Who's who

Jo Savage
Chief Executive

Jo joined in November 2014 as Chief Executive and has worked in housing since 1987. She started her career as a Housing Officer and has worked for one council and four Housing Associations, gaining a promotion with each new job role. Jo is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Housing and has served on and chaired a number of Boards including the National Housing Federation in the East Midlands. She is currently on the Board of First Garden Cities Homes and PlaceShapers alliance of community-based housing associations.

Chris Holloway
Executive Director and Regulatory Consumer Standards Lead

Chris has been Executive Director since September 2023, but originally joined the organisation in 2018 as Head of Housing and Neighbourhoods. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Housing and has over 15 years’ housing management experience across local authorities and housing associations. Chris is the lead for the consumer standards introduced in April 2024.

Mike Kay
Chair of the Board

Recently retired, Mike has spent the last 28 years in Social Housing, the last 20 years in executive positions.  A Chartered Building Surveyor he has over 45 years’ experience of property management and property development. Mike has substantial local knowledge and understanding, having worked for over 8 years as Chief Executive of Northampton Partnership Homes. Mike also has significant experience as a non-executive director, most recently as Chair of the ACIS Group for the last 6 years.

David Beale
Chair of Audit and Risk Committee

David has significant experience in banking specifically treasury assets and capital markets, credit risk and risk governance, debt funding to the social housing and commercial real estate sectors.  He has held senior positions with Nationwide Building Society, Santander, Merrill Lynch and Standard and Poor’s. David is currently acting as a consultant to the financial sector.

Committee: Audit and Risk Committee

Jo Robinson
Chair of Board Effectiveness and People Committee.
Member Responsible for Complaints (MRC)

Following a 30-year career in social housing, Jo is now retired. Originally a Valuer, she was most recently responsible for governance, regulatory compliance and tenant involvement at a large housing association in the Southeast. Jo is a great supporter of customer involvement and the benefits this can bring to services, operations and strategy.

Jo is the Chair of our Board Effectiveness and People Committee. She is also our Member Responsible for Complaints (MRC) as required by the Housing Ombudsman. 

Committee: Board Effectiveness and People Committee

Kevin Edwards

Kevin is a Partner at a social housing specialist firm in the south east and specialises in social housing law. With approaching 20 years of experience in the sector, Kevin has worked within both the public and private sectors advising numerous national and regional housing associations and Local Authorities on their acquisitions, disposals and stock rationalisation, as well as providing training to clients and the wider social housing sector on legislation changes and best practice.  

Committee: Audit and Risk Committee

Gurmeet Singh Virdi
Vice chair

Gurmeet has over 30 years’ experience in housing having worked in both the public and private sectors. Now choosing to “give something back” he is currently in a couple of NED roles and contracting in Supported Housing for a charitable organisation where his role is in service development. Gurmeet helps build and sustain successful partnerships that add value to people’s lives, helping them to belong, contribute and thrive in their communities. Gurmeet is a change catalyst helping organisations grow, improve services, and meet their customer needs.

Committee: Audit and Risk Committee

Helen McGregor

Helen McGregor brings 17 years of experience within the social housing sector with expertise in asset management & sustainability. She is a chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Housing and an associate member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. Helen’s recent career includes leadership roles at G15 organisation Notting Hill Genesis as Director of Asset Management and Director of Repairs. Prior to this Helen led the Asset Management service at Notting Hill Housing Housing Trust. Helen is now a Director for McGregor White Architects who specialise in design and delivery of sustainable homes for affordable housing providers.

Committee: Audit and Risk Committee

Maana Ruia

A finance professional with 25 years’ experience in capital markets and investments, with an innate understanding of the challenges of growing a business while embedding sustainability goals, processes and messaging internally & externally. Strong financial analytical skills with the ability to evaluate data and information quickly, drawing constructive conclusions. Extensive project management expertise. Engaging with key stakeholders to shape and deliver recommendations to Boards on financial, strategic and ESG messaging with the focus on constructive, respectful Board level discussions. Former analyst and Fund Manager, CFA Certificate in ESG Investing.

Committee: Board Effectiveness and People Committee

Nabeel Irshad

Currently working for Mastercard, a global technology company in the payments industry, he leads its UK and Ireland government business – working closely with a wide range of banks, payments companies and industry partners to champion the use of technology to facilitate more effective payments in the public sector and leverage payments data to enhance policy development and evaluation.

Before Mastercard, Nabeel spent five years working at Metro Bank, one of the UK’s first challenger banks. There, he worked in both the products and finance teams to build propositions, develop business change cases, and procure new services. Earlier in his career, Nabeel worked as a management consultant leading projects across Europe, the Middle East, and N. America and prior to that, he was a senior political adviser.

Nabeel also sits as a board observer with ACIS group, a housing association based in Gainsborough.

Committee: Audit and Risk Committee

Andrew Dale

Andrew brings 14 years experience in the Social Housing sector and is currently Deputy Director of Digital, Data and Change at Newport City Homes in South Wales. Andrew also has additional experience in the manufacturing, distribution and financial services sectors.

Committee: Board Effectiveness and People Committee