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Our Investment Committee members are listed below – please click on their image to view their profile.
Alan Hawkesworth
Chair Alan Hawkesworth
Alan is a qualified accountant and has spent most of his working life in Shropshire and the West Midlands, working for local authorities, building societies and in higher education. He has recently retired from working at Aston University where he specialised in strategic risk management. He has previously been a non-executive director for another large West Midlands based housing association and has considerable experience of governance having chaired various Audit and other board committees within the different areas he has worked. He is also a Non-executive director of Resolve College Ltd, which delivers online training for apprentices to a large number of police, local authorities and social landlords in the area of ways to professionally mange crime and anti-social behaviour.
He has extensive operational and strategic experience in accounting, finance, people, investment, insurance and audit services, and how these apply in a variety of industries and regulated bodies. Alan, due to the extensive nature of his career, has had wide managerial experiences from many varied situations the benefit of which he is able to bring to this position.
Simon Whitfield
Board Member Simon Whitfield
Simon is a highly experienced banker with over 35 years’ experience in the financial services sector. He started his career at NatWest Bank and has worked in retail, commercial and investment banks including Morgan Stanley, BayernLB and The Co-operative Bank.
He has also worked for the UK Treasury and UK Export Finance.
Since 2013, Simon has held various executive positions at banks and alternative lenders and most recently ran the Development Finance team at Castle Trust Bank. Simon has an extensive background financing property, project, acquisition and corporate transactions and has chaired various credit and risk committees.
Alan Yates OBE
Board Member Alan Yates OBE
Alan has extensive senior management experience in the affordable housing sector with a focus on development and regeneration. He led a housing association partnership that developed over £1bn of new housing across the region. He is the former Deputy Chief Executive of a West Midlands based Housing Association with responsibility for the Commercial Directorate.
Alan now runs his own development business, building new housing for the Build to Rent and affordable housing sectors. He also undertakes consultancy work.
As an experienced non-Executive Director, Alan served on the Boards of a regional NHS Trust and Redditch Co-operative Homes. He acted as a housing adviser to the National Trust and held the role of Strategy Officer for the Tenants Association of the National Trust (TANT). He is also the former Chairman of The National Housing Federation Regional Investment Group. Alan has a passion for sustainable housing and is a former Chairman of Energiesprong UK and the Sustainable Housing Action Partnership (SHAP). In 2019, he was awarded an OBE for his services to housing.
Jon Lamb
Executive Director of Finance Jon Lamb
Jon has been a qualified accountant for more than 30 years, with over half of his career based in the social housing sector. He has a depth of experience in all aspects of accounting, financial strategy and planning, audit, risk and assurance and treasury management.
Jon is passionate about delivering a high-quality service to the organisation that provides accurate, reliable and timely information to support business decisions that help to improve the lives of our customers and increase the opportunities available to them.
Jon is also a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.
David Wells
Executive Director of Customer Experience David Wells
With a wealth of expertise and experience spanning housing management, David brings a proven track record of operational excellence and has built his career on delivering impactful solutions and fostering innovation in service delivery. He began his career in frontline housing with Telford and Wrekin Council before joining Wrekin Housing Group when it was established in 1999. David is committed to delivering excellent customer service.
