Welcome to WISH North East.

I’m Director of Housing Services (North) at Anchor. It's a huge region and an even bigger organisation so every day is a challenge, but it's exciting and keeps me on my toes!  I’ve spent my career working in social housing from working as a generic housing officer, to anti-social behaviour, through to setting up bespoke housing services for customers that need a little more support to live independently. My passions from a work perspective are developing new services, developing people and providing great customer experiences. I’m an accredited Customer Experience professional (CCXP) and an accredited coach. Learning is another of my passions! I’m excited to be part of WISH, promoting the housing sector as a career of choice and, as a mum of 2 girls (and 2 sons), I feel I’m duty bound to make sure the world of work is one that welcomes them, embraces their talents and encourages them to be the best they can. Lots of people ‘fell’ into housing, I know I did, it was never discussed as a career, and platforms like WISH are a brilliant way to show how working in social housing, having a rewarding role that makes a real difference in communities, is achievable and a career path of choice

I'm an Area Manager at Anchor covering the Tees Valley Area.   I have amalgamated colleagues into my team from two legacy organisations, ensuring relationships are built to create a strong and high performing team. My goal is creating a team that I have a good relationship with and someone they can trust to support, guide, and empower.

I have worked in housing for around 25 years. 18 1/2 were spent in social housing at Thirteen Group, gaining experience from different roles in repairs, lettings and leasehold. I have worked on bespoke projects and services within the business, including setting up and leading a Letting Agent service.

I completed my Foundation Degree in Housing and completed other Level 2 courses. I enjoy being part of projects and creating new ways of working.

I’m grateful to be part of WISH and work alongside inspirational women and leaders. I have progressed from the Ambassador role within WISH to a full board member. I joined WISH due to its aims and ambitions to support and encourage women in the sector and to increase my network.

Outside of work I am a proud mam of 3. My daughters have their own careers and are doing amazingly well, I love encouraging them to be the best versions of themselves. My son enjoys playing basketball and plays nationally. I love to share the sport with him; I play in a women basketball team and am a basketball table official.

I am delighted to join the WISH NE Board and I’m really excited to work with other inspiring women in the region.

A little about me … I’m a dynamic and results-driven leader with over 15 years of experience in motivating teams to achieve strategic business objectives. As the Group Head of Partnership Integrations at Places for People, I excel in leading the operational and technical onboarding of merging Housing Associations, ensuring seamless integration and fostering collaboration across matrix teams.

In my previous roles, including Partner Onboarding & Integration Manager and Contracts Delivery Manager, I managed large-scale projects and oversaw the delivery of services to extensive affordable housing portfolios. I also have significant experience as a Community Relations Manager at The Banks Group, where I built and maintained relationships with communities surrounding property, mining, and wind farm developments. Prior to that I was a Parliamentary Assistant to the Member of Parliament for Gateshead.

I love to learn and have a Diploma in Public Relations, an MA in Politics, and a BA in Government and European Union Studies. My achievements include being elected as a Local Authority Councillor (2016-2021) and being shortlisted for the National Aviva Women of the Future Award. My passions include netball, walking my two gorgeous sprocker spaniels and my absolute guilty pleasure is reading fantasy romance novels!

I am Affordable Homes Director for Galliford Try Construction based out of our Gateshead office.  I have a national role as a sector lead setting up our affordable homes offer and engaging with Housing Associations, Local Authorities and others to help them deliver their housing delivery programmes. 

I worked in the public sector for over 20 years, mainly in local authorities delivering economic development projects and programmes creating new retail, leisure, education, health and of course, housing projects.  I then joined Thirteen Housing Group as their Head of New Business and Growth helping them to establish new partnerships in order to deliver their ambitious affordable homes programme as a Homes England Strategic Partner.   I have always been passionate about housing and the role it plays in creating economic growth and healthy, thriving communities and my current role has given me a much wider, in depth understanding of the issues around social housing nationally.

I was drawn to working with WISH due to its aims and ambitions to support and encourage women in the sector.  Through WISH we can hopefully inspire positive change in the culture of organisations and show how they can better support and nurture their fantastic female talent!   I am also very keen to ensure that those early on in their careers get the best start they can in housing, whichever route they decide to take.

Home life for me is with my partner of 35 years (somehow never managed to tie the knot!) and our two children Erin, 21 and Luke 17.  I am very lucky to live in a beautiful part of the world with access to the coast and country and I try and spend my spare time walking and enjoying the benefits of residing in the north east!

I am an experienced diversity, inclusion and wellbeing specialist with experience across sectors and in a broad range of industries. I am currently working in the housing sector as the Inclusion and Belonging Strategic Lead at Karbon Homes alongside working with clients through my own consultancy.

I support regional groups including the North East Chamber of Commerce to support businesses on their journey to put D&I at the heart of what they do. My role as a Board member at WISH is to continue to support the conversation to improve equality, diversity and inclusion in our region and sector and to strive to level the playing field on gender equality.  

Outside of work I am a proud mam and wife and have recently added two mischievous but adorable beagles to the family. I’m a keen amateur photographer and I love taking actions shots of my boys on the rugby pitch.  I’m also a parish councillor working to improve our local community and develop cohesion.”

Claire has a 25-year career in the Housing Sector spanning front line housing and support delivery, contract management and more recently heading up Innovation and Asset Sustainability at the UK’s largest Social Enterprise, Places for People. As Head of Asset Sustainability and Innovation Claire’s role involves strategic oversight of decarbonisation of over 70,000 homes and testing emerging approaches and technology that deliver a better service, improve homes and create Thriving Communities. Claire is a Market President for the North-East, taking a leading role in engagement, a Chartered Member of the CIH, and a Board Member of Women in Social Housing (WISH) North-East. Claire is passionate about the vital role Social Housing plays in helping communities and people thrive, and finds joy in creative solutions to the challenges we all face.

I am a Solicitor at Ward Hadaway LLP working in the Housing Management Team specialising in Social Housing Litigation.  I work with a variety of clients, most of which are WISH members, including local authorities and social housing providers and mainly deal with housing disrepair; possessions and Anti-Social behaviour.  I spend a lot of time attending Court and undertaking my own advocacy on behalf of clients which is something I really enjoy.

I qualified as a Solicitor in September 2020 and joined the housing sector in March 2021 working for an international firm in Newcastle working in Real Estate for social housing providers before joining Ward Hadaway LLP in December 2021. 

Part of my role at Ward Hadaway LLP is to help grow our presence in the social housing sector in the North East having already become established in the Yorkshire area from work carried out in our Leeds office.

I am passionate about not only empowering women in the workplace but also living and working in the North East and I am grateful to WISH for encompassing all of these ideals.

I am really excited to be joining the WISH board and I am looking forward to developing my social housing network in the North East.   

Karen is an assurance and internal audit professional who has worked in the housing sector for more than 20 years.   She began her career qualifying as a Chartered Accountant with Deloitte, then became Head of Internal Audit at Sunderland Housing Group (which later became Gentoo Group).  Karen progressed to become an Assistant Director at Gentoo before moving to Places for People to become their Director of Assurance. Karen’s career has given her extensive experience in all aspects of assurance, risk management, governance and internal control in various sectors including development; real estate; finance and manufacturing as well as social housing.  Karen works at Executive and Board level, having both reported to Boards and Committees but also having been appointed as a Non-Executive Director, chairing the Audit Committee, then subsequently appointed as Chair of the Board at Derwentside Homes which later became part of Karbon Group.  Karen was also Chair of the Housing Internal Audit Forum (HIAF) for a number of years.  HIAF sought to share best practice in assurance and internal audit across the housing sector.

Currently operating as  Business Director for Hays Plc, I started working in recruitment for Hays in 1999, My role has involved meeting hundreds, possibly thousands, of people to support and advise them on their careers. My passion is to work with clients to understand what they need for their teams in order to provide the perfect match both culturally and professionally. In the last few years my inherent need for fairness and justice has seen me become the regional representative for Hays national steering group for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, working across our offices in the north east & Yorkshire. I am also a founding member and leader of our employee disability network, and work closely with Hays Leading Women – our  external network for women in leadership. I am the Public Services and Not for Profit Lead for the North East and Yorkshire, working alongside all of our consultants to develop our consulting and advisory service offering to clients, with a focus on quality and service. I’m passionate about providing opportunities, and sharing insights. Social housing is a sector that I really enjoy working with, and it has taken a lead in terms of developing my expertise as a recruitment partner. I work with multiple social housing providers across the north east and nationally, so the opportunity to volunteer for WISH is really exciting for me. I am passionate about supporting the sector and particularly using my knowledge and experience to empower women to achieve their goals for their careers in social housing.

Fun Fact: I’m a very keen figure skater, training on and off the ice several times a week (mainly early mornings!) and I take part in national and international competitions regularly. I’ve been to Canada, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Estonia and France in the last few years competing for Team GB in Adult skating competitions.