Our People

Lorraine 

Chief Executive Officer 

Lorraine joined BCHA in November 2022 as our new Chief Executive Officer.  

Lorraine has worked in the housing sector for 25 years, most recently as the Director of Housing for BCP Council, leading the strategic direction for housing issues across the area.  Responsible for delivering and commissioning services for people experiencing homelessness and housing need, leading an ambitious new build programme, ensuring the effective management of Council homes and specialist housing, overseeing an in-house repairs team, and managing a care technology and out of hours service.  

Lorraine’s career to date has involved leading a wide range of services for people who are experiencing socio-economic challenge.  She has worked in a range of different settings; Local Authorities, Registered Providers, regeneration programmes and in research roles.  She has worked across the South, the Midlands and the North East; always working in close partnership with multiple public, private and voluntary sector partners. 

Martin  

Director of Finance

Martin joined BCHA in November 2016 and brings around 30 years’ experience as a finance professional in the housing sector.  He currently has director responsibility for finance, governance and development.

He is a chartered accountant with an early career with KPMG where he gained wide financial and commercial experience across a variety of private and public sectors as well as specialising in housing associations. Before joining BCHA Martin spent 22 years at Spectrum Housing Group where, as Group Finance Director, he oversaw significant business growth and change.

Martin has a collaborative and customer focussed management style with a passion for delivering social purpose through a commercial approach. 

Chris

Director of Home

Chris joined BCHA in May 2023 bringing with him over 30 years’ experience of working in social housing and social care with both local authorities and housing associations in repairs, maintenance, asset management and compliance.

His career has seen him progress from Group Asset Director at Selwood Housing to later becoming Director of Property for a specialist care company, showcasing his dedication to delivering and managing a first-class repairs and maintenance service for organisations with a social purpose.

Chris is passionate about keeping customers at the heart of his work by embedding customer engagement in all aspects of service delivery to ultimately ensure all homes are safe for the community. He is also a full member of the Chartered Institute of Building.

Chris is responsible for compliance with the Regulator of Social Housing’s Consumer Standards.

Sam

Director of Transformation

Sam has held a variety of Executive and Board roles where he has supported Digital and Transformation in Financial Services, Local and National Government, Justice, Education and now in Social Housing. Having spent a decade working in Scotland Sam returned to the South West to build his own home alongside his wife and young family, before joining BCHA in 2022. 

Sam recognises the increasing need in an area he and his family live in and is passionate about leveraging BCHA to deliver on our mission to end homelessness. 

Laura 

Director of Transformation (Maternity Leave until Feb 2025)

Laura is an experienced leader having worked on change and transformation in a number of sectors and organisations. Her diverse experience includes working for the UK Government in Whitehall; establishing a new organisation to democratise learning and knowledge; leading a communications agency for unheard marginalised communities; and overseas humanitarian deployments, such as during the response to the Ebola outbreak in Liberia.  

Laura is passionate about helping organisations to realise the expertise that lies in lived experience and the importance of including customers, or people, in the design, development and implementation of services.

Her favourite parts of the role are working with the BCHA Customer Steering Group and chairing the BCHA Community Fund panel. 

Laura is a Board member for the local Community Action Network and On Our Radar.

Phil 

Head of Governance

Phil is a qualified housing professional with nearly 30 years’ experience in social housing, in both local authority and housing associations. 

Phil has been with BCHA for over 22 years in a variety of corporate roles. As Head of Governance, he has oversight of governance, risk and business assurance. Phil has also been Company Secretary of BCHA and its subsidiaries since 2007.

Chris Nicholson (Chair)

Chris spent most of his executive career as a partner at KPMG, where he specialised in infrastructure finance and regulation advisory work. He spent several periods in leadership roles including as Head of Central Government Services and Head of Public Sector for the firm. He has also run a public policy think tank, been interim financial and commercial director of a government owned company and spent three years as policy special adviser to a Cabinet Minister.

Chris is currently Chair of the Board of a large government agency employing over 3000 staff, spent 6 years as a Board member of a housing association and ten years as a trustee of a drug and alcohol abuse charity. He also served as a Councillor, Leader of the Council and Chair of the Policy and Resources Committee of a London Borough.

Aasia Nisar (Vice Chair)

Aasia is an experienced housing professional with over 25 years’ experience in the housing sector and has a proven track record of developing strategic approaches, processes and managing teams within housing, resident involvement, community engagement, regeneration and access and customer care. She is committed to ensuring residents voices are heard, making a real difference as to how services are delivered. 

Aasia has also worked on several European Social Funded projects, as well as writing major funding applications for the National Lottery, Lloyds Bank Foundation and UK Community Foundation. She has a PhD in Sociology and Social policy, with her thesis focusing on ‘green’ housing developments and their contribution to community cohesiveness. 

Aasia is also a Board member of TPAS - a national tenant engagement organisation as well as on the Board of Directors and a Trustee for a multi academy trust in Hampshire.

Ceri Connor

Ceri is an Organisational Development (OD) specialist and has worked across the whole spectrum of HR, OD, education, learning, leadership development, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion over the last 25 years. For the majority of this time, Ceri has worked in the NHS within Community and Mental Health services, but also in Further and Adult Education teaching across programmes in Health and Social Care.  Ceri has also been involved with Armed Forces veterans support and was the Programme Director for Workforce in Hampshire and IOW for the Covid-19 mass vaccination programme.

A Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), Ceri works at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust as the Director of Organisational Development and Inclusion. Ceri is the BCHA Board’s safeguarding champion.

Peter Edy

Peter is an experienced Construction professional (working in the UK and Overseas); he is a Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Building.

Peter’s role provides senior management leadership in Development, Risk Management, Procurement and Contract Management, Change Management and Strategy.

Asif Khan

Asif has worked in the Social Housing sector for 25 years across both local authorities and housing associations. Currently at Stevenage Borough Council, his notable other recent positions include Head of Asset Management and Head of Compliance at Notting Hill Genesis. 

Asif is an accredited member of the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) and Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH). He has degrees in both Law and Surveying, as well as a Level 7 Diploma in Strategic Management and Leadership Practices which he achieved with Distinction. 

Along with his rich Property Services expertise and impressive track record in the sector, Asif brings with him a positive energy and is a regular mentor and coach with strong social and people values. He is heavily involved in his local community as Head of Youth Football at Wraysbury Village Football Club.

Hannah Lee

Hannah is a charity development specialist, having worked in the sector for the past 15 years, most recently Hannah has been working as a charity consultant across the UK, working alongside CEOs and Senior Leadership Teams to help them to overcome challenges and grasp opportunities delivering transformation and developing innovative strategies to maximise impact. 

Before owning her own consultancy Hannah most recently held senior leadership roles for the RNLI and Shelter. Hannah was the Director for Community Services and National Contracts at Shelter, transforming operating models to tackle the root causes of bad housing and homelessness contributing to national housing policy reform.  At the RNLI, Hannah developed the User Experience strategy for IT infrastructure deployment, ensuring that the voices of over 40,000 staff and volunteers informed the development of new systems and processes.

Graduating from the University of Hull with an MA in Development Studies, Non – Government Organisations and Service Design, Hannah also has Board experience at Home-Start.

Graham Oliver

Graham has over 30 years’ experience as a Chartered Accountant, latterly helping Housing Associations to connect finance function more closely with operations, from planning through processing to reporting and monitoring. He has achieved this through interim and contract assignments, non-executive positions and through consultancy work, working with associations of all sizes from less than 1,000 properties to G15 London associations. 

He has a keen interest in developing people to meet their full potential, and in making finance more understandable for non-financial people, recognising that most decisions in organisations have a financial impact. 

Ann Parramore

Ann has worked at Director / Head of Service level in the spheres of finance, corporate resources, estates and business support. Although this has principally been within a range of NHS organisations, including commissioner bodies and providers of community and mental health services, her present role is working as an advisor on strategic development and project management within a local University. A focus of this work to date has been supporting the delivery of a major new construction project. 

Ann enjoys using her experience of working as an executive with Boards, along with a relevant and wide-ranging skillset, to support the objectives and work of BCHA. 

Ann is also a member of the Audit, Risk & Treasury Committee and has volunteered as the Board’s Customer Complaints Champion.

Julie Porter

Julie is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and has a degree in Land Management. She has worked within housing development in a variety of roles for over 30 years; she started her career with a private housebuilder before going on to work for a number of regional and national housing associations. 

Julie has led a wide range of teams including new business; asset management; planned maintenance; leasehold; sales; marketing; as well as development delivery. Julie is currently Executive Director of Development at Fairhive Homes in Buckinghamshire. 

Marie Starr 

Committee Co-Optee

Marie has over 25 years’ experience in the housing sector, both in Local Authorities and Housing Associations, and is a Chartered member of the CIH. She began her career as a housing officer before moving into management of supported housing services. Marie was Head of Care and Support at Synergy Housing, responsible for transforming the sheltered and extra care housing services. In more recent years, Marie has worked for Sovereign Housing, managing supported housing services in the South West. She has led the development of new services including Housing First in Dorset, working in partnership with the local authority and the charity Shelter. 

Marie has led large teams delivering housing and support services and is passionate about ensuring the most vulnerable customers are able to access high quality housing and support. 

Asa Stevens

Asa has been working in the Financial Services industry for over 20 years covering many roles including operations and (anti) financial crime leadership, risk management and currently transformation & operational excellence. 

Having been a user of BCHA services at the turn of the millennium, Asa is keen to offer insight and guidance to BCHA using the skills gained since. 

Derek Watters

Derek Watters has worked in the Social Housing Sector for over 34 years at senior management level. Throughout this time, he has gained a wealth of experience in Housing, Regeneration, Asset Management and Development. The last 15 years he has led the way in environmental sustainability, net zero carbon and energy efficiency asset investment, external funding, and compliance. 

Derek has been responsible for the development and delivery of various energy and environmental sustainability, compliance policies and strategies. This includes multi-million-pound investments in energy efficiency initiatives. He has shaped policy around net zero carbon to existing housing stock and national government. 

Ian White

Ian started his career at Royal Mail, covering various roles over a 16-year period before joining the Finance team at Twynham Housing Association, then moving to Synergy Housing Group. In Ian’s next role at Spectrum, he managed the integration to a single housing management system for all income transactions, restructured the teams to a single site and was responsible for delivering the regulatory rent structure regime. 

Ian’s next post was as RP Financial Reporting Manager for Spectrum’s 5 RP subsidiaries, before he took on responsibility for financial reporting for the whole Group. 
 
Ian briefly changed sectors in 2017, becoming Financial Controller at EIMS Global, a sales and marketing company with 6 subsidiaries and over £20M consolidated revenue, before moving to his current post at Magna where he leads the finance function.