Sophie Atkinson
Director of Governance and Compliance, Catalyst Housing

Sophie Atkinson is Director of Governance and Compliance at Catalyst Housing, where she is responsible for governance, regulation, health and safety, risk and assurance. She is a qualified solicitor and a chartered company secretary and has previously worked for Sanctuary Housing Association and the Homes & Communities Agency (now the Social Housing Regulator)

Paul Bayly
Governance and Compliance Manager, National Housing Federation

Paul is the Governance and Compliance Manager for the Federation. He looks after the Federation’s internal risk and assurance processes and is responsible for advising members on governance matters. Paul also assists organisations looking to adopt the Federation’s Model Rules for Registered Societies.

Gemma Bell
Housing Corporate Services Partner, Anthony Collins Solicitors

Gemma advises housing associations, charities and not-for-profit businesses on all areas of corporate and governance work including governance issues, regulatory and charity law requirements. She leads on corporate restructuring, stock transfers and shared services projects as well as group structures and mergers on behalf of the firm.

Gemma Burton-Connolly
Head of Governance & Legal, Yarlington Housing Group

Gemma Burton-Connolly is Head of Governance and Legal at Yarlington Housing Group and Group Company Secretary for Yarlington and its subsidiary companies. Gemma has worked in the housing sector for seven years. Prior to this, Gemma worked in private practice as a lawyer. She has broad experience of governance and regulatory requirements within private companies, registered charities, community benefit societies and public limited companies.

Gemma has a keen interest in raising the profile of governance and removing the perception of bureaucracy by working with individuals, teams and organisations to embed good governance practices.

Gemma is dual qualified to practice law in the UK and USA. She is also a Non-Executive Director of Westworks Procurement.

Andrew Cowan
Partner, Head of Social Housing, Devonshires

Jill Davison
Assistant Director - Business Support, Your Homes Newcastle

Jill Davison is currently Assistant Director – Business Support at Your Homes Newcastle. The service covers corporate governance, information governance, communications, engagement, policy and innovation. Her previous role within the organisation was Group Governance Manager and she led on the creation of YHN’s current group structure in 2015, when two subsidiary companies were created. Jill is the current Company Secretary and holds the ICSA Governance Diploma.

As an ALMO, YHN manages 26,000 homes on behalf of Newcastle City Council, as well as operating commercial activity with the Newcastle Furniture Service (which provides furniture packs to customers around the country), Ostara (a telecare service) and Palatine Beds (which has both trade and consumer contracts for mattresses and bed frames and is a supported business).

YHN’s vision is to be First for Housing and its purpose to Make Living Easier; the involvement of customers in the strategic direction of the organisation is integral to it achieving both of these aims.

Stacey Egerton
Senior Policy Officer, Information Commissioner's Office

Stacey joined the Information Commissioners Office in 2012 and is currently a Senior Policy Officer within the Public Services Team of the ICO’s Policy & Engagement Department. She provides advice and support to public sector organisations regarding information rights and data privacy.

Stacey leads the stakeholder engagement for local government, specialising in multi-agency information sharing and risk management.

Michelle Friday
Performance and Risk Manager, WM Housing Group

Michelle has worked in the housing sector for 27 years, primarily in performance management and customer feedback roles, and most recently transitioning into the field of risk management. As Performance and Risk Manager for WM Housing, Michelle is responsible for ensuring that the principles of the Group’s risk management framework are followed throughout the Group and its subsidiaries, and that the structure and processes are in place to manage risks and their potential outcomes.

Sarah Greenhalgh
Senior Associate, Bevan Brittan

Dawn Hendon
Head of Governance & Corporate Affairs, Accord Group

Penny Huggard
Head of Governance & Compliance, Futures Housing Group

Penny has a diverse career background across a range of sectors including NatWest, the NHS, and both secondary and local authority education. In 2011 she moved into a specialist governance role with Futures Housing Group, based in the East Midlands.

Following a significant governance restructure in 2015 which introduced a co-terminous Board for four companies in the Group, her role was recently extended to include cross-Group responsibility for leading on risk, compliance and executive support services.

Futures Housing Group has recently been successful in establishing a treasury vehicle and securing £310m via the bond market and bank debt. This will support a development programme delivering 1,200 homes throughout the region over the next five years.

Fiona MacGregor
Executive Director of Regulation, Social Housing Regulator

Fiona was appointed director of the HCA in 2015 and is responsible for the regulation of social housing providers. Prior to this, as director of programmes, she was responsible for the HCA's affordable housing and help to buy programmes. Fiona has over 20 years' housing experience, covering development investment, programme delivery and policy development. She has worked at the HCA since it launched in 2008, before which she was deputy director of investment at the Housing Corporation, and prior to that, head of development at London & Quadrant.

Lisa McCaulder
Managing Director, Caldiston

David McGovern DL
Group Company Secretary - Governance and Legal, ForViva

David McGovern is the Group Company Secretary for the ForViva Group which is based in Salford and Knowsley. In his time in the organisation David has overseen and managed numerous constitutional changes to support the Groups growth aspirations. David’s professional background includes working in Central Government (Home Office), Greater Manchester Police and Transport for Greater Manchester.

In addition to his professional life David has worked and been a volunteer in his local community for most of his adult life and has volunteered for a number of Charities in that time. He currently voluntarily supports Charities to establish and improve their approach to good governance.

In 2010, he was awarded an Honorary Degree by The University of Salford for his work on LGBT issues and named Charity Chair of the Year at The Third Sector National Awards in 2013. In 2016 he was appointed as a Deputy Lord Lieutenant in Greater Manchester in recognition of his charitable work.

Sam McGrady
Director, DTP

Sam has more than 28 years’ experience in the social housing sector. Prior to joining management consultancy DTP, where her role combines client consultancy support with business development, partnerships and communications, she was HouseMark’s Deputy Chief Executive for nine years. At DTP, Sam specialises in strategy and governance, regulatory compliance and VFM, mergers and due diligence, and has helped more than 40 organisations prepare for regulatory In-Depth Assessment. Sam previously held a variety of senior level interim management roles, turning around failing housing organisations, and before that worked for a range of social housing landlords in housing management.

Bruce Moore
Chief Executive, Housing & Care 21

Bruce was appointed Chief Executive of Housing & Care 21 in September 2013 to lead a review of its business purpose, processes and performance. Bruce has previously been Chief Executive of Hanover Housing Group and Deputy Chief Executive of Anchor Trust.

Bruce’s early career was as a lawyer and is a qualified solicitor, but he has spent more than 20 years leading change and seeking to improve the provision of housing and care for older people. Bruce has served as a board member for a number of housing associations and charities and has recently completed a PhD considering the governance of housing associations.

Katie Moore
Head of Strategy, Assurance & Performance, WM Housing Group

Zoe Ollerearnshaw
Director of Governance & Compliance and Company Secretary, A2Dominion

Richard Peden
Deputy Director – Provider Engagement, Regulator of Social Housing

Richard Peden has been Deputy Director – Provider Engagement with the Regulator of Social Housing since November 2017, leading the operations team regulating the largest registered providers of social housing. In his previous role was as Director –Independent Provider with NHS Improvement where he established the regulation function dealing with non-NHS providers supporting the NHS. A chartered accountant, Richard spent 20 years in corporate finance and management consultancy working across the public and private sectors, prior to moving into regulation.

Peter Swabey FCIS
Policy & Research Director, ICSA: The Governance Institute

Joanne Tilley
Executive Director – Corporate Services, EMH Group

Joanne Tilley is Executive Director Corporate Services at emh group. Her role covers governance, business planning, new business partnerships, human resources, learning & development, health & safety, diversity, public relations, communications, quality & standards, policy, and customer engagement. Jo has an Executive MBA and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Housing. She Chairs the National Housing Federation’s Midlands Governance Regional Interest Group.