Board members
Tony Davison
Chair
Tony has a wealth of business experience with more than 20 years at Bostik, spending six years as MD. He has formerly served as a local councillor, Chair of Governors of a College of Further Education, a Governor of Manchester Metropolitan University and is currently part owner and a Director of Crewe Alexandra Football Club. Tony is a member of the Remuneration & Appraisal Committee.
Christine Amyes
Deputy Chair, Chair of Remuneration & Appraisal Committee
Christine is a senior manager with a wide range of executive and non-executive experience, most recently as Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Director People for New Charter Group. Christine’s early career was in the Civil Service where she specialised in Learning and Development. She is currently an Independent OD Consultant and Executive Coach and is an Advisory Board member of Girls out Loud, a social enterprise working to raise the aspirations of teenage girls.
Michael Hanson
Chair of Audit and Assurance Committee
Mike was previously the Chief Executive of a successful regional building society based in Stockport. On retiring from that role, he set up a mortgage advice firm and continues to help individuals to navigate the housing finance maze. In addition to property and personal finance matters Mike has a strong interest in social and community affairs and has served as a Trustee and the Chair of Stockport’s Citizens Advice and also as a frontline CA volunteer. Mike is a Trustee of a fund which supports disadvantaged young people in the North West and draws upon his experience as a Chartered Accountant in also acting as the Trust’s Administrator.
David Robinson
Also Chair of Cube Board
David is Chairman of specialist retailer Richer Sounds, having arrived at the Company in 1983 and becoming Managing Director in 1991. He is also Managing Director of a privately owned property development and Investment Company and a Trustee of United Learning, one of the country’s largest Multi Academy Trusts who provide education to over 37,000 children. David is a member of the Remuneration & Appraisal Committee.
Matthew Harrison
CEO and Executive Board Member*
Matthew joined Great Places in 1993 and led the growth of the organisation through award winning development before being appointed Chief Executive of the Group in April 2013. He has vast experience in development and urban regeneration and has led on many iconic developments. He has also held voluntary positions and is a Board Member of a Local Strategic Partnership.
Babar Ahmad
Cube Great Places Limited
Babar is a Chartered Surveyor with vast experience of acquiring land and buildings for residential, commercial and infrastructure development. He is the Head of Land Acquisition for a leading development company and has successfully delivered urban regeneration projects across the UK.
Emma Prichard-Selby
Cube Homes Limited
Emma graduated with first class honours in Urban Land Economics from Sheffield Hallam University and is well versed in design, planning, procurement and legal governance. She brings with her a wealth of development experience, having been Head of (Pre Construction) Development at Berkeley Homes (North East London) and Residential Development Director for Westfield. Emma is the Founding Director of development company The Vesta Group which works alongside local authorities, land owners and Pension Funds.
John Williamson
Cube Homes Limited
John has worked in the Housing and Development sector for 36 years, with extensive experience of delivering Open Market, Partnership and Regeneration schemes.
He spent 15 years as MD of Barratt Partnerships, securing public land to deliver over 18,000 homes. Prior to this he was Development and Planning Director for the Liverpool Housing Action Trust.
Grenville Page
Member of the Audit & Assurance Committee
Grenville is a highly experienced finance, business and governance leader and consultant, with a wealth of Board level and senior change experience both as an executive and as a NED/trustee gained across the public (local government, NHS, central government), charities/social enterprises and housing sectors. He is CIPFA qualified and has held Finance Director positions in health, social enterprise and private care sector organisations. He has extensive knowledge of the health, social care, housing, well-being, and welfare to work agendas, the challenges and opportunities for service transformation and integration across sector boundaries. Grenville joined Equity's Board in September 2015 and has since joined Great Places' Board following the partnership in April 2020.
Mervyn Jones
Member of the Remuneration & Appraisal Committee
Mervyn has extensive experience within the housing sector, most recently as Chief Executive at Yorkshire Housing, a position which he held for over 10 years. Prior to this Mervyn was Chief Executive at Willow Park Housing Trust in Wythenshawe, as well as sitting on a number of housing related Boards as a non-executive member. Mervyn joined Equity's Board in April 2019 and has since joined Great Places' Board following the partnership in April 2020.
Nahim Ruhi-Khan
Member of the Audit & Assurance Committee
Nahim is an experienced housing practitioner with over 25 years’ experience of working in the public sector. Her career started with front-line delivery of homelessness services, moving to commissioning of housing-related supported services for vulnerable adults. Since 2014 Nahim has provided senior leadership to a range of property related functions including Repairs, Void management and Capital Investment, both within housing and the non-housing property estate. Nahim has extensive experience of delivering transformation project including new build, regeneration and large-scale refurbishment and is committed to improving the quality of housing in priority neighbourhoods and wider perception of place. More recently, her focus has been on retrofitting homes with renewable energy and other measures that improve thermal comfort and support decarbonisation of social housing.
Patrick Ricketts
Member of the Audit & Assurance Committee
Patrick has a wealth of business experience with more than 26 years at Berendsen, spending 9 years as Regional Director and was a Director at Jewson. He is passionate about supporting organisations with their strategy for sustainable business growth, people and team development and their well-being. He is Non-Executive Director at Ubico Ltd and a Trustee at Forward Education Trust. He has strong strategic, planning, operations, and commercial skills in the UK markets in B2B and B2C, including the public sector, and has extensive experience in leading account management, strategy for multi-million-pound contracts and delivering service excellence.
Sandra Palmer
Member of the Remuneration & Appraisal Committee
Sandra has extensive Director experience in the private and government funded sector, leading work in business and customer strategy, transformation, communications, marketing, and stakeholder engagement. As a Consultant Director for Corporate Culture Group she has over ten years experience leading large-scale consultancy work for national and global clients and prior to this held several Director roles for United Utilities, including Strategy & Marketing Director and was Director of Public Affairs for a government agency. Her non-executive experience includes nine years as a Board member in social housing, as well as being on the Board of a not for profit provider of adult social care, and a social enterprise enabling community empowerment of health and wellbeing issues.
*Matthew Harrison as the Chief Executive Officer acts as an Executive Director on the GPHG Coterminous Board and Cube Board. Matthew does not sit as a member of any committees, but attends as an observer. As an Executive Director, Matthew adheres to the Great Places Code of Governance and Probity Policies, and as such withdraws from the Board’s discussions and decisions on relevant matters where there is a material conflict of interest.
Declarations of Interest
To demonstrate compliance with Section 1.5 (3) of the NHF Code of Governance 2020, we are publishing our register of interests for Great Places Board, Cube Board and associated parties. This is reported annually to Board, with declarations of interest tabled as a standing item at all Board and Committee meetings as well as being updated throughout the year as required.
The full list of interests can be found here.