Our Executive Management Team

Paul joined us in 2016 and became Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officer in January 2019. He was appointed as Chief Executive Officer in January 2022.

With over 20 years in the housing sector, Paul has a wealth of experience. He spent six years as Director of Resources at Havebury Housing Partnership and nine years prior to that as Director of Treasury Services at Swan Housing Group. He has also previously served as a non-executive director at Welwyn Hatfield Community Housing Trust and Circle 33 Housing and is currently a Board member at Local Space.

Paul is a member of the National Housing Federation’s Financial Policy Advisory Group (FPAG) and a member of the SORP working party, which is responsible for setting the accounting standards for the sector. He is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.

Paul has been instrumental in maintaining our ‘A-’ credit rating from S&P Global and G1 grading for governance from the Regulator of Social Housing. In 2021 he oversaw the issuing of a bond tap which raised £69m to support the delivery of affordable homes across the eastern region.

Rachel joined us in January 2020 as People and Communications Director. She became People and Culture Director in July 2021 and was appointed as Deputy Chief Executive in August 2022, alongside her existing role.

Rachel is responsible for the HR, Facilities, Business Support, Corporate Health and Safety, Governance, Policy, and Communications teams, and is our Leadership Champion for both Wellbeing, and Diversity and Inclusion.

With a career of over 24 years working across all HR disciplines, Rachel brings a wealth of commercial experience to her first role in the housing sector. Her previous HR roles have spanned sectors as varied as manufacturing and financial services. Rachel is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, and acts as a CIPD mentor to support the development of HR professionals. She currently serves on the Pension Strategy Board of Essex Pension Fund as an employer representative.

Since joining us, Rachel has led her teams in responding to the significant HR, Facilities, and Health and Safety challenges that the pandemic presented. She continues to play a pivotal role in embedding our values and culture, to make CHP a Great Place to Work.

Michael joined us in November 2019 as Digital Director responsible for maintaining and improving CHP’s IT systems. Michael subsequently became Digital and Transformation Director in February 2021 by taking on responsibility for business change activity, leading the ongoing operational and digital transformation of the business.

Michael has operated at IT Director level for over 25 years and brings with him a wealth of experience from multiple sectors. He is reasonably new to the housing sector but has worked for several years as the Director of IT at the Peabody Trust, as well as at CIO level in several housing related businesses (real estate, home improvements).

Since joining us, Michael has delivered new agile working methods for CHP alongside building solutions for our customers to self-serve where they would prefer to. Michael has also been fully engaged in transforming CHP into a new flexible operating model enabling our teams to get closer to our customers.

Thomas joined us in August 2021 as our new Director of Homes and Places. He has over 11 years' experience working for housing associations in London and Essex.

Thomas started his career in the sector in housing management before moving to senior roles in asset management. He has gained an in-depth understanding of the challenges faced from the development and day-to-day management of housing association homes, through to reactive and planned maintenance.

Over the last five years, Thomas has held senior management roles at Notting Hill Genesis and Peabody that have involved the delivery of planned maintenance, day-to-day repairs, heat networks, complex building resolution and cladding remediation projects.

Thomas is passionate about the sustainability agenda. A key focus area for Thomas is how we’ll deliver on our plans to improve the thermal and environmental performance of our customers’ homes over the next 30 years.

Neil brings a wide range of experience from holding senior roles in the housing sector and beyond. He joined us from Barking Riverside Ltd, where he was Finance Director. Prior to that he was the Executive Director of Resources at Golding Homes. He also spent 15 years at Transport for London.

Neil is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and is currently continuing his learning by completing a Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA).

He is also a Board member at Croydon Churches Housing Association.

Neil is the lead Executive Officer for the Group’s Audit and Risk Committee, and the Group’s Treasury and Investment Committee. He also serves as a member on the Myriad Capital Plc Board and the Myriad Housing Ltd Board.

Fiona joined us in February 2023 and is responsible for the teams who develop new homes across the region. This includes everything from sourcing land to develop through to handover of the new homes. Fiona also has responsibility for selling new homes and non-social housing lettings through intermediate and market rent. Fiona also works with partners to optimise our income so we can re-invest in new and existing homes.

Before joining CHP Fiona was Head of Housing and Growth at Capital Letters, an organisation which works in partnership with London councils and private landlords to help homeless families find secure, settled homes. Prior to this, Fiona worked for both Camden and Lambeth councils managing housing needs and housing management services.

Isabel joined us in September 2024 as our Customer Service Director. She is responsible for incoming customer contact and customer feedback, neighbourhoods and tenancies, as well as partnering with our communities to ensure customers are at the heart of our services.

Isabel joins us from Stonewater, a national housing association, where she was a senior Director overseeing their customer experience. Isabel has been in the housing sector for over 15 years, with varied experience in managing large operations as well as overseeing transformation projects and digital change.   

Isabel’s focus will be on the Consumer Standards, delivering high quality services, and ensuring CHP can respond to the needs of all customers.