Sinéad Butters MBE, Group Chief Executive

Sinéad has been Chief Executive of Staffordshire-based Aspire Housing since 2006. Under her leadership the business has grown and broadened its services via the acquisition of Staffordshire’s largest apprenticeship provider, PM Training.

With a strong combination of new build housing, regeneration, training and employment services, Aspire Housing aims to maximise its impact in local communities and improve people’s life chances.
Sinéad grew up in Staffordshire, studied at Keele University and is one of its founding “fellows” in recognition of her achievements and Aspire’s support for North Staffordshire communities.

In October 2015 Sinéad become Chair of PlaceShapers, the national network of over 100 community-based housing associations, with a collective goal to achieve real and lasting improvements in the communities they serve.
In the 2016 New Year Honours list, Sinéad was awarded an MBE for her services to housing. It recognises her work in the sector, raising the profile of housing issues and passionately improving lives and communities in Staffordshire.

Will Nixon,  Managing Director of PM Training and Deputy Group Chief Executive

Will joined Aspire in 2007 and he has more than 25 years’ experience in the housing, regeneration and social enterprise sectors. He has previously held senior positions in local government and with regeneration agencies. Will is the Managing Director of PM Training, the training and employment arm of we are aspire. Will is also Chief Executive of Aspire’s regeneration charity, the Realise Foundation and serves externally on the Boards of the Chartered Institute of Housing, Social Enterprise West Midlands.

Tracey Johnson, Executive Director Customer Experience

Tracey joined Aspire in September 2014 and is an experienced professional at board, executive and senior leadership level in housing, private sector financial institutions, local authority and central government.

Tracey has a blended set of experience and skills in organisational strategy, growth and transformation together with people and organisational development. Tracey leads on the strategic development and delivery of human resources, organisational development, IT, health and safety and marketing and communications. She continues to drive the organisational development on digital and ways of working.

Mark Thrasher, Executive Director, Finance

Mark joined Aspire in August 2018, from Raven Housing, based in Surrey, where he was Group Director of Finance.

Mark has worked in the housing sector for over 20 years in a number of senior management positions. Mark was born in Stoke–on-Trent and grew up in Newcastle under Lyme and so has a real empathy and passion to make a difference to the lives of the people in the areas in which Aspire operates. Mark leads on Finance to ensure that we are aspire continues to be financially strong and to grow and develop the business, increasing the capacity to enable us to provide more affordable homes.

 Dan Gray, Executive Director, Property

Dan is an experienced property professional, who joined Aspire in 2005 and leads on development and home ownership sales, strategic asset management and landlord compliance services. Before joining Aspire, Dan worked on regeneration programmes for a Local Authority and also spent several years in the United States developing town centre regeneration schemes.

His motivation comes from revitalising the neighbourhoods and communities served by Aspire Housing and seeing the positive difference this makes to the lives of our customers.

Philippa Holland, Aspire Housing Chair

Philippa retired from the Senior Civil Service in 2009, having spent much of her career based in the West Midlands, where she had particular responsibilities for housing, regeneration, local government and wider public sector performance. She was awarded the OBE in 2006.From 2009-2014, Philippa was a Board Member and Deputy Chair of ART, a social enterprise based in Birmingham providing loans to small business. Philippa joined Aspire in 2011 to chair Aspire Housing, which in 2016 became the parent company within the group.

Kevin Richardson, Aspire Housing Vice-Chair

Kevin is a qualified HR professional and has leadership experience in the areas of education, health, social care and social work, most recently as the Faculty Dean of Business, Education and Professional Studies at the University of Gloucestershire. He has also chaired a school governing body in Staffordshire, created a local community partnership that took over and transformed the performance of a school and helped to create an academy school in Cheltenham.

Nicola Winn, PM Training Chair

Nicola is the managing director of Creative Bridge based in Lutterworth. She has previously worked in senior roles at Leicester Housing and the CIH. She is a board member at The Marketing Group and previously sat on the boards of CIH and Foyer Federation. She is a member of the chartered institute of housing and the academy for Chief Executives.

Ian Dale 

Ian is a retired chartered accountant who has spent his entire career in the financial services industry, working in senior finance roles in both the Britannia Building Society and more recently the Cooperative Bank. He has extensive experience of leading finance departments through the changes experienced in the financial services industries, has been involved in a number of key acquisition and merger transactions and has served as a director on a number of subsidiary company boards for both organisations. Ian is also a Non Exec Director of the Earl Shilton Building Society

Jenny Danson

Jenny is the owner and Director of an Interim leadership company and has worked in a range of senior interim roles mainly within the housing sector.  Jenny was Executive Director of Housing Services at Metropolitan Housing. She also has experience of leading major transformational projects for public and private sector clients; senior operational roles with BAA plc at Heathrow and Gatwick airports; and operational and commercial roles in facilities management.

Mike Lawton

Mike is a senior executive with Michelin Tyre plc.  He has held strategic roles within private sector organisations both in the UK and as an expatriate. He began his career with Waterford-Wedgwood in the late 1980s and with Austin Reed in the 1990s. Mike’s corporate experience includes strategy definition within sales, marketing, communication (including digital technologies), customer management and finance. Mike has a decade of experience in the housing sector working with both general housing and specialist care providers. Mike is a resident of Newcastle under Lyme and is committed to the local area. Mike has an MBA from Staffordshire University.

Cllr Elizabeth Shenton

Elizabeth has been a Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Councillor for over 12 years, holding many key positions including Council Leader, and she is now the Deputy Mayor. Elizabeth has over 20 years experience in the finance industry, where she held senior HR roles, and was a Director of the RBS Pension Fund. She is now a Lay Judiciary at the West Midlands Employment Tribunals. Elizabeth also has a lifetime of leading roles in the voluntary sector and is the Coordinator of the North Staffordshire Independent Custody Visitors.

Alasdair Macarthur, Audit and Risk Committee Chair

Alasdair worked for 30 years in IT in large, blue-chip utility companies.  His skills and experiences cover portfolios and programmes, customer support, and a wide variety of business change management assignments including major cultural change programmes, organisational design and review as well as process re-engineering initiatives. These involved working across offices in England, Germany and India. Since retiring Alasdair served for 4 years as a Trustee at Parents and Children Together (PACT) one of the leading adoption agencies in England where he chaired the Audit Committee and acted as interim Chair of that charity. Most recently he has worked on a number of ad-hoc consultancy assignments, providing business development support to some of the 26 Adoption Agencies across England & Wales, as well as ad-hoc coaching and support to the CEOs in these adoption agencies.

Nicola Winn, PM Training Chair

Nicola is the Managing Director of Creative Bridge based in Lutterworth. She has previously worked in senior roles at Leicester Housing and the CIH. She is a board member at The Marketing Group and previously sat on the boards of CIH and Foyer Federation. She is a member of the Chartered Institute of Housing and the Academy for Chief Executives.

Will Nixon, Managing Director PM Training

Will joined Aspire in 2007 and he has more than 25 years’ experience in the housing, regeneration and social enterprise sectors. He has previously held senior positions in local government and with regeneration agencies. Will is the Managing Director of PM Training, the training and employment arm of we are aspire. Will is also Chief Executive of Aspire’s regeneration charity, the Realise Foundation and serves externally on the Boards of the Chartered Institute of Housing, Social Enterprise West Midlands.

Kevin Richardson, Aspire Housing Vice-Chair

Kevin is a qualified HR professional and has leadership experience in the areas of education, health, social care and social work, most recently as the Faculty Dean of Business, Education and Professional Studies at the University of Gloucestershire. Kevin’s work in developing and improving of service provision, enhancing customer services and his dynamic transformational approach to leadership was recognised with the award of Professorial title in 2011. He has also chaired a school governing body in Staffordshire, created a local community partnership that took over and transformed the performance of a school and helped to create an academy school in Cheltenham

Paul Newell

Paul is a qualified accountant and was formerly a Partner at Clearwater International, a cross-border advisory firm specialising in corporate finance. Paul has worked alongside directors and other stakeholders of growing companies for over 25 years advising on corporate strategy, value maximisation and fund-raising. While Paul has worked with clients across sectors covering the whole of the UK economy, he also has specific experience advising companies within the training and apprenticeship market.

Maqsood Ahmad

Maqsood has 15 years of experience of developing and delivering policies and programmes on behalf of ministers, board members and chief executives. Currently Maqsood is the Cohort Director for Nye Bevan Programme and Strategic Senior Manager for Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Devolution Partnership (HSCP) Strategic Clinical Networks (SCNs). Maqsood is responsible for the Mental Health, Dementia, Diabetes and CVD SCNs including three cross cutting responsibilities: public engagement, advancing equalities and tackling health inequalities.

Barry Pitts 

Barry recently retired from a local housing association as the Director of Business Development and Director of Arch services. Barry has over 28 years of experience in housing and regeneration in North Staffs and supporting vulnerable people across the area. For his previous organisation he has been actively involved in developing and delivering strategies, along with the delivery of major housing developments and regeneration projects. Barry has also been involved in bringing other organisations into the group, and merging their operations with the parent. He has chaired a number of influential groups throughout his career including a school governing body. He is currently mentoring a small business and supporting its growth strategy.

Alice Belcher

Alice lives in Scotland although her ties remain with Staffordshire. She is currently a Professor of Law at the University of Dundee, having previously lectured locally first in Accounting then in Law. She was a non-executive director of NHS education for Scotland for 8 years to 2014. She was a member of the Cairn Housing Association board for two years. She is also a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Sarah Tudor 

Born in Stoke-on-Trent and a graduate of Staffordshire University, Sarah has over 18 years’ experience in corporate learning and development and in higher education. In addition to her wealth of experience in employer engagement and work-based learning, Sarah is an expert in higher and degree apprenticeships. She works with the Department for Education, lobbying on degree apprenticeship policy. She is a guest editor and reviewer for UVAC’s Journal of HE, Skills and Work-based learning. Committed to lifelong educational development, Sarah is also Chair of Trustees of a 14-18 high school in the Staffordshire Moorlands and Staff representative on the University’s Board of Governors.

Christina Holdcroft, Realise charity Chair

Tina is a director at Holdcroft Heating and Gas Fitting as well as a managing partner at Dame Belle. She previously held a senior role at Welcome Break. Holdcroft Heating won the Training Excellence Award at the Sentinel Business Awards in March 2014.

Sinéad Butters, Chief Executive, Aspire Housing

Sinéad has been Chief Executive of Staffordshire-based Aspire Housing since 2006. Under her leadership the Aspire Housing Group has grown and broadened its services via the acquisition of Staffordshire’s largest apprenticeship provider, PM Training. In October 2015 Sinéad become Chair of PlaceShapers, the national network of over 100 community-based housing associations, with a collective goal to achieve real and lasting improvements in the communities they serve. In the 2016 New Year Honours list, Sinéad was awarded an MBE for her services to housing.

Will Nixon, Deputy Chief Executive, Aspire Housing

Will joined the Aspire Group in 2007 and he has more than 25 years’ experience in the housing, regeneration and social enterprise sectors. He had previously held senior positions in local government and with regeneration agencies. Will is the Managing Director of PM Training, the Aspire Housing Group’s training and employment arm. Will is also chief executive of Aspire’s regeneration charity, the Realise Foundation and serves externally on the Boards of the Chartered Institute of Housing, Social Enterprise West Midlands and Housemark.

Philippa Holland, Aspire Housing Chair

Philippa retired from the Senior Civil Service in 2009, having spent much of her career based in the West Midlands, where she had particular responsibilities for housing, regeneration, local government and wider public sector performance. She was awarded the OBE in 2006.From 2009-2014, Philippa was a Board Member and Deputy Chair of ART, a social enterprise based in Birmingham providing loans to small business. Philippa joined Aspire in 2011 to chair Aspire Housing, which in 2016 became the parent company within the group.

Marina Barrett, Customer Board Member

Marina spent most of her working career in public sector, providing financial management of the externally funded neighbourhood renewal and economic development projects, delivered in partnership with private and voluntary sector organisations and Stoke on Trent City Council. She has achieved a postgraduate qualification of Master of Science in Financial Management (with merit) at Manchester Metropolitan University a few years ago. Marina is an Associate of Chartered Management Institute.

Alasdair Macarthur, Audit and Risk Committee Chair

Alasdair worked for 30 years in IT in large, blue-chip utility companies.  His skills and experiences cover portfolios and programmes, customer support, and a wide variety of business change management assignments including major cultural change programmes, organisational design and review as well as process re-engineering initiatives. These involved working across offices in England, Germany and India. Since retiring Alasdair served for 4 years as a Trustee at Parents and Children Together (PACT) one of the leading adoption agencies in England where he chaired the Audit Committee and acted as interim Chair of that charity. Most recently he has worked on a number of ad-hoc consultancy assignments, providing business development support to some of the 26 Adoption Agencies across England & Wales, as well as ad-hoc coaching and support to the CEOs in these adoption agencies.

Martin Townsend

Martin has worked in banking and financial services for over 35 years, most recently in compliance and risk management. His previous experience includes product development, marketing, and project management. In addition to risk management work, Martin is a Tutor in the External Faculty of International Compliance Training Limited. Martin’s non-executive experience includes current roles as an Independent Member on the Audit Committee of the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art and as Chair of Derbyshire Dales Council for Voluntary Service. Previously Martin spent five years as an Independent Member on the Audit and Risk Committee of Guinness Northern Counties Housing Association. Martin completed an 18-month secondment to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister as a Policy Adviser working on the Housing Market Renewal Programme. A Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute, Martin has also completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing.

Philippa Holland, Aspire Housing Chair

Philippa retired from the Senior Civil Service in 2009, having spent much of her career based in the West Midlands, where she had particular responsibilities for housing, regeneration, local government and wider public sector performance. She was awarded the OBE in 2006.From 2009-2014, Philippa was a Board Member and Deputy Chair of ART, a social enterprise based in Birmingham providing loans to small business. Philippa joined Aspire in 2011 to chair Aspire Housing, which in 2016 became the parent company within the group.

Nicola Winn, PM Training Chair

Nicola is the managing director of Creative Bridge based in Lutterworth. She has previously worked in senior roles at Leicester Housing and the CIH. She is a board member at The Marketing Group and previously sat on the boards of CIH and Foyer Federation. She is a member of the chartered institute of housing and the academy for Chief Executives.

Ian is a retired chartered accountant who has spent his entire career in the financial services industry, working in senior finance roles in both the Britannia Building Society and more recently the Cooperative Bank. He has extensive experience of leading finance departments through the changes experienced in the financial services industries, has been involved in a number of key acquisition and merger transactions and has served as a director on a number of subsidiary company boards for both organisations. Ian is also a Non Exec Director of the Earl Shilton Building Society.

Ian is a retired chartered accountant who has spent his entire career in the financial services industry, working in senior finance roles in both the Britannia Building Society and more recently the Cooperative Bank. He has extensive experience of leading finance departments through the changes experienced in the financial services industries, has been involved in a number of key acquisition and merger transactions and has served as a director on a number of subsidiary company boards for both organisations. Ian is also a Non Exec Director of the Earl Shilton Building Society.