Board directors

Jane is the chair of Thirteen Group, M&G Shared Ownership Limited, and Surrey Choices.

Jane works with a number of arts organisations and those providing services to young people and refugees. She is the independent chair of Sunderland Culture, reflecting her upbringing in the North East of England.

Rob has worked in HR for over 30 years. He was vice president of HR for the Seagram Spirits and Wine Group for 15 years, Global HRD of Smith and Nephew plc and Group HRD of Maxxium Worldwide BV.

He is currently a partner within the Mercer Consulting Group. Rob has an MSc in Politics from London University, an MBA from IMC, and Chartered membership of the CIPD.

Anthony has worked in housing for 35 years for several local authorities and housing associations.

He's held executive positions leading both development and operational teams.

Andrew has a background in consulting and mergers and acquisitions. He owns and manages a number of his business interests and investments.

He previously worked for the publisher Penguin Random House as finance & commercial director for their distribution business and spent over ten years at Sage Group PLC.

Andrew holds an MEng in Chemical Engineering from Cambridge University.

A Teessider by birth, Bob spent over 30 years in local media. He was previously managing director of Trinity Mirror North East, publishers of the Gazette in Middlesbrough and the Chronicle, Journal and Sunday Sun in Newcastle.

Bob works with several organisations as Chair, Vice Chair and non-executive director.

Katy is employed by First Choice Homes as their head of transformation and is a researcher and analyst. For the past eight years, her career has focused on research in the social housing sector, working directly with more than 60 registered social housing providers across the UK, supporting them to continually improve and enhance the services offered to tenants and residents. Having been born, raised, and lives there now with her family, in Norton, Katy is a proud advocate of the local area and its heritage and is ambitious for its future.

Katy is our member responsible for complaints (MRC). She has the lead responsibility to support a positive complaint handling culture.

Salma has lots of experience in the health and care systems and leading organisational innovation and change and developing partnerships across different sectors and services.

Salma is passionate about public services. She is interested in how they address inequalities and enable everyone to live a safe, connected, meaningful and healthy life.

Lee is a Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) and CFO with over 20 years’ international financial and business leadership experience gained through public, privately owned and private equity backed businesses within the region.

In the wider community, Lee is Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees and chairs the Finance and Audit Committee at Dementia Matters. He is also Treasurer of his local scout group.

Martha is head of development at South Lakes Housing and leads their development and sales programme in the north west.

A registered architect with a background in development, she has a wealth of experience in designing and delivering creative, complex housing, regeneration and community-led projects in the private and social housing sectors. Martha is a passionate advocate for social housing and creating high quality, sustainable homes for customers and communities.

Barry is a development professional with a career spanning four decades. He has extensive experience at senior executive level roles in both the public and private sectors. He has a degree in Town Planning and started his career working in Middlesbrough. He is passionate about housing delivery and creating better places.

Matt joined Thirteen from Home Group, where he was executive director of operations.

Having lived and worked in the North East for nearly 30 years, the former teacher and chartered accountant has held several executive and senior roles. He brings exceptional knowledge of the sector and a wealth of experience from social housing and the private sector.