish Government, leading policy on infrastructure investment.
Kirstin is a Non-Executive Director and Inquiry Chair at the Competition and Markets Authority. She is also a Non-Executive Director at the Board of The Pensions Regulator, as well as University Hospitals Sussex, and is an independent member of Council at Sussex University.
Group Remuneration, Nominations and People Committee
Group Board members on this committee:
- Doris Olulode, Chair
- David Avery, Non-Executive Director
- Lord Barwell, Non-Executive Director
- Amanda Metcalfe, Non-Executive Director
- Rachel Fletcher, Non-Executive Director
Group Treasury Committee
Group Board members on this committee:
- Tom Smyth, Chair
- Mark Hattersley, Chief Financial Officer
- Clare Miller, Group Chief Executive
Group Treasury Committee members
Kwok is Deputy Treasurer, Funding & Investment at National Grid. He has over 20 years' experience in corporate treasury and has led the financing for National Grid’s recent major transactions. He was previously a Trustee of the National Grid UK Pension Scheme, National Grid’s largest defined benefit scheme at the time. A member of the Association of Corporate Treasurers, he also serves as a member of the Policy and Technical Advisory Panel, and also as a member of the Corporate Issuers Forum of the International Capital Markets Association.
Max has spent 40 years working as a commercial real estate lender, including 20 years at Eurohypo, the specialist real estate bank. He held various positions in transaction execution, syndication and led the UK team from 2007 for 6 years. In 2013, the business was purchased by Wells Fargo and Max continued in the Leadership role until he stepped down in June 2021.
He has been active in the Investment Property Forum and held the position of Chairman from 2014 to 2015. Immediately following the global financial crisis he was a regular participant at the Commercial Property Forum of the Bank of England. Max was a leading contributor to the research paper “Vision for Real Estate Finance”. This was produced in order to address issues which led up to the global financial crisis in the real estate industry. He has taught as a guest lecturer at Bayes Business School and currently acts as a mentor to young professionals.
Max is now involved in a number of consultancy roles including at Patrizia Property IM LLP and at retail specialist Pradera Lateral.
Group Investment Committee
Group Board members on this committee:
- Mark Hattersley, Chair and Chief Financial Officer
- Clare Miller, Group Chief Executive
Group investment committee members
Richard leads our development arm, Latimer Homes, and is responsible for Clarion Housing Group’s sustainability strategy.
He joined Clarion in February 2019 from Lendlease where he was head of residential, delivering over 1,000 new homes each year. He also played a key role in the delivery of the London 2012 Athletes’ Village while at Lendlease. He has more than 25 years of experience in the property sector having previously worked at companies including Mace and Taylor Wimpey.
Karima is a corporate lawyer. She has 20 years’ experience of advising on:
- corporate and finance transactions
- mergers & acquisitions
- joint ventures
- structuring, funding and delivery of real estate investment and development projects.
Having trained and practiced at international law firm Hogan Lovells, in 2011 Karima moved in-house to Grosvenor Group where she latterly held the position of Group General Counsel.
Karima currently holds Non-Executive positions on:
- Property & Development Committee of Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity
- University of Cambridge’s Property Board
- University Board of Bournemouth University.
Karima is also an accredited mediator with the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution.
Chris worked for two of the nation’s largest housebuilders (Lagan Homes UK Ltd and Bowbridge Homes Ltd) for 24 years, prior to setting up his own residential development consultancy company Ashby House, in 2016.
In addition to his role as a Non-Executive Director of Latimer Developments and a member of Clarion Housing Group’s Investment Committee, Chris is also a Non-Executive Director of two regional housebuilding companies in the south midlands area.
Through his consultancy business, Chris works for a variety of landowners, developers, housing associations and local authorities providing project management, commercial, operational process, and viability advice on a wide range of development projects. Chris is currently instructed on several urban extensions for both landowners and local planning authority clients utilising his commercial, planning, and operational delivery experience of major residential led development projects to ensure these projects are robustly planned and are deliverable.
Rob oversees Clarion Response, Grange Property Management and House Exchange. He also leads our:
- rental and commercial property portfolios
- strategic asset management, including regeneration and disposal
- approach to mergers and acquisitions.
Rob joined Clarion in 2016, as Director of Commercial Finance when Clarion was formed. He is a qualified accountant and has held senior finance and director roles in the Domino’s Pizza Group and Network Rail Property.
Paul has held executive level roles in housing development, regeneration, asset management and business development for more than 25 years. He has experience as CEO and managing director in both the private and affordable housing sectors. He has managed more than 350 staff and overseen projects employing more than 1,200 construction workers.
His roles have included:
control of annual budgets exceeding £120m
strategic responsibility for investment planning of £0.5bn over 5 years and £2bn over 30 years.
Paul has particular expertise in housing development and asset management. He has been personally involved in the purchase or development of more than 10,000 affordable homes. He is a voluntary, co-opted, non-executive director of Leathermarket Community Benefit Society.
Andrew, a former partner at legal firm Winckworth Sherwood, has more than 25 years’ experience in advising on major housing projects, with particular expertise in regeneration, in mergers and in establishing new organisations. He was lead partner for Notting Hill Genesis on the Aylesbury Estate and Grahame Park regeneration projects, together involving more than 4,000 new homes, and has acted on numerous joint ventures between national house-builders and registered providers. Andrew is also a trustee of the Discover Children's Story Centre in Newham and a school governor.
Michelle is responsible for delivering a consistently good quality, comprehensive service for all Clarion customers and ensuring that customers remain at the heart of our business, improving the customer experience and representing the voice of our customers. She is also Executive lead for Clarion Futures, Clarion’s charitable foundation.
Michelle has more than 30 years’ experience in the housing sector. Formerly Clarion’s Chief Operating Officer and Group Director for Commercial Services, her previous roles include Executive Director and Director-level roles at Affinity Sutton and Ridgehill Housing Association. She has also held senior roles at William Sutton Housing Association, and was the Chief Executive of Aashyana, an Asian-led housing association in the South West.