Meet the board

Ruth is Chair of the Association.

She worked in local authorities for 35 years serving 16 years as Chief Executive successively of two councils. She led teams to success in delivering rural and urban affordable housing including the national award of Beacon status for Affordable Housing. She now acts as a consultant to private sector organisations seeking a positive relationship with the public sector.

Ruth hopes she can bring her knowledge of organisations, strategic management and housing management and delivery to secure housing for local residents.

Steven took on the role of Vice Chair in October 2023.

Steven has over 20 years’ experience creating, maintaining and improving social housing and strategic housing services within local authorities. Since 2001 he has been the lead for housing in a number of councils in the Midlands, including as Chief Housing Officer.

He also brings partnership experience to WRHA as the lead for creating shared services across two counties: disabled adaptations and rough sleeping services. In 2019, Steven was made a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Housing in recognition of his work in the sector.

Derek was a Director of Finance and Deputy Chief Executive in the NHS for many years.  He ran his own consultancy business for over 20 years providing financial and managerial advice to a broad range of organisations.

He was a Governor of South Warwickshire College for 12 years where he was Chairman of the Finance Committee and Chairman of Governors.  He was Chairman of Mid Warwickshire Mencap for nearly 10 years.  He is also a Director of Warwickshire Rural Community Council.

Deanna, a Housing Operations Manager at PA Housing, joined the Board in July 2019.

She is a Chartered Institute of Housing member and has over 15 years’ experience in the social housing sector with a particular focus on homelessness, allocations and lettings and housing management. She also brings to the board significant experience in policy and procedural development, and the implementation of systems.

Marc has a 30 years background in risk, corporate governance and compliance at senior roles in financial services and corporate sectors.

He has been a civil servant, a financial services regulator and has also run compliance functions in financial services and corporate sectors.  He spent 11 years as a senior executive at BP plc: his last role as Global Head of Business Integrity.

He is now a management consultant and has worked on compliance remediation programmes at investment banks.

He is a trustee of Marches Counselling Services (a mental health charity), Chair of Finance, Risk and Audit at New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering (a higher education establishment), Chair of Finance, Risk and Audit at Hereford Cathedral and Chair at Gwent Wildlife Trust (a conservation charity). He was recently appointed as a Lay Observer for the UK’s Ministry of Justice.

Mark joined the WRHA Board in September 2022 and attended his first meeting on 2nd November 2022.

Liam has worked in the housing and local authority sectors for 10 years and is a chartered public financial accountant.

He is currently the Director of Housing at St Basil’s Housing Association. Prior to joining St Basil’s, Liam was the Head of Operations for a local authority owned housing company in London.

Liam joined the WRHA Board in September 2022 and attended his first meeting on 2nd November 2022.

Nick has over 15 years of experience working in housing, across both housing management and development.

Since 2014 he has been employed as Communications Manager at PA Housing. He was nominated for Inspirational Colleague of the Year at the UK Housing Awards in 2021 for his work on communication during the pandemic and proactive use of social media to help tackle poor mental health and social isolation.

Nick has a particular focus in helping housing associations improve their interactions and communications with residents to build relationships of mutual trust and respect.

Nick joined the WRHA Board in September 2022 and attended his first meeting on 2nd November 2022.

Head of Construction, Quality and Innovation – Midland Heart
Visiting Lecturer, Construction Innovation – University of Reading

Tony is a chartered engineer with a Doctorate from the Technologies for Sustainable Built Environments Centre at the University of Reading.

He's been in the housebuilding industry for over 15 years, holding roles at contractors and NHBC prior to joining Midland Heart in 2018, where he's Head of Construction, Quality and Innovation.

Tony has a passion for construction quality as well as designing and delivering low carbon homes. He is a visiting lecturer at the University of Reading where he teaches innovation in construction; and he also works with a number of professional bodies and sits on industry groups.

Tony joined the WRHA Board in September 2022 and attended his first meeting on 2nd November 2022.