Our team
bpha is led and governed by its Board, supported by an Audit and Risk Committee, a Group Treasury Committee, a People and Nominations Committee, a Development and Assets Committee, a Customer Experience Committee and resident scrutiny activities.
Board Members
The Board is collectively responsible for ensuring the success of bpha and its compliance with all legal and regulatory obligations by directing and supervising affairs.
The Board:
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Provides leadership of bpha
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Sets the organisation’s strategic aims, ensures that the necessary financial and human resources are in place for the bpha to meet its objectives, and reviews management performance;
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Sets the organisation’s values and standards and ensures that its legal and regulatory obligations are understood and met;
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Fulfils the functions as outlined in bpha’s rules.
Jeff Halliwell
Chair and Non-Executive Director
Jeff is the Chair of bpha. He is also the Chair of the Coal Authority, Deputy Chair of the Sea Fish Industry Authority and Director of Widgit Ltd and Colborough Ltd.
Jeff was born and raised in Northampton, and after a career of living and working in various places around the world, he has found his way back. He has made his ‘non-exec’ career focus on supporting organisations that have a social purpose and is looking forward to furthering bpha’s objectives.
Outside of work, Jeff and his wife are busy with their nine grandchildren.
He is a member of the People and Nomination Committee.
Maxwell Bero
Non-Executive Director
Maxwell brings over 15 years of experience as a Chartered Accountant and Chief Internal Auditor within the insurance market. He has led internal audit functions and has been on a number of Boards including London South East College. Max is currently the Chief Internal Auditor of Flood Re Limited, and joins our Board as NED and a member of the Audit and Risk and Customer Experience Committees.
Katherine Horrell
Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Group Treasury Committee
Katherine qualified originally as an accountant and then with the Association of Corporate Treasurers (ACT). She has now worked in Corporate Treasury and Finance for over 20 years, holding Group Treasurer positions at Centrica plc, and Arriva plc. She is currently employed at Sizewell C as their Treasurer Director. Katherine is 100% owner of KH Corporate Consulting Ltd.
Katherine has served as trustee for a local mental health charity in Surrey for 8 years, on the Board of Greensquare Housing Association prior to their merger; and is currently a Council Member at the ACT. She grew up and was educated in Bucks, Northants, Cambridge and Oxford and is delighted to be back supporting people, communities and development in the area.
Katherine is the Chair of the Group Treasury Committee and a member of Development and Assets Committee
Shirley Pointer
Non-Executive Director and Chair of the People and Nominations Committee
Shirley is a highly experienced senior leader with particular expertise in Human Resources and change leadership. She has held HR Director roles in both the private and public sectors, including the Department of Health and the Department for Communities and Local Government.
Shirley is an experienced non-executive, with roles including Senior Independent Director of the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and a Trustee of the Whitehall and Industry Group. She is currently a Non Executive board member of Bedford, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care Board where she chairs the Bedford Care Alliance, the Quality Committee and the People and Nominations Committee. Shirley is also a director of a small Residents Management Company.
Shirley is the Senior Independent Director at bpha, chairs the People and Nominations Committee and is a member of the Development and Assets and Customer Experience Committees. She is also the Diversity Lead.
Steve Dickinson
Non-Executive Director
Steve brings 30 years’ experience as a Quantity Surveyor within the residential property development sector, specialising in Commercial Management. He started his own property development, commercial management, and supply chain consultancy in 2020, following a role as Commercial Director at the Berkeley Group, working within London and the south-east.
In addition to his role at bpha, Steve is a Trustee of Amicus Trust, a local homeless charity whose aim is to ensure everyone has a chance to achieve a life free from homelessness and a place in their community. He is also a Non-Executive Director of Wandle Housing Association, Heathfield Consultants Ltd, Broadland Housing Association, Broadland St Benedicts Ltd, A2 Diminion Developments Ltd, Delta Homes Ltd, Thamesway Limited, and an Independent Committee Member of A2 Dominion Hosuing Group Ltd - Strategic Development and Asset Committee.
Steve is a member of the Group Treasury and Development and Asset Committees.
Hari Punchihewa
Non-Executive Director
Hari brings over 25 years’ senior director and board level experience gained within Daimler Benz Group, University of Derby, and the Action for Children charity. He is qualified as a Chartered Management Accountant and a Chartered Banker and holds an MBA.
Hari attended the High Potential Leadership Programme at Harvard Business School, USA. In 2005 he achieved Chartered Director status, the most recognised qualification for Non-Executive Directors from the Institute of Directors (IoD) UK.
He has held number of Non-Executive Director positions and currently chairs the Audit and Risk committee at the Office for Legal Complaints and at Derby County Cricket Club. He is a non-Executive Director of Look Ahead Group Limited, Blythson Limited and Kingswood Care Ltd. Hari also serves as a Justice of Peace and a presiding Magistrate.
Hari is currently the Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee and a member of the Group Treasury Committee.
Rachel Barber
Non-Executive Director
Rachel is passionate about achieving excellent service and value for money for customers. She has held senior executive positions within the water sector with a service delivery focus, achieving successful transformation, linking strategic direction to insight, improving services, achieving high customer satisfaction and continuous improvement across a diverse customer base. Rachel now holds board member roles in Housing and in the public sector through Heath and Policing.
She has extensive housing sector experience and is a champion for ensuring the customer voice is heard and acted upon. Rachel is Chair of the Customer Experience Committee and bpha's Member Responsible for Complaints.
Robert Clark
Non-Executive Director
Having qualified as a Quantity Surveyor and gained experience in surveying, estimating and project management, Robert became Managing Director of a Construction and Development company based in Hertfordshire, specialising in New Development and Refurbishment projects for Housing Associations, Local Authorities and Health Trusts. Projects ranged in size from less than £1.0m to over £100m and procured under traditional construction contracts together with Joint Venture and Partnership agreements.
Robert has served as a Board Member of three Housing Associations and is currently on the Board at Southern Housing.
Robert is Chair of bpha’s Development and Asset Committee.
Executives
Richard Hill
Chief Executive
Richard joined bpha as CEO in May 2023. His passion for housing has seen him hold leadership roles in the sector for nearly 20 years. He joins bpha from One Housing, where he had been CEO for over five years and brings a wealth of experience and knowledge.
Prior to this, Richard was CEO at Spectrum Housing and has held senior leadership roles at the Homes and Communities Agency and the Housing Corporation. Richard is also the non-executive Chair of drugs and alcohol rehabilitation charity, Phoenix Futures, and is a Board member at the Crafts Council.
Richard is the lead member for health and safety.
Julian Pearce
Chief Financial Officer
Julian joined bpha in October 2019 having spent over 20 years in a range of senior executive finance roles, most recently as Chief Financial Officer at NHS Property Services.
Julian is responsible for financial reporting together with the corporate finance function to ensure the group is adequately funded.
He has a strong track record as a senior executive operating at Board level and was previously a Partner at KPMG, where he headed up their Financial Sector Transaction Services Business. He has also been a Finance Director at Lloyds Banking Group.
Julian is also the Environment Lead.
Jeff Astle
Executive Director of Development and Sales
As Executive Director of Development and Sales, Jeff has been with bpha for over six years and is responsible for the delivery of new build and regeneration programmes between Oxford and Cambridge for social and affordable rented homes, shared ownership, outright sale and specialist housing. Jeff also has responsibility for bpha’s sales programme of shared ownership and open market homes.
Jeff’s career has spanned private and affordable housing development and immediately prior to his role at bpha, he was a Development Director at a national Housing Association where his responsibilities included new business and regeneration, their private housing subsidiary and national sales programmes.
Adrian Moore
Director of IT
Adrian has over 35 years’ experience working in Information Technology (IT), including 15 years in the strategic IT leadership roles of IT Director or Chief Technology Officer (CTO).
His experience includes both technical and strategic IT consultancy across the Mobile, Commercial, Education, Pharmaceutical, Insurance, Local Government and Public sectors. Immediately prior to joining bpha, Adrian held the post of worldwide CTO, for a venture capital owned international education business.
Adrian is responsible for leading the digital transformation of bpha’s systems and processes to support our customer experience, and for keeping the organisation safe in a world beset with cyber security threats.
Anna Humphries
Director of Customers and Services
Anna joined bpha in July 2018 and has nearly 30 years’ experience in the social housing, support and care sectors.
Anna’s passion is to provide the best service for customers, ensuring they are listened to and treated as individuals. She is responsible for bpha’s service delivery, including compliance with the new consumer regulations – she is very supportive of these and the benefits they will bring to customers. Anna leads bpha’s housing management, Customer Communications Centre and service improvement functions.
Anna is the consumer standard lead.
Gosia Motler
Director of Strategy
Gosia joined bpha in August 2016 and has over 25 years’ experience in senior leadership roles across corporate finance, strategy development, change management and business transformation in the housing sector as well as global organisations in the telecoms and automotive industries.
Prior to bpha she spent 12 years at Wheatley Housing Group, one of the largest housing groups in the UK (> 100,000 homes), where she was working closely with the Board, Scottish Government and the regulator, leading on funding strategies, viability and financial aspects of five successful corporate acquisitions.
Gosia leads on corporate strategy, major projects including M&A, risk management, change programmes, business intelligence, health & safety and environmental sustainability for bpha.
Paul Cook
Director of Property Services and Compliance
Paul joined bpha in 2016 as Head of Property Services and has over 30 years in sector property management experience.
Prior to joining bpha, Paul was Head of Technical Services at Aldwyck Housing Group, a position he held since 2010. At bpha, he leads the Property Services and Compliance Directorate, which encompasses repairs and maintenance, asset compliance, capital investment and sustainability, asset strategy and project Vista, our tower block refurbishment programme.
Lindsay Todd
Director of People
Lindsay joined bpha in 2016 as Head of HR and was promoted to Director in 2020. She brings over 25 years experience as a senior HR professional, across a variety of sectors including retail, manufacturing, non-departmental public body and housing.
Her role at bpha leads on HR, Organisation Development, including Learning and Development, Employee Engagement and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, ensuring people and culture remain at the heart of bpha’s strategic people priorities and its social purpose.
Catherine Kelly
Director of Governance and Legal
Catherine Kelly, who is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, joined bpha from the Acis Group, where she was Group Company Secretary and held the position of Head of Legal and Governance.
As well as roles within the commercial sector, Catherine’s breadth of experience also includes over 20 years' experience working in housing in both local government and housing associations. Catherine also holds a number of non-executive roles, and is a Foundation Governor for her local secondary/sixth form school.
Catherine covers the legal, governance and data protection for the bpha group together with the Business Support function. She also holds the role of Company Secretary for the bpha group, working very closely with bpha’s Board and Committees. She is bpha's primary contact for the Regulator for Social Housing and our appointed Money Laundering Officer.
Eddie Kelly
Director of Communications and External Affairs
Eddie brings a wealth of leadership experience in stakeholder engagement, PR, organisation culture, customer experience and brand from both the private and public sectors.
Leading on bpha’s communications, external affairs and brand, Eddie has worked both within and outside the housing sector in establishing company visions, bringing clarity on purpose, developing strategic priorities and defining values. Eddie has also worked in HR and sports’ journalism.
His housing experience includes five years as director of communications at Catalyst and over six years leading on communications and organisation culture at RHP. He led positive rebrands at both. As a customer experience consultant, he worked with organisations including the NHS, Aer Lingus, Habitat and Argos.
Eddie is a long suffering QPR supporter, football coach and a terrible martial artist.
Sub-committees ensuring the viability of bpha
Board
- Jeff Halliwell (Chair)
- Shirley Pointer (Senior Independent Director)
- Katherine Horrell
- Hari Punchihewa
- Steve Dickinson
- Max Bero
- Richard Hill
- Julian Pearce
- Jeff Astle
- Robert Clark
- Rachel Barber
Audit and Risk Committee
- Hari Punchihewa (Chair)
- Robert Clark
- Maxwell Bero.
Group Treasury Committee
- Katherine Horrell (Chair)
- Hari Punchihewa
- Steve Dickinson.
People and Nomination Committee
- Shirley Pointer (Chair)
- Jeff Halliwell
- Rachel Barber.
Development and Assets Committee
- Robert Clark (Chair)
- Shirley Pointer
- Katherine Horrell
- Steve Dickinson.
Customer Experience Committee
- Rachel Barber (Chair)
- Shirley Pointer
- Maxwell Bero.
