Somer Housing Group's Board
We know that what we do matters. The
pressures of factors such as an ageing population, increasing
household formation, aggravated affordability across the region,
and the widening poverty gap, all mean that there is a desperate
shortage of the sorts of homes and services we provide. We are
responding to this challenge in three main ways. Firstly by
concentrating on delivering excellent services; secondly, by
ensuring that we deliver as much new housing as we can; and
thirdly, by ensuring that our staff are motivated to take on the
difficult jobs they have to do.
There are currently 12 board
members.
Patrick Harkness (Group Chair)
Patrick Harkness
has worked as a Chief Executive; been appointed by the Housing
Corporation as a statutory Board member; and has served on the
Boards of three other housing associations, including a six year
spell as a Group Chair in London. He is Managing Director of a
consultancy that works with a wide range of clients across all
sectors. Within the consultancy he leads on strategic, corporate
development, governance, business development and communications
work.
John Bader
(Chair of Somer Community Housing Trust)
John retired from the
Welsh Assembly in 2005 where he was Director of the Social Justice
& Regeneration Department, after working as a housing
professional for over 40 years. One of his responsibilities with
the Assembly was the regulation of registered social landlords in
Wales, so he has a strong interest in good governance of housing
associations.
Tom Battersby
(Chair of Redland Housing Association)
Tom Battersby has a long standing interest in housing
associations, having worked in West London as a housing officer
before starting in IT. He lives in Bath and works for Capita
Software Services in Trowbridge.
Stan Rodliffe
(Chair of Shape Housing Association)
Stan Rodliffe is retired from the electricity supply
industry where he developed a broad range of general management
skills. His knowledge of housing was gained over nine years on the
Board of South Western Housing Society. He is currently a
non-executive director and charity trustee of Teign Housing, a
volunteer working for The Prince’s Trust and engaged in a variety
of other activities in his local community.
Margaret Connor
Margaret is
a Tenant Trustee with Somer Community Housing Trust and also Tenant
Representative for Keynsham and Villages. She has been a tenant
since 1976 and was active with the options appraisal process and
the residents’ steering group prior to transfer. She was previously
Chair of the Somer Residents’ Committee before her appointment to
the Board.
Roger Hill
Roger is a fellow of
the Institute of Environmental Health and has worked for Bath City
and Bath and North East Somerset councils for 31 years. At
retirement he was the Private Sector Housing Manager and since then
has worked in both South Gloucestershire and West Wiltshire housing
departments in various housing roles, including for a time the
Principal Housing Services Manager. He has been a Board member of
Shape for 17 years and has a long-term interest in housing for the
disadvantaged.
Andy Riggs
Andy Riggs is a chartered accountant and has been working
within the education sector for 15 years. He is the Deputy Director
of Finance for the University of the West of England, Bristol.
He trained with Coopers and Lybrand in Manchester, before
working for a Further Education college in the North West, latterly
as Director of Finance, and then working with the University of
Chester as Director of Resources.
Andy has a degree in geography from Nottingham University and an
MBA from Manchester Metropolitan University. He has been previously
a trustee of a charity working with the homeless in Manchester and
on the board of a community centre in Warrington, and is a trustee
and treasurer of a local church in South Gloucestershire.
Martin Jelbart
Martin Jelbart, Independent Board Member is an early retired
interim manager and a board member of West Kent Housing
Association. Until 2008 he chaired their Audit & Finance
Committee. He has been non-executive chairman of a small quoted
company and as an interim, managed a substantial residential
property development, management and lettings business. After
qualifying as a chartered engineer he moved into commercial,
technology transfer and industrial investment roles before joining
the burgeoning venture capital industry, becoming a director of a
leading venture capital company.
Rob Appleyard
Rob Appleyard is a Local Authority trustee, representing
Westfield as a Councillor on both the unitary and Town councils. He
spent many years as a representative on the area committee of the
CWU trade union and still works within the communications industry
as an ICT Technical Specialist with BT.
He strongly believes in the values of community and supports a
variety of interests, as well as being an active governor at
Westfield Primary School, he is also a member of The Network
Learning Board and the Racial Equality Council Executive.
He would like to promote a stronger understanding for social
housing and that affordability needs to be relative, and he will
always advocate that the voice of the tenant is heard and
valued.
Owen Ingram
Owen works as a management consultant working mainly with
registered providers in change settings. He has held senior
positions in specialised housing services for people with
addictions and mental health problems. He has been interim chief
executive of 14 housing organisations and specialises working with
boards and senior teams to resolve failures, poor practice and
performance.
He has been the chair and board member of a housing association
as well as chair and board member of three health authorities and
chair of a specialist NHS mental health trust.
Graham Briscoe
Graham Briscoe is a chartered engineer, chartered
information technology professional, certified management
consultant and a Fellow of the British Institute of Facilities
Management. He has worked in many management services roles
throughout his thirty year career with Royal Sun Alliance,
encompassing project and change management, information technology,
facilities management, quality and customer service management.
Since 2003 Graham has built up a portfolio of community investment
involvement, including further education college governance, a
visiting fellowship and lectureship in higher education, charity
trustee appointments, professional institute governance, and
support to charity, voluntary and not-for-profit organisations in
the South West.
Martin Nurse
|
|