Meet the Team – Board of Trustees

Katie Moore became the Chair of Spring Housing in September 2021 and has spent 7 years in the housing sector starting as a graduate and now as Director of Assurance & Business Services at Citizen Housing Association. Katie has knowledge and experience in the following areas: performance reporting, bespoke reporting, research design, evaluations including social return on investment, policy and strategy interpretation, along with risk management and customer feedback.  Prior to her time spent in housing Katie worked in the charitable/criminal justice sector working directly with offenders and was a mentor for high-risk offenders via the Probation Service.  Katie is a chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH), holds a Post Graduate diploma in Housing Studies and first-class degree in Criminal Justice and Criminology.

Louise is a User Journey Lead for UnLtd, The Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs with over twelve years’ experience of working with social entrepreneurs to scale up social business from start up to investment.  She is experienced in appraising business propositions, reviewing financial information, delivering coaching, start-up advice and very familiar with social enterprise, investment and grant making fields.  She has project managed a programme for social entrepreneurs and gained notable recognition from the Cabinet Office.    Louise is a consultant and uses service design principles as a form of co-production for the design or redesign of products and services. Louise has previously held board positions withing housing, charity, and local authority housing board and sits on the steering group for a small start-up.  Louise values lived experiences and wants to champion customers perspectives, experiences, and voices.

Naomi is a barrister specialising in Employment Law and the Deputy Head of the Employment Group at No5 Chambers.  She works for both employees and employers, encompassing both public and private sector.  Naomi has been an integral part of the team responsible for bringing “ELIPS” (Employment law Litigants in Person Scheme) to Birmingham, a pro bono project created by the Employment Lawyers’ Association (“ELA”), to provide legal advice to litigants in person using the Birmingham Employment Tribunal.  Naomi’s interest in the housing sector grew from her involvement with the Homeless Period movement; since summer 2017, she has helped collect and distribute sanitary products to homeless and vulnerable women across Birmingham.

Information coming soon.

Neil has over 22 years’ experience within the public sector, managing the delivery of a variety of community-focussed services ranging from arts, sport, and leisure to housing, neighbourhood renewal, neighbourhood management, and community development and an excellent track record and reputation for engagement, partnership working.  Neil is committed to improving the lives of citizens and communities, particularly those that are deprived and disadvantaged.  Neil also has a keen interest in health & wellbeing, fitness and sports therapy and he is a qualified fitness instructor, sport therapist and sports masseuse.   A strong advocate for social support and development activity, Neil endorsed Spring Housing Association’s ethos by becoming one of Directors.

Darren has more than 20 years’ experience in B2B marketing of IT products and services and specialises in helping SME develop and grow their businesses. He is currently Head of Marketing for Syscomm, a Managed Services IT company in Coventry. Prior to that he was working as a Visiting Lecturer at Birmingham City University, teaching Strategy, Marketing, and Leadership courses at Undergraduate and Master’s level. He is an entrepreneur, opening a small chain of coffee shops across Worcestershire. He is also Chair of Radio Lollipop Birmingham. Originally from Canada, Darren came to undertake a MBA at the London Business School, plays ice hockey, and occasionally manages to pluck a few notes on his double bass.

David is a qualified accountant with over twenty years’ experience of social housing and charity finance. In 2016 David became Director of Resources at Watmos Community Homes, a tenant led housing association, with homes in London and the West Midlands, having previously been Director of Finance & Corporate Services at Black Country Housing Group. David’s current role includes finance, treasury, HR, ICT, governance and development. Before joining BCHG David had been Deputy Finance Director at Accord Group and earlier Head of Financial Planning at the Orbit Group. David is also a Trustee/non-executive director of Kaleidoscope Plus Group, a mental health charity in West Bromwich.

Rashid works as a Senior Commissioning Officer for Birmingham City Council and specialises in regeneration, environmental protection and the strategic commissioning and delivery of services and projects to vulnerable communities.  He was the Strategic lead for developing four local district housing plans in Birmingham and has been responsible for managing local and European wide projects supporting the reduction of homelessness and environmental objectives. Rashid joined Spring to   serve the goals of the organisation in providing good quality, affordable decent homes to vulnerable communities in housing need.

Neelam has worked in the voluntary sector for 14 years with experience of managing frontline homeless services and   a key strategic lead for homelessness across the West Midlands. Neelam has worked extensively influencing service improvement and facilitating systems change to prevent and tackle homelessness. Neelam’s current role with the West Midlands Combined Authority has a focus on designing out homelessness.   Neelam has expert knowledge in tackling rough sleeping, influencing policy and practice, strategic development, capacity building and working in partnerships. Neelam has previously served as an Executive Member on the West Midlands Voluntary & Community Sector Housing Network and West Midlands Supported Housing Network.

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