Cath Purdy OBE will be joined Great Places as the new Chair in September 2025. Having spent over 30 years as a housing professional, 18 of which have been at executive level, Cath is passionate about social housing and how the sector contributes to economic and social wellbeing. She is currently the CEO of South Lakes Housing, having previously been Chief Executive of Housing Hartlepool and Group Chief Executive of Vela Housing Group, before briefly becoming Deputy Group Chief Executive of Thirteen Group in the Tees Valley.
Cath has previously served as Board Director of HouseMark, the National Housing Federation, the CiH Council and Northern Housing Consortium Boards, as well as acting as a Trustee of a Primary Care Trust and a subsidiary of the National Museum for the Royal Navy.
She has a BA (Hons) degree in Social Policy, a diploma in Housing Policy and a Master’s in Business Administration. She is a fellow of the CiH and in 2011 was awarded an OBE, for her work in Housing in the Queen’s Birthday honours.
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.
Sandra joined Great Places Board in September 2021, taking over as Deputy Chair, SID and Chair of RAC in September 2025.
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.
Patrick joined the Great Places Board in September 2021, and became Chair of the Customer Committee in January 2024
Keith, a Chartered Accountant, is a recently retired external audit partner and National Head of Social Housing services at RSM, a top seven global firm of chartered accountants. For over three decades, Keith has worked alongside housing associations providing assurance, training, compliance and advisory services and being a critical friend to many social housing entities.
Keith has worked closely with the National Housing Federation and has been a regular presenter at social housing events. Keith was an elected parent governor of his children’s Stockport MBC secondary school, serving two terms of four years.
Keith joined Great Places in April 2024 and became the Chair of the Audit and Assurance Committee in September 2024.
Dean has been a member of the Board of Cube Homes Limited since March 2024 and was appointed to Group Board and as the Chair of the new Growth Committee from September 2025.
Dean is a highly experienced business leader, with an extensive background in retail. He has worked for some of the UK’s largest organisations including ASDA and Sainsburys. During his 15 years as a Director for Sainsburys, he has held senior positions in retail, international sourcing and was also the Group Property Director with responsibility for a 2100 store estate. Since 2021 he has worked as a consultant and senior advisor, supporting both UK and international businesses across a wider range of strategic areas. He has a passion for ensuring that customers and colleagues are central to business decisions.
Matt is an experienced senior leader who has spent time in retail, corporate banking, telecoms and housing. He has previous experience as a NED; at Trafford Housing Trust, as well as having sat as the Chairman of their development business, THT Developments.
He currently works as Chief Operating Officer at United Utilities with responsibility for operational performance across water, wastewater and bio resources.
Matt has previously held principal roles within several sectors consisting of corporate banking, telecoms and housing. Prior to joining United Utilities, he was managing director fibre and network delivery of Openreach, part of the BT Group.
Matt joined Great Places in March 2024.
Nicki has over twenty years’ experience creating and executing data-driven, customer-focused technology and data strategies, and has worked across private and public sector in multiple industries.
She has previously worked for STEM Learning UK and the National Centre for Computing Education. Prior to that she was Chief Technology Officer at Irwin Mitchell (legal and financial services) for almost 5 years, and prior to that Head of IS Strategy and Digital Services at Electricity North West, and lead technology strategist at the British Library.
Nicki joined Great Places in March 2024.
Simran brings a wealth of experience and expertise in growth, acquisitions and asset investment. He previously held various senior finance positions in the chemicals sector for Courtaulds, ICI and Ineos, working in the UK, USA and the Far East.
He joined Places for People in 2003 where he worked for over 14 years, including as Group Finance Director and Director of Assets & Investments, before moving into independent consulting and building a portfolio of company directorships.
Simran joined Great Places in March 2024.
Mark has most recently worked as Director of Development for GreenSquareAccord Housing Association and has thirty years’ experience in the social housing sector, operating at Director level for the past twenty. He previously worked for the Riverside Group Ltd between 1997 and 2019 leading on a range of regeneration and development programmes. He is also a Member of the National Housing Federation’s Great Homes Group, influencing policy on Development.
Mark is also the Chair of Cobalt’s Investment and Development Committee.
Mark joined Great Places in September 2025.
Archana is a lawyer and was most recently a Client services director at DWF, leading on transformational claims management services across a variety of risks. She is also currently a Non-Executive Director at Accent Homes.
She was previously Chief Counsel at BT, advising on Health and Safety and related legal issues whilst leading a large team managing claims and litigation. Archana was also the managing director and compliance officer for BT Law Ltd and has been involved in a number of transformational and outsourcing projects.
Archana is driven and highly organised, thriving on projects which bring a sense of achievement.
Archana joined Great Places in September 2025.
Caroline is a highly experienced Chief People Officer and board member and runs her own company specialising in consultancy, interim work and executive coaching. With a background predominately in the aviation industry, she has played pivotal roles in launching and scaling airline startups, and has a strong understanding of the intricacies of making the shift from inception to sustainable growth. Having worked in aviation she also has vast experience in people transformation to achieve significant cost savings and create resilient organisational structures and cultures.
Caroline joined Great Places in September 2025.
Alison joined Great Places as a graduate in 1997 working in customer involvement, moving into regeneration and several housing management roles.
She has over twenty years’ experience working in the housing sector in a variety of operational housing management and leadership roles. Alison is passionate about driving people-focused change and has led large scale change programmes that ensure the needs of customers are at the heart of service delivery and positive organisational culture are built.
More recently, Alison has driven cultural change through continuous improvement of services and became Deputy Chief Executive in 2022 and took over as Chief Executive in July 2024.
Alison is also the Vice Chair at Warrington Housing Association.
Alison manages the Executive Team and is accountable to the Board.
As an Executive Director, Alison 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.
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.
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.
John joined the Cube Board in December 2021 and transitioned to the new Growth Committee in September 2025.
John-Paul has extensive experience across the property sector, predominantly within Residential Sales, Lettings & Property Management. He was founder and Managing Director of Case McNair Estate Agents, a business acquired by Savills UK Ltd in 2018.
John-Paul works for Savills holding regional responsibility across the Midlands, North and Scotland. In his time at Savills John-Paul has worked on large scale Build to Rent Schemes and forged partnerships with institutional clients. He works in the Sports & Entertainment team covering Northern markets and has a strong background in consultancy assignments or private clients.
John-Paul joined Cube Board in March 2024 and transitioned to the Growth Committee in September 2025.
David joined as an independent member of the new Growth Committee in September 2025.
Prior to this David has spent the last 16 years working for Midland Heart in a variety of roles including Deputy Director of Customers and Communities, Executive Director of Operations and most recently Executive Director of Tenancy Services. He has also worked with local authorities previously and will bring a breadth of experience to the new committee.
Having held senior national and regional roles in the public and private sector, she currently leads CBRE’s Yorkshire Development Team and was previously Executive Director for Property and Partnerships at LCR; an arm’s length regeneration business of Department for Transport with a track record in long term strategic projects including King’s Cross.
Catherine brings over 20 years of strategic development and housing regeneration expertise to the new Committee, with a wealth of experience in complex regeneration programmes and implementation of delivery strategies through public and private sector collaboration.
She is passionate about creating locations for communities to flourish, looking forward to bringing her experience to drive forward the provision of quality homes and helping find solutions to the housing crisis.
Catherine joined Great Places in September 2025.
Michael is currently the managing director at Prospect Homes and brings significant operational experience in the residential construction and development sectors.
With strong land and technical expertise, Michael has worked for various organisations including Keepmoat Homes and Seddon Constructions, as well as a Non-Executive Role at Auxesia Homes.
His broad experience of construction and the sector will be a welcome addition to the Committee.
Michael joined Great Places in September 2025.
