Paul Dolan
Chief Executive, Riverside

Paul Dolan took up his post as Group Chief Executive of Riverside in 2024, following seven years as Chief Executive at Accent Group. Paul has a successful track record in delivering transformational business and culture change. He is experienced in organisational turnarounds, taking businesses from positions of serious regulatory failure to full compliance. Paul has led both not for profit and commercial businesses, and managed stakeholders through complex organisational change. In 2019, he successfully led Accent to a record-breaking deal with the UK social housing sector’s lowest ever price on a long-dated public bond. Prior to his time with Accent, Paul was a former chief executive of Johnnie Johnson Housing Trust(JJHT) from February 2014 to April2017, where he steered the organisation to financial stability, regulatory compliance and through a comprehensive reform of governance. He delivered JJHT’s new vision and provided the organisation with a clear purpose and a national voice for retirement living.

Tom Arey
Director, PfP Thrive, Places for People

Tom Arey is the Managing Director of PfP Thrive an organisation delivering comprehensive, bespoke training programmes for the UK housing and construction sectors. PfP Thrive provides compliance training, apprenticeships, and leadership development to meet the sector’s evolving workforce needs. Part of Places for People, PfP Thrive is equipping the housing sector with the skills and expertise required for a sustainable future. Having started his career as an apprentice, Tom has spent nearly a decade focused on developing training solutions for the housing industry, and in 2025, he established PfP Thrive to bring that vision to life.

Sam Asamoah
Project Manager Housing, Redbridge Council and Peabody resident

Matt Bellamy
Director of Asset Strategy & Delivery, Vivid Homes

Christine Blackett
Former Chair, Gateway Management Team (resident)

Richard Blakeway
Housing Ombudsman, Housing Ombudsman Service

Richard was appointed as Housing Ombudsman from 1 September 2019. He has extensive experience in the housing sector, with previous roles including Deputy Mayor of London for Housing, chair of the Homes for London board, and a non-executive director of Homes England. During his eight years at the Greater London Authority, Richard was responsible for housing investment and land regeneration programmes. He also led the creation of the first team at City Hall to address rough sleeping, commissioning around £10 million of services each year, as well as the first Social Impact Bond on homelessness.

Richard is a former board member of the Chartered Institute of Housing and has been an election observer in Somaliland and the Ukraine.  He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and sits on the Administrative Justice Council. Richard is also a former chair of the Ombudsman Association and is a board member of the British Library.

Liz Blackwell
Group Head of Sustainability, Strategy & Performance, L&Q Group

Liz is Group Head of Sustainability at L&Q, a not-for-profit housing association with around 110,000 homes in London and Manchester. She heads up strategy development and planning for Environment & Climate Change, responsible for sustainability reporting and risk disclosures, as well as being co-chair of the sector-wide Sustainable Housing Strategy Group.

Gemma Brookes
Head of Asset Optimisation, Orbit

Jenny Danson
Chief Executive, Healthy Homes Hub

With over 30 years of leadership experience, Jenny has held prominent roles including CEO, COO, Executive Director, and Programme Manager. Jenny's impressive career spans various sectors, working with giants like BAA plc, Boots Opticians, Lovell, Ilke Homes, Kier, and Fortem, as well as numerous Councils and Housing Associations. Her strategic and operational prowess has consistently driven growth and innovation in every organisation she’s touched. In 2017, Jenny founded Danery to provide executive coaching and consultancy to the housing sector and tech start-ups. Her passion for property innovation led to the launch of the Proptech Innovation Network in 2021, a groundbreaking initiative in social housing. Jenny has worked with and supported over 130 housing associations, local authorities and combined authorities over the last 20 years. Now, with the establishment of Healthy Homes Hub in 2024, Jenny aims to create a collaborative platform to promote healthier, more sustainable living environments. With her extensive expertise and industry connections, Jenny is set to make Healthy Homes Hub a beacon of change in social housing.

Philippe Demougin
Property Innovation Manager, Bromford Flagship

Ruth Dent
Director of Customer & Assets, Regen-Group

Executive Director of Asset & Customer, RE:GEN Group

As Exec Director of Customer at RE:GEN Group, Ruth leads the organisation’s people-first approach, redefining customer experience across colleagues, clients, and communities. With a strong background in social housing and customer strategy, Ruth drives cultural change, service excellence, and long-term partnerships. A passionate advocate for sustainability, Ruth brings extensive experience in delivering retrofit at scale—ensuring that environmental impact and customer experience go hand in hand. Her leadership spans People, Culture, Partnerships, and Customer Experience, ensuring that customer value is embedded at every level of the business.

Kate Dodsworth
Chief of Regulatory Engagement, Regulator of Social Housing

Kate started her career in housing 30 years ago in homelessness, working with rough sleepers in Birmingham and later managing homeless hostels in Brighton.

After completing a Masters degree in Housing, she worked at the National Housing Federation for 10 years; latterly as Assistant Director covering London, the South East and East of England. She was Executive Director of People and Communications at Amicus Horizon and, post-merger, as Optivo.

Kate was Chief Executive of Gateway Housing Association for three years until starting as Director of Consumer Regulation at the Regulator for Social Housing in July 2021. In 2023, she was appointed Chief of Regulatory Engagement at RSH

Lucy Hancock
Head of Social Housing Redress, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Lucy is Head of Redress in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, focusing on Awaab’s Law and wider redress including the Housing Ombudsman. Lucy’s career in the Civil Service has focused on housing and the environment, including roles in planning, environmental legislation, council housing policy and housing strategy.

John Hughes
Head of Assets & Sustainability, Ongo

Head of Assets and Sustainability at Ongo Homes. Responsible for all Asset Management activities from Stock Surveys, Asset data and Planned Works as well as Decarbonising the Assets and the Business. Over 20 year’s experience in Social Housing, starting as an apprentice bricklayer and undertaking various key roles within in both Client and Contractor teams across both local authority and Housing Associations. Ongo Homes have around 11500 properties predominantly in the north Lincolnshire area.

Sonji Nurse
Resident Board Member, Hexagon Housing Association

Sonji is a Resident Board Member for Hexagon Housing Association and an elected member of the Performance Review, Repairs and Strategic Core Groups.  These groups hold the housing association to account, analyse performance metrics, statistical data, and benchmarking performance against other similar sized housing providers.

Sonji is an experienced strategic, transformational, change management, quality assurance professional whose aptitude has consistently driven performance enhancement, delivering tangible results over more than two decades across private, legal, non-profit, and public sectors.

Melissa O’Donnell
Business Development Manager, Golden Lane Housing (GLH)

Melissa O’Donnell joined Golden Lane Housing (GLH) in 2008 as Business Development Manager, having previously worked in the social housing sector for 13 years.

Appointed to her current role in 2009, Melissa leads the Property and Customer Services functions at GLH, overseeing the day-to-day repairs service, compliance, and planned maintenance programme across all of the organisation’s properties. She also holds responsibility for sustainability, driving forward GLH’s environmental objectives and long-term asset efficiency.

Melissa successfully launched GLH’s in-house works team, Resolve Solutions, to improve service delivery, value for money, and customer satisfaction through a more direct and accountable approach to maintenance and repairs.

As part of the Executive Team since 2008, Melissa also serves as the organisation’s Executive Health and Safety Champion, reporting key data and assurance updates to both the Executive Team and the Board of Non-Executive Directors.

Alongside her role at GLH, Melissa acts as an Independent Committee Member for Broadacres Housing Association’s Customer Committee, a position she has held for the past three years, contributing her expertise to strengthen customer experience and housing standards across the sector.

Becky Ritchie
Head of Sustainability, Clarion Housing Group

Lynsey Sweeney
Managing Director, Communities that Work

Lynsey Sweeney is the Managing Director of Communities that Work. She has worked across housing, employment and skills for 15 years with Communities that Work and the National Housing Federation. Lynsey was a Director at a central London Further Education College and consulted for KPMG on their World Class Skills programme. Prior to this, she worked for VSO in China, Ethiopia and London.

Matthew Scott
Policy Manager (net zero and sustainability), Chartered Institute of Housing

Matthew Scott is policy manager for net zero, sustainability, and climate resilience at the Chartered Institute of Housing. He holds a PhD from Newcastle University, and has written and spoken widely about the implications of climate change and extreme weather for social housing providers in the UK. He is also a regular contributor to the UK Housing Review and continues to work with academic colleagues to develop new research into the links between housing, energy, and climate policy.

Alistair Smyth
Director of Policy and Research, National Housing Federation

Alistair has worked in the social housing sector for the last 16 years in a wide range of roles and organisations including a previous spell at the NHF from 2014 to 2017. Prior to that, he worked as a consultant on a range of neighbourhood and community empowerment projects. He also spent three years working in a customer-facing role as a Neighbourhood Manager and as Assistant Head of Neighbourhoods for Peabody. He is currently the Vice Chair of the Chartered Institute of Housing’s Policy Advisory Committee.

Steve Sze
Real Estate & Housing: Sustainability & ESG Finance, Lloyds Banking Group

Steve leads sustainability finance for the UK social housing sector at Lloyds, deploying Green and Sustainability Linked Loans to Housing Associations to deliver decarbonisation plans. He is a member of UKGBC’s Regenerative Places task group, shaping frameworks for positive development outcomes. Previously, Steve worked at Lloyds’ Housing Growth Partnership, deploying equity into joint ventures developments. He is a chartered development surveyor with an architectural background.