We ensure that we have a diverse range of representation throughout our leadership structure. This extends beyond our Group Board to the boards of:
- Clarion Housing Association
- Clarion Futures, our charitable foundation
- Latimer, our development arm.
The Regulator of Social Housing rates Clarion Housing Group's governance as G1. This is the highest possible rating, reflecting the quality of our leadership.
David Orr CBE, Chair1/Of16
Clarion Housing Association Board members
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.
Gloria has a wealth of cross sector managerial experience. This includes being managing director of a marketing company, a restaurateur, and mailing manager with Readers Digest. Gloria was previously a member of the Circle Housing Roddons Board.
She is currently a member of the National Property Improvement Group and a Housing Ombudsman Panel.
Outside of the housing world Gloria is Chair of the Manea Education Foundation Trust. She enjoys her involvement with the village community and its many committees including the numerous issues and challenges Fenland is currently experiencing.
Elizabeth has been a partner of Slaughter and May and a non-executive director of FTSE 250 company Great Portland Estates and of the AIM listed property service provider HML Holdings. Elizabeth currently sits on the board of:
- Interserve, where she chairs the Remuneration Committee
- Viewber, providing outsourced property viewings
- BCKR Limited, which encourages senior lawyers to become non-executive directors.
Preetha is a chartered accountant with more than 25 years’ experience working in finance leadership roles in consumer-facing organisations. She combines commercial and strategic insight with technical expertise to work with Boards to drive growth, restructure operations and drive change in businesses in the UK and internationally.
Preetha has worked for leading retail, consumer, online, aviation and infrastructure companies including:
- Tesco
- John Lewis
- WHSmith
- Heathrow Airport
She also has a background in consulting and professional services at Accenture and PwC.
Aruna was appointed in November 2013. Her professional expertise is in:
- technology and operations
- organisational risk
- auditing
- compliance and governance.
She has worked in finance at managing director level with responsibility for global risk and control.
Aruna also serves as a Non-Executive Director at:
- Epsom St Helier NHS Trust
- Tavistock and Portman Foundation Trust
- University of Greenwich
She was previously Vice-Chair of the Kemnal Academy Trust.
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
- strategic responsibility for investment planning of £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. He has 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, which involved more than 4,000 new homes in total. Andrew has acted on many joint ventures between national house-builders and registered providers. He is also a trustee of the Discover Children's Story Centre in Newham and a school governor.
Doris is currently a freelance HR consultant. She has extensive global human resources experience gained in a career at Ford Motor Company. This includes having been Ford’s HR Director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Doris also led the African Ancestry Network at Ford and was named by Autocar as one of the top 100 most influential women in the auto industry.
Doris also serves on the Clarion Housing Group Board and is a Non-Executive Director at:
- Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust
- Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital
- Chartered Institute of Legal Executives
She is also a Lay Member to HM Courts and Tribunals Service.
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.
Terry is a Clarion resident in Islington, north London. He has more than 23 years’ experience of the housing sector and has held a number of senior roles in both housing associations and local authorities.
Previous roles include:
- Board member, Circle 33
- Chair of Island Homes, part of One Housing Group
- Chair of Old Ford Housing Association
- Board member of the Gateway Housing Association
- Chair of Tonic HA, the country’s first LGBT+ older persons’ housing association.
Terry was a local authority councillor for more than 16 years and is a former council leader at the London Borough of Islington. He is currently Head of Office for the Liberal Democrat group at the Local Government Association.
Richard has been a Clarion resident in Newton Le Willows, Merseyside for 14 years. He has a wealth of experience of working within the public and housing sectors, including roles covering finance, estate and property management and Home Ownership. Richard was a member of the Affinity Sutton North Scrutiny Board, has been a green inspector and a tenant representative on grounds maintenance contract procurement, and is trained to serve on complaints panels. Richard is also a member of the Clarion Futures ‘Clarion 55’ resident involvement group.
Rolf is a Co-opted Resident Member of the Clarion Housing Association Board and before the merger, a Member of Circle Housing’s Old Ford Board. He is also an independent member and co- founder of the Old Ford Community Panel. He has been a resident since 2014 and lives in the Bethnal Green area of East London.
His career has mostly focused on high level hotel management and publishing telesales marketing. Rolf enjoys being an active member of the local community and dealing with the challenges and issues of the Housing Association Board.
Clarion Futures board members
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
John has over 30 years’ experience of managing and leading finance and risk teams at a senior level in highly regulated industries, initially in the utilities sector and most recently in social housing. Recently retired he is a trustee and member of the Finance Committee at Herts Young Homeless and recently stepped down from the Board of Groundwork East where he was a trustee and member of the Finance and Audit Committee.
John is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
Patrick is a former senior civil servant in DWP including roles as Director for London, and for East of England. He has had a portfolio career since leaving DWP in 2012. Director of Salientwork Ltd, a personal micro-consultancy working in the employment and employability sector with clients in the UK and the EU. An experienced charity Trustee, he is currently Chair of Trustees at Groundwork East, and Vice-Chair of Papworth Trust. He has been a Trustee of Clarion Futures since 2018.
Terry is a Clarion resident in Islington, north London. He has more than 23 years’ experience of the housing sector and has held a number of senior roles in both housing associations and local authorities.
Previous roles include:
- Board member, Circle 33
- Chair of Island Homes, part of One Housing Group
- Chair of Old Ford Housing Association
- Board member of the Gateway Housing Association
- Chair of Tonic HA, the country’s first LGBT+ older persons’ housing association.
Terry was a local authority councillor for more than 16 years and is a former council leader at the London Borough of Islington. He is currently Head of Office for the Liberal Democrat group at the Local Government Association.
Usha is Associate Professor of Consumer and Digital Marketing in Norwich Business School University of East Anglia and the Associate Dean for the Social Sciences Faculty with portfolio remit for employability and graduate career opportunities. She is a member of the University’s Governing Council and sits on the Digital Transformation Steering Committee overseeing a strategically important digital transformation programme for the university.
Usha has more than three decades of international experience working in media, hospitality, and marketing and more than 20 years of international higher education experience in areas of education, research, training and development, and strategic change including digital economies. In addition, she is widely experienced in all matters of governance and student experience.
She researches, writes, and publishes in the areas of:
- regional economies
- clusters and innovation
- digital marketing
- analytics
- digital transformation and change management
- digital economies and applications of digital technologies in business.
Usha consults with businesses in areas of digital change and the intersection of markets, technology, and consumer culture. She also mentors digital start-ups.
Usha was previously Non-Executive Director at Circle Wherry. She is also an Independent Governor at City of Norwich School with responsibilities for personal development and safeguarding.
Latimer board members
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.
Richard leads our development arm, Latimer Homes, and is in charge of 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. Richard 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, including roles at companies such as 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.
Mark 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
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.
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.