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Our Group Common Board members are listed below – please click on their image to view their profile.
Catherine Dass
Chair Catherine Dass
Catherine is an organisational development professional specialising in executive coaching. She has more than 25 years’ experience working in the housing sector at a senior and executive level, assisting a range of housing organisations with her skills and technical expertise in learning & development, HR, communications and marketing, diversity and inclusion, governance and business performance and improvement. Catherine is also an experienced Non Executive Director and is on the Board of two other Housing Organisations.
Catherine is a compassionate leadership practitioner enabling individuals, and the organisations she works with, to continually improve outcomes for themselves and customers.
Catherine is a professional member of the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC), holds a Fellowship of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), has an ILM Level 7 Certificate and Diplomas in Executive Coaching and Mentoring and a Masters Degree in Strategic HR. Her experience in bringing about collaboration and enabling quality decision making, will assist her in her role as Transition Chair of the new Housing Plus Group Board.
Debbie Griffiths
Vice Chair and Senior Independent Director Debbie Griffiths
Debbie has extensive experience of working in the social housing sector, with both local authorities and housing associations, including more than 20 years in senior leadership roles. She was the CEO of the Housing Plus Group for 13 years, before becoming a freelance housing consultant and executive coach-mentor working with clients in the public, private and voluntary sectors for eight years. She is a professionally qualified member of the Chartered Institute of Housing and has a Masters degree in Coaching and Mentoring.
Debbie has held a range of senior non-executive roles, including Deputy Chair and Senior Independent Director at Wrekin Housing Group and is currently Chair of Muir Housing Group. From both her executive and non-executive roles, she has gained direct experience of leading operational services including asset management/investment, housing, customer services and care and support as well as considerable experience of strategic leadership and management, governance, risk management and financial planning.
Having previously lived in South Staffordshire for almost 20 years and held roles within Housing Plus Group and Wrekin Housing Group, Debbie brings a unique understanding of both organisations and the communities we work in.
Wayne Gethings
Board Member Wayne Gethings
With three decades of influential leadership spanning both public and private sector housing, Wayne is widely respected as a Senior Executive, Non-Executive, and Chair on both national and regional stages.
An active advocate for innovation in housing, Wayne contributes to shaping the sector as a board member of the West Midlands Housing Association Partnership and a committee member for the National Housing Federation’s regional committee. He also chairs the National Housing Federation’s Housing, Asset Management, Maintenance, and Regeneration Group (HAMMAR), amplifying the sector’s voice across the UK. Wayne shares insights on housing innovation through platforms like the CIH, National Housing Federation, and other leading organisations.
Professor Graeme Betts CBE
Board Member Professor Graeme Betts CBE
Graeme has more than 25 years’ experience working as a Chief Officer and Chief Executive in local government and the NHS. He has developed major expertise in improving social care by building effective leadership, driving up performance and developing a performance culture.
Graeme is passionate about improving the quality of life for the people he serves as well as reducing social injustice and inequality and improving health and wellbeing.
Graeme was recognised in the Queen’s New Year Honours in 2020 when he was awarded a CBE for services to adult social care. In June 2023, Graeme was awarded an Honorary Professorship from the University of Birmingham in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the advancement of his profession through publications and the development of public policy and services.
Andrew Burns
Board Member Andrew Burns
Throughout his 40-year career in public services, Andrew has developed a track record of successful strategic leadership and delivering transformational change to improve performance and deliver value for money. He is a qualified accountant and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) with an MBA from Aston Business School.
Andrew has a genuine passion for creating better outcomes for customers and communities and he feels great personal satisfaction from making a difference to the quality and affordability of public services, especially for those most vulnerable and most in need.
Andrew has significant board level experience, with responsibility for risk management, controls assurance and leading on internal and external audit relationships.
Louise Burns
Board Member Louise Burns
Louise brings a long career in communications, brand and customer experience to her role on the Housing Plus Group Common Board. She spent 16 years at Bentley Motors in the senior leadership team driving the growth of the business, championing the customer voice and leading their sustainable luxury strategy. Prior to Bentley she led global sponsorship and brand experience for British Airways, launching the London Eye, seconded to the London 2012 bid team and leading the retirement of Concorde.
Louise is passionate about improving the customer experience. She believes an organisation’s culture and the way it behaves in every action, has a direct impact on what customers experience and without an engaged, unified workforce it cannot deliver on its promises. She also believes in the value of customer insight, as understanding who your customers are, their needs, what motivates them and their differences, allows an organisation to truly deliver experiences they will value.
Louise now consults on brand strategy for a wide variety of clients, analysing and pinpointing opportunities for improvement as well as supporting executives to deliver continuous improvement.
Jason Burt
Board Member Jason Burt
A lawyer by profession, in 2016 Jason left the legal practice that he had successfully helped to build into a Chambers and Legal 500 listed firm to join Willis Towers Watson as a specialist consultant. He is now responsible for overseeing the development of a range of regulatory and strategic risk management services for a wide range of national and international clients with specialisms in education and regulatory matters including health and safety and care standards.
Jason is also Group Director of Health and Safety Compliance (having previously served 3 years as a non-executive Director) of Mears PLC where he is chair of the Risk Compliance Committee and a member of the Audit Committee.
With a passion for social enterprises and values, throughout his career Jason has chosen to work with not for profit businesses or businesses that have social values at the core of their operations
Alan Hawkesworth
Board Member 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, national and regional building societies and in higher education at Aston University. He has operational and strategic experience in accounting, finance, development, people, investment, insurance and audit services and how these apply in a variety of industries and regulated bodies.
Alan has previously lived in social housing and has close family members who are current tenants of various housing associations. He knows the importance of having a quality home and a considerate landlord and is therefore passionate about improving the provision of housing for people living in Shropshire, Staffordshire and Telford and Wrekin.
Due to the extensive nature of his career, Alan brings a wealth of experience to the Group Common Board having served on the boards of housing associations almost continuously over the last 25 years.
Kevin Morgan
Board Member Kevin Morgan
Kevin began his working life at 14-years-old and served as an army musician for six years, mainly based in Germany. After leaving the army he began working in the engineering department of an automotive manufacturer for 10 years, where he was awarded a Union Scholarship and studied Economics, Politics, and English literature at Ruskin College, Oxford, as a mature student.
Originally from Liverpool, Kevin moved to the West Midlands as a full-time Trade Union Official in 1978, and from 1983, he was employed as Planning Officer at The University of Wolverhampton, until his retirement in 2004.
Kevin is also one of our customers and is passionate about social housing. Following his retirement, he emigrated to Canada before returning to the UK in 2013, where he then settled in Telford as a Wrekin tenant in 2016.
Sarah Watson
Board Member Sarah Watson
Sarah is an expert researcher and analyst who leads a team at the Solicitors Regulation Authority as Head of Research. Having worked in research for almost 20 years, she has experience managing large research projects and analysing data to inform policy development. Making improvements for customers has also been a theme throughout her working life, having worked for an Ombudsman and ran her own small business.
Sarah is also one of our customers and a member of our Customer Partnership Panel (CPP), where she previously served as its Vice-chair and helped in establishing the group’s Customer Experience Committee.
Sarah is passionate about diversity and inclusion in the workplace and making sure that the views and needs of a wide range of customers are considered. She makes sure that the customer voice is heard at board meetings to inform strategic decision making and provision of service excellence.
Simon Whitfield
Board Member Simon Whitfield
Simon is a highly experienced banker with more than 30 years in the financial services industry across organisations including NatWest Bank, Castle Trust, Morgan Stanley and BayernLB. He has also worked in residential development finance for more than 10 years, providing him with a valuable insight into the issues affecting construction on new housing developments.
Simon believes that success comes from the people an organisation employs and if those people are properly empowered, given the skills and resources they need, then organisations can flourish and customers will receive better services.
Simon has also chaired various credit and risk committees, advised HM Treasury and successfully restructured the divisions of banks.
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. His original background was in the construction industry, before joining the affordable housing sector and taking on a lead role in the development of new homes. As an experienced Executive Director and Deputy Chief Executive, he developed an excellent knowledge of managing a housing association in a regulated environment and developed skills in PR and communications and change management.
Alan is passionate about building great homes and communities. He believes you can only achieve this if you have a well-run organisation with clear objectives, coupled with the talent, resources, energy and enthusiasm to meet those objectives.
Alan has served on the boards of Redditch Co-operative Homes, a regional NHS Trust and other not-for-profit organisations. He was also a tenant for several years and therefore knows what it is like to be a customer and how to work with a landlord to improve their services. In 2019, he was awarded an OBE for his services to housing.
