Our Board

Chair

Sir David Bell KCB brings with him a wealth of experience following a career spanning over 37 years, holding a number of major posts across the education system. Between 2012 and 2018, he was Vice-Chancellor at the University of Reading. Previously, he was Permanent Secretary at the Department for Education for six years, serving four Secretaries of State and three Prime Ministers. He also served as Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools for nearly four years.

Vice Chair

Alexis is an experienced Non-Executive Director/Trustee working in such roles for 20 years in government departments, the third sector, higher education and pension funds.

In her Civil Service career, most recently she was Director-General for Transformational Government at the Cabinet Office in Whitehall from 2007-2011.

Prior to that, she was Chief Executive of the Pension Service from 2002 to 2007, overseeing the introduction of Pension Credit and working with Ministers on Pension Policy development.

Before that appointment, Alexis was Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency, which was the largest government agency at the time. She was responsible for an extensive network of local officers and processing centres employing over 80,000 people.

A Statistician by training Alexis has also been a CIO and led HR. Finance, Estates and Procurement Services

Currently, Alexis is also a Non-Executive Director at the Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Trust, a Mental Health Foundation Trust.

Board Member

We welcomed Amanda Swann to our board in August 2023.

Having worked in the housing sector for over 15 years, Amanda brings a wealth of experience. In this time, her roles have seen her oversee development, regeneration, and sales, as well as strategy and performance within housing associations.

Amanda’s varied career and role has meant she is experienced in finance, project management, risk management and construction – and her passion lies with development – whether that be physical homes for customers, the service we provide, colleague development or self-development. Customer voice is something that is extremely important to Amanda, too.

She can also draw from her experience in her current role of Development Director, as part of the senior leadership team, at Bromford – a West Midland and South West-based housing association.

Amanda has a degree in Business and a post graduate qualification in Surveying.

Outside of work, Amanda has a daughter who keeps her busy with her driving club, has two pet cats, and is trying her hand at yoga after recently taking it up.

Board Member

Gill Moy is Chair of P3 Housing and a Karbon Homes Board Member

Gill is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Housing and has worked in social housing for over 35 years.  Before retiring in 2019 Gill spent 12 years as Director of Housing and Customer Services at Nottingham City Homes(NCH).  Gill joined the Executive of NCH at a time of turbulence and her commitment to performance management saw the organisations fortunes turn around.  In 2018 they were named Social Landlord of the Year at the national housing awards. Gill has extensive experience in all areas of housing management and a real passion for tenant involvement and customer service.  She also has a wealth of experience of partnership working including crime and disorder, and took the Company lead for  health, serving on the Nottingham Health and Wellbeing Board and Nottinghamshire STP Housing Group. Her involvement with the Corporate Parenting Board led to her fostering teenagers for almost 10 years. 

Gill spent a number of years as a Neighbourhood Renewal Advisor for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. Gill has been on the Boards of a number of organisations including Nottingham School Trust, NCH Enterprise Limited and Click Nottingham, as well as serving as a school governor for over a decade.  

Board Member

Hanif is currently employed as the Director of a Charitable Foundation and was previously the Chief Executive of a leading Community organisation in Leeds and then Chief Operating Officer of an International Humanitarian Charity. He has over 20 years’ experience of operating at a strategic level having been a Non-Executive Director of several boards.

Having developed and implemented a plethora of community-related projects across health, sport, young people’s work and regeneration during his career, Hanif has a significant understanding of community engagement processes.

He has previously completed a six-year period as on the national Sport England Board where he was also Chair of the Project Committee and the Board lead for Equality & Diversity.

His work on inclusion and diversity stretches back over the past two decades and he is a certified practitioner in this regard with the National Centre of Diversity.

In addition to his paid role, he is currently an Ambassador at the Children’s Heart Surgery Fund in Leeds and a board member at Yorkshire County Cricket Club (where he became the first individual of BME origin to be appointed to the board in the 153-year history of the club)

His prolonged period of working alongside and supporting communities at a local, regional and national level was recognised in July 2014 through being awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Leeds Beckett University for ‘services to the public’ and on receiving an OBE in the Queen's Honours for ‘Services to the Community’ in June 2016.

Board Member

Mike Mullaney brings substantial experience from the banking sector, particularly as a former regional director at Lloyds Banking Group, and at Royal Bank of Scotland.

He has held external appointments at a range of high profile organisations including the CBI and Business in the Community

Board Member

Neil has over 40 years’ experience in the social care and housing sectors. He spent much of his early career with Durham County Council prior to moving to North Yorkshire County Council in 1998, subsequently becoming Executive Director of Health, Housing and Adult Services for Sunderland City Council in 2007.  Since 2016 he has provided consultancy across Health, Housing, and Adult Services and the wider Local Government and Health sectors.

He is an associate member of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) and Chairs the ADASS Housing Policy Network. He Chairs Disability Action Yorkshire, and has acted as an Adviser to the Local Government Association’s Housing Commission, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Housing and Care, and contributed to various housing related matters with the Ministry for Housing Communities and Local Government and the Department of Health and Social Care. He works with the LGA as a Care & Health Improvement Adviser.

Neil is passionate about supporting the creation of strong communities and giving everyone the opportunity to live in a good quality home with a belief that a safe and secure home is a key component for a person to maximise their life chances. He is a strong advocate for the development of accessible homes to give the best possible independent living choices.

Board Member

Sarah is an Executive Coach, having established her own business upon leaving her role as Group HR Director at Northumbrian Water after eight years.

Prior to this she was the Director of HR and OD at Places for People for five years, and her earlier career was in HR and Business Transformation roles in Nestle and Northern Foods.

In her career of over 30 years Sarah has worked with CEOs and senior teams in three different sectors, and she brings a wealth of experience to support our People and Culture agenda. In 2018 the CIPD named her as the ‘Inspirational Practitioner’ in the north east of England. She holds a post-graduate qualification in Business and Executive Coaching, at the Senior Practitioner level, and she now works as a coach with senior leaders in a range of businesses and organisations across the UK.

Sarah is a Trustee at Beamish Museum, and established the Business Friends of Beamish in 2013. She teaches a regular yoga class in Chester le Street and occasional corporate yoga.

Board Member

Stephen is a Chartered Accountant, and an experienced non-executive director, charity trustee, consultant and coach.

He has recently returned to the UK after a varied international career with KPMG, where as a board member and Chief Operating Officer he managed their operations in eastern Europe, helping to build a number of professional services businesses across that region, as well as starting some from scratch.

During his career with KPMG, he lived in five countries, worked in several more, and operated across a wide range of management activity, including People, Finance, Business Development, Marketing and Communications, and IT.

He started his career with PwC, working in UK and Italy, after graduating from Oxford University.

Board Member

Steve has wide experience of housebuilding development, Project Management, Finance, IT, Risk Management and Corporate Social Responsibility. He is an MBA qualified Chartered Accountant.

As well as being a board member of Karbon Homes, Steve chairs 54North Homes the group’s subsidiary in Yorkshire and serves on the Group Audit & Risk Committee.

Steve worked for McCarthy & Stone, Britain's leading Retirement Living housing developer, for 24 years with his last 13 years as Regional Managing Director in the North. He led on the project ‘Transforming our Customer Experience'. McCarthy & Stone are industry leaders with 13+ years 5* status recommendation from their customers.

Since 2018 Steve has been building a portfolio of work comprising retirement housing consultancy, executive mentoring and Non Exec roles including Tang Hall Smart CIC, Tang Hall Employment Charity, a SME housebuilder and two Construction tech businesses. He chairs the York Property Forum which is part of the Chamber of Commerce. Steve is a Non-Executive Board Member at Johnnie Johnson Housing and chairs their Asset & Investment Committee.

Board Member

Fiona is an experienced and knowledgeable property professional with a well-developed understanding of the Northern Housing Market. She has over 20 years' experience of working across a range of disciplines, including Asset Management, Development, Sales and Private Sector Property Management.

For the past twelve years, Fiona has held senior leadership roles within three North West base Housing Associations, most recently as Executive Director of Property at The Regenda Group, where she had overall responsibility for Group wide Asset Management, as well as being Managing Director of two of the Groups ‘for profit' subsidiaries; Redwing, a £15m turnover Liverpool based property agency, developer and landlord; and McDonald Property Rentals, a commercial Estate Agency operating across the Fylde Coast.