Great Places Executive Directors
Meet our executive directors and find out more about them.
Alison Dean
Chief Executive
Alison joined Great Places as a graduate in 1997, beginning her career in customer involvement before progressing into regeneration and a range of housing management roles. With more than 25 years’ experience in the housing sector, she has held numerous operational and leadership positions, always with a strong focus on delivering great services for customers.
Prior to becoming Chief Executive of Great Places in July 2024, Alison was Deputy Chief Executive, and led several large scale transformation programmes, embedding a culture where customer insight shapes service design and colleagues feel empowered to make a positive impact.
Since becoming Chief Executive, Alison has overseen further significant progress across the organisation – including Great Places’ upgrade to a C1 regulatory grade.
Alison is also a Sponsor of the 20% Movement, a collaborative initiative led by Greater Manchester Housing Providers, to expand employment opportunities for people living in social housing. Its key goal is to ensure that by 2034, 20% of the workforce within participating organisations is made up of social housing residents and their families.
Alongside her role at Great Places, Alison is also the Deputy Chair at Warrington Housing Association.
Matt Foreman
Chief Customer Officer
Matt is responsible for the customer-facing side of our business, ensuring the organisation provides a great customer experience. Alongside managing our neighbourhoods, he is also responsible for our work in Independence and Wellbeing, which supports our more vulnerable customers to develop life skills and achieve their goals.
Matt joined Great Places in January 2026, bringing extensive experience leading customer services and delivering transformational change within local authorities, ALMOs (Arms-Length Management Organisations), Stock Transfer organisations and Registered Providers in both England and Scotland.
Mike Gerrard
Chief Financial Officer
Mike has responsibility for ensuring Great Places’ finance, assurance, procurement, governance and colleague health and safety functions provide high-quality support to the rest of the Group. He also ensures that the Group’s regulatory and statutory requirements are satisfied.
One of Mike’s key challenges is balancing the need for the long-term financial viability and stability of Great Places with risks posed by the Group’s strategic growth and development objectives.
He started his career in auditing and professional services and has worked in the housing sector for 20 years.
Helen Spencer
Executive Director of Growth
Helen Spencer leads Great Places’ Growth directorate, overseeing all development activity, sales, regeneration, and our in-house contractor, Terra Nova. She leads our strategic partnerships and supports sector-wide collaboration.
Since joining Great Places in 2004, Helen has delivered thousands of new homes and led major regeneration projects across the North-West and South Yorkshire. A dedicated mentor, she champions talent development and leads award-winning teams.
Helen is passionate about inclusive housing, having pioneered the UK’s first majority LGBTQ+ Extra Care scheme. Under her leadership, Great Places has achieved record delivery and earned key industry accolades. She also serves on the boards of Sheffield Housing Company and Hive Homes, promoting collaboration and innovation to meet housing needs.
Steve Mather
Chief Property Officer
Steve has overall responsibility for our Repairs and Assets functions, overseeing these areas which also include facilities management, property investment, divestment, building safety compliance and carbon management.
He joined Great Places in 2024 from First Choice Homes Oldham, where he was Executive Director of Homes.
Steve has worked in the housing and regeneration sectors for over 30 years and has experience across all aspects of asset management and property-based services. Prior to joining First Choice Homes Oldham, he was Property Services Director at Places for People. He brings a wealth of experience and extensive knowledge of our sector, as well as a sharp customer focus that really benefits our business and the people that live in our homes and communities.
Sharon Brown
Chief Transformation Officer
Sharon oversees the People and Transformation Directorate, which includes the Business Transformation, Communications, People and Tech Services Teams.
Sharon joined Great Places in 2002 working as a Tenant Participation Officer in Bolton, before taking on a variety of roles and becoming Director of Assurance in 2021. She has a vast knowledge and understanding of our business and sector, and in her role Sharon leads the strategic and cultural transformation of Great Places, helping us to achieve innovation, efficiency and excellence in service delivery for both colleagues and customers.
Latest News
20/07/2026
Great Places and partners celebrate topping out at 148-home Hatters Yard development
Partners including the Leader of Stockport Council recently came together to celebrate a key milestone at Hatters Yard, our landmark £41 million affordable housing development in Stockport town centre. Councillor Mark Roberts joined representatives from Great Places, Stockport Council, Homes England, Bridgestone Construction and local community organisations at the Chestergate site, where construction has now […]
20/07/2026
Homeswapper service gets a relaunch
Thinking about a change of scenery? Then Homeswapper could be the solution you’ve been looking for! The mutual exchange scheme allows customers to exchange their homes with another tenant, which could be from another housing association in another part of the country, is set for a change. The service has had a makeover and will […]
20/07/2026
Keeping you informed about safety checks in your home
We’re improving how we let you know about important safety checks and servicing in your home or building. These checks help us keep you safe. We want to make sure you know what’s happening, why it matters and when to expect us. What’s changing? You’ll start to receive clearer and more timely updates about work […]
