Craig Thornton
Risk and Assurance Director, Sovereign Network Group

Craig is Risk and Assurance Director for Sovereign Network Group where he is focused on building the organisation’s resilience. He is also a Board and ARC member of Grand Union Housing Group. Craig has been in the sector for four years, following a 20+ year career in professional services and telecoms.

Kate Atherton
Policy Officer, National Housing Federation

Sophie Atkinson
Director of Governance, GreenSquareAccord

Sophie is Executive Director of Governance at GreenSquareAccord. She is a qualified solicitor and chartered company secretary, who has worked in the sector for over 15 years. Previously Director of Governance and Compliance at Catalyst Housing (now Peabody), Sophie has also worked for Sanctuary Group and the Homes and Communities Agency (now the Regulator of Social Housing). At GreenSquareAccord she has responsibility for governance, risk and assurance, health and safety, and data protection.

Bethan Buck
External Affairs Manager, National Housing Federation

John Butler
Assistant Manager, Buzzacott

John joined Buzzacott in May 2024 from the National Housing Federation where he was its Finance Policy lead. John brings considerable experience and expertise in all aspects of social housing finance to Buzzacott having worked alongside registered providers identifying potential financial issues and optimising their operating environments. He was the secretariat of the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) Working Party, the National Housing Federation representative on the Social Housing Pension Scheme’s Employee Group and previously a member of the Sustainability Reporting Standard’s ESG Steering Group. John also has strong relationships with investors, banks, regulators, credit rating agencies, politicians and government departments helping to set policy and promote best practices in accounting, tax, treasury, corporate finance, pensions, risk management, financial regulation and compliance. John provides audit and advisory services to housing associations as well as a range of charities and educational institutions. He works with our specialist charity tax and VAT teams to provide his clients with joined-up advice from a single point of contact.

Steve Cross
Technical Director, PIB Group

Steve Cross, Group Technical Director at PIB Group, first started in Commercial Insurance Broking more than 30 years ago, and has specialised in Tech, Media and Cyber risks for more than 20 years.

In the last few years Steve has been collaborating closely with STORM Guidance, the UK’s leading provider in Cyber incident response and risk management services for the insurance market, to develop low-cost tools with the capability to test and assess an organisation’s cyber posture and resilience to attack.

Kate Dodsworth
Chief of Regulatory Engagement, Regulator of Social Housing

Kate started her career in housing 30 years ago in homelessness, working with rough sleepers in Birmingham and later managing homeless hostels in Brighton. After completing a Masters degree in Housing, she worked at the National Housing Federation for 10 years; latterly as Assistant Director covering London, the South East and East of England. She was Executive Director of People and Communications at Amicus Horizon and, post-merger, as Optivo.

Kate was Chief Executive of Gateway Housing Association for three years until starting as Director of Consumer Regulation at the Regulator for Social Housing in July 2021. In 2023, she was appointed Chief of Regulatory Engagement at RSH. Kate was an external examiner for Westminster University until 2019 and a co-founder of the charity, Leadership2025, which aims to increase representation of black housing professionals in senior roles and address structural inequality.

Katie Finch
Director of Assurance and Business Services, Citizen Housing

Katie has spent over 15 years in housing developing and leading corporate services functions. Katie is Citizen’s Director of Assurance and Business Service with responsibility for Governance and Regulation; this involves working closely with Board and Committee members and ensuring our decision making meets the highest standards. During 2025 Katie has led the organisation through its inspection process with the RSH.

Sarah-Jane Gay
Head of Building and Fire Safety Programmes, National Housing Federation

Emily Harbottle
CEO and Founder, Cascade Risk

Nick Jackson
Executive Director of Business Services and Development, Plymouth Community Homes

With 25 years in Social Housing, Nick brings expertise in finance, governance and risk, D&IT, procurement and development. He values teamwork to drive innovation and enable social housing to flourish. He was at the Regulator when rent restructuring began and has navigated Plymouth Community Homes through 15 years of shifting government policies which stopped convergence at PCH and saw high numbers of homes converted to affordable rent. Nick chairs the SW Finance Directors group which includes attendees from SE and South Wales.

Sarah Johnson
Director of Governance and Legal, WHG

Sarah has worked in social housing since 1996, specialising in key areas of housing management before moving into governance and risk in 2018. Her diverse experience includes roles in a housing action trust, community/resident-led associations, a housing law firm, and as a freelance housing law trainer. In her current role as Director of Governance and Legal, she supports Board and Committees, with a focus on risk, and leads on governance, legal, insurance, internal audit, and strategic risk management. In the past two years has developed and implementing risk management software. She holds a Law degree (LLB Hons), a Postgraduate Diploma in Housing and is a Chartered Member of the CIH. She also has Board member experience and is currently an independent member of Cannock Chase District Council’s Housing Board.

Dilys Jones
Assistant Director Affordable Housing Growth, Homes England

Julie Lennon
Senior Manager, Chartered Internal Auditor and Accredited Counter Fraud Specialist, Beevers and Stuthers.

Monika Liskiewitz
Director of Financial Resources, Accent Group

Dan McCann
Data Specialist, Internal Auditor and Accredited Counter Fraud Specialist, Beevers and Stuthers

Fiona McGregor
Chief Executive, Regulator of Social Housing

Fiona became Chief Executive of the standalone Regulator of Social Housing in October 2018 having been Director of Regulation at the Homes and Communities Agency from November 2015. The Regulator is responsible for the regulation of registered social housing providers. Previously, as Director of Programmes, she was responsible for HCA’s Affordable Housing and Help to Buy programmes. Fiona has over 25 years housing experience, covering development investment, programme delivery and policy development. She has worked at the HCA since it launched in 2008, before which she was Deputy Director of Investment at the Housing Corporation, and prior to that, Head of Development at London & Quadrant.

Mary Mercer
Business Continuity & Emergency Response Lead, Riverside Group

Rhys Moore
Executive Director of Public Impact, National Housing Federation

Rhys started with the NHF in October 2018, as Executive Director of Public Impact. Rhys oversees our policy, external affairs and communications work. Previously he was Director of the Living Wage Foundation where he worked with government, business and civil society to build a national movement of responsible employers. Before that, he helped to establish the London Community Foundation, which supports grassroots community groups in the capital. Rhys is a board member of the Carers Trust.

Rosie Nightingale
Head of Internal Audit, Bromford

Rosie joined Bromford Housing Group as Head of Internal Audit in May 2023, setting up a new independent internal audit function. Rosie's team are committed to delivering foresight and insight through high quality and professional internal audit. She joined Bromford from PwC where she worked with a range of clients in housing, government, healthcare, higher education and manufacturing within co-sourced and outsourced models of internal audit and as a risk management specialist.

Her career began in policy and assurance within international development for central government. Rosie has previously held roles as a Director on the Council for the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors and set up the Aspire Network for internal auditors early in their career.

Sue Ramsden
Policy Leader, National Housing Federation

Sue leads the Federation's policy work on housing management and supported housing.  She is a board member of Thamesreach Housing a small specialist homelessness provider in London.

Paul Roberts
Chair Audit Committee, Rochdale Boroughwide Homes

Paul brings over 30 years of cross sector expertise in risk, governance, leadership, finance and strategy, including over a decade of housing sector experience in executive roles with the Guinness Partnership. Paul is currently an independent consultant working with housing associations and charities to develop their approach to Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG), Diversity and Inclusion (with a focus on disability), housing strategy and internal controls (especially fraud). He is a Non-Executive Director, also serving as Senior Independent Director and Chair of a number of committees including Audit and Risk as well as Culture and Colleague, across 4 RP’s - Rochdale Boroughwide, Auxesia Homes, Gloucester City Homes and Plexus.

Symon Sentain
Executive Director Property Services, Newlon HT

Dalbir Singh
Risk and Compliance Officer, WHG

Dalbir has over 20 years of public and private sector experience in internal audit and risk management, joining whg in his current role in June 2023. He supports and facilitates delivery of whg’s internal audit programme, and plans and delivers policy compliance reviews, reporting to Audit Committee on progress against recommendations. Dalbir also supports risk management across the business, particularly focusing on operational risk and the implementation of risk management software. Dal has a BSc (Hons) in Mathematical Business Analysis and a Postgraduate Diploma in Audit Management and Consultancy.

Alistair Smyth
Director of Policy and Research, National Housing Federation

Alistair has worked in the social housing sector for the last 16 years in a wide range of roles and organisations including a previous spell at the NHF from 2014 to 2017. Prior to that, he worked as a consultant on a range of neighbourhood and community empowerment projects. He also spent three years working in a customer-facing role as a Neighbourhood Manager and as Assistant Head of Neighbourhoods for Peabody. He is currently the Vice Chair of the Chartered Institute of Housing’s Policy Advisory Committee.

Jonathan Walters
Deputy Chief Executive, Regulator of Social Housing

Having previously been at Ernst and Young working in social housing consultancy, Jonathan has been at the Regulator since 2004. He has worked across the organisation and has extensive experience in dealing with funders, government and housing associations.