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
27/08/2026
Completion of Foxhall Village in Blackpool
Great Places celebrates completion of Foxhall Village as regeneration continues in Blackpool We recently welcomed partners and stakeholders to Foxhall Village to celebrate the completion of the next phase of the flagship Blackpool development, which has delivered 88 affordable homes for local people. Hosted by Great Places, the event brought together leaders from Blackpool Council, […]
26/08/2026
Alison and Matt out and about in the Central region
Recently, Alison Dean, Chief Executive Officer, and Matt Foreman, Chief Customer Officer, visited a number of neighbourhoods and schemes across the Central region. The visit gave Alison and Matt the opportunity to meet customers and colleagues, see new homes and community services first-hand, and learn more about the work taking place across Rochdale, Bury and Wigan. Royle […]
25/08/2026
Great Places secures £320.6m to deliver 2,600 affordable homes across the North West and South Yorkshire
Funding will support the creation of thriving mixed-tenure communities across the regions over the next decade. Great Places has secured £320.6 million through the Government’s Social and Affordable Homes Programme (SAHP), helping us deliver 2,600 social and affordable homes across the North West and South Yorkshire over the next few years. The funding forms part […]
