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Leadership and governance

Our residents are at the heart of everything we do. This includes having a leading role in the governance and leadership of Optivo.

We pride ourselves on being different to a lot of other organisations. Residents are at the heart of what we do and resident involvement is central to our culture. At each level of our governance structure, from residents sitting on the Board, down to local repairs panels, our residents work side by side with staff and board members to improve our services.

Read about Optivo’s leading role in developing the National Housing Federation’s Together with Tenants Initiative

Our Board:

Our Board sets the overall strategy for us and makes sure our Executive Team, responsible for the day to day management of Optivo, is working effectively.

The main responsibilities of our Board include:
  • Setting our overall strategy and business plan
  • Making sure our Executive Team is working effectively and has access to the resources it needs
  • Ensuring any risks to the organisation are identified and controlled
  • Monitoring our performance, service delivery and financial viability.

Sir Peter Dixon (Chair)

  • Image: Peter dixonFormer Chair of Housing Corporation

  • Chair of Diabetes UK

  • Former Vice Chair Broads Authority

  • Former Chair UCL NHS Foundation Trust






 

Paul Hackett CBE (Chief Executive)

  • Paul is Chief Executive of Optivo and a member of the Optivo Board.  

  • Paul is an Honorary Professor at the UCL Bartlett School of Construction and Project Management and a member of the Independent Advisory Board. 

  • He also sits on the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) ‘Housing Supply Group’. He is a Fellow of the RICS, the Chartered Institute of Building, the Chartered Institute of Housing and is an Academician of the Academy of Urbanism.

  • Between 2017-19 Paul was Chair of G15 and a member of the Homes for Londoners Board. 

  • Paul was awarded a CBE for services to social housing.
To find out more about Paul click here

Nick Stephenson

  • Image: Nick StephensonExperienced economic development consultant

  • Former member of AmicusHorizon London Area Panel

  • Trustee of Fresh Visions charity.













 

Howard Cresswell (Chair of People, Governance, Remuneration Committee)

  • IMAGE: Howard CresswellFormer senior executive at Circle

  • Former Interim Chief Executive of Hornsey Housing Trust

  • Former board member at Ascham Homes







     

Eugenie Turton (Vice Chair)

  • image: Eugenie TurtonFormer Director General for Housing and Planning (central government)

  • Non-Executive Director for Genesis then Notting Hill Genesis (NHG) Housing Group between 2009 and 2018 (Chair of People Committee and Customer Services Committees at Genesis and Chair of Resident Services Committee at NHG)

  • Board Associate and Mentor of Critical Eye network for business leaders

  • Member of the Advisory Council on the Disposal of Nuclear Waste from December 2017 to date.


 

Geanna Bray

image: Geanna BrayGeanna has over 20 years’ experience working in the social housing sector












 

Michelle Dovey (Chair of Treasury Committee)

 

Image: Michelle Dovey

  • Experienced financial risk management executive

  • Director of MJD Treasury Solutions Ltd

  • Chair of Board at Kairos Women Working Together.​

    •  






 

Chris Tinker

  • Image: Chris TinkerFormer Interim CEO of Crest Nicholson and long term Chairman of Regeneration and Strategic Partnerships on the Crest Group Board.

  • NED of BBS Capital Ltd and Bathurst Developments Ltd.

  • Trustee of Yeldall Christian Centres and Kiriath Trust, focussing on the long term rehabilitation needs of drug and alcohol addicts.

  • Formerly Chair of the HBF Major Homebuilders sub-committee, Board Director of the Housing Forum, Director of the Enterprise M3 LEP and member of the Home England Design and Sustainability Advisory Board.

Andy Burder

Image: Andy Burder

  • Financial Controller for a Real Estate Investment Manager

  • Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Adviser









 

Damien Régent (Chair of Audit & Risk Committee)

Damien is a financial analyst by background with significant expertise in credit markets and financial institutions.

He works at board level across sectors.Image: Damien Regent
  • Chair of the Finance, Audit and Risk Committee on the board of Crisis (homelessness)

  • Chair of the Audit Committee at Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

  • Trustee-treasurer at Pro Bono Economics

  • Former Non-Executive Director on the board of two software businesses. Former trustee at Médecins Sans Frontières UK (Doctors Without Borders UK) and at Reprieve, the human rights charity.

Kanye Kola


Digital and Technology solutions professional with experience of end to end delivery of organisational and technological change across large, medium and small organisations.

Projects delivered are delineated by a strong focus on customers, great stakeholder management, collaborative problem solving, cost efficiency and highly effective creative outputs.





 

Grace Alaneme


Optivo resident board member.
 
An experienced  nurse with extensive knowledge of holistic care as well as the health and social care field. 
 
Grace also has  a striking passion for customer service and wellbeing.




 
 

Executive Team:

The Board delegate day-to-day management of the organisation to the Executive Team. Find out more about our Executive Team below:

Resident Governance

We have over 60 residents in our Resident Governance Structure.

They help influence decisions and scrutinise our services. 

The structure also has links with our Board ensuring our residents’ voices are heard throughout the organisation.

Find out more about our resident governance structure.
 

Contact Us
Our history
Our performance
Building new homes

We're here to help...

As a very large housing provider, we don’t always get everything right. If you feel we’ve failed our service standards or would like to make a complaint, our Customer Experience Team is here to help.
 
We make it easy for you to contact us by providing different channels (as listed here).
 
Contacting members of our Executive Team directly (e.g. on social media or by email) isn’t the appropriate channel and doesn't make it easier for us to deal with your enquiry. Contacting us in this way can delay us being able to help you, as we don’t monitor their accounts or email addresses for customer enquiries.
 
We recommend using MyAccount (our online service) and, for emergencies, calling us on 0800 121 60 60.