Our Board

Rolf Levesley | Senior Independent Director and member of the Governance and Remuneration Committee

Since retirement, Rolf has held several Non-Executive roles in the social housing sector, including Chair of South Staffordshire Housing Association and Housing Plus Group. As a planning lawyer and Chief Executive of a local authority, Rolf has extensive experience in strategic and financial planning, managing and motivating people, and resolving difficult and sensitive issues.

He embraces Trent & Dove’s community work and its customer voice, which strengthens the organisation, making it more effective.

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Claire Winfield | Chair and member of the Governance and Remuneration Committee 

Claire trained as a Youth and Community Worker and has spent her career in housing and social care. She worked with homeless young people, people with learning disabilities, and who use mental health services.

She is the CEO at Sight Support Derbyshire, a charity providing a range of person-centred services to visually impaired people. She was previously the chair of Nottingham Community Housing Association, and the CEO of Amber Trust, a charity providing housing and ancillary support to people with mental ill-health.

She was also Director of Consultancy at Paradigm, providing consultancy and raining across the Social Care sector.

Claire understands how important a safe home is to people and is a huge advocate for the work Trent & Dove does as an active housing developer and how it supports its communities.

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Chris Skelton | Non-Executive Director and member of the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee

Chris is a member of the Audit and Risk Committee and Chair of First Housing, Trent & Dove’s commercial lettings company.

He brings skills and experience in finance, accountancy, and treasury, along with an in-depth knowledge of the social housing sector.

He is an accountant with a property, charity, and retail background with extensive experience with lenders setting up treasury policies and getting bank loans.

He has 20 years of commercial experience in regional press as a Managing Director. He is now the Executive Director Corporate Resources for The ExtraCare Charitable Trust, offering retirement villages for the over 55s, which has quadrupled in size since he joined 20 years ago.

Chris believes that Trent & Dove lives and breathes its vision and mission and impacts the community it serves positively.

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Colum Goodchild | Non-Executive Director

Colum held asset planning and investment programme management roles at National Grid and Cadent, overseeing around £600 million of investment annually, producing Cadent’s five-year £4 billion investment plan, and working closely with the regulator Ofgem.

He moved into consultancy with Aqua Consultants, working with asset management organisations to reduce the carbon and energy impacts of asset ownership.

He was the vice chair of Rooftop Housing Group, and he is also the senior independent director and the member responsible for complaints.

Colum was a Non-Executive Director of County Durham Housing Group, and was the Vice Chair of its Operations Committee. He has worked in housing as a Board member for 10 years

He is committed to trying to make a difference in the homes we run and the communities we transform.

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Grant Mitchell | Non-Executive Director and member of the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee

Grant is a senior housing, planning, and regeneration professional with over 30 years of experience with local authorities and registered providers. He is the assistant director of enterprise and growth at South Staffordshire Council, where he has operational and strategic responsibility for the council’s multi-disciplinary ‘Place-making’ function.

He has experience in leadership, culture and values, and supports Trent & Dove’s approach to transforming homes, lives, and communities.

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John Doherty | Non-Executive Director and member of the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee

John is a Chartered Accountant who trained with Ernst and Young, then held finance and commercial roles at Boots and Advantage West Midlands. He was then Managing Director of the education supplies and procurement organisation ESPO, the Chief Executive of Loughborough College, and Chief Executive at Entrust Support Services (part of the Capita group).

He is currently divisional CEO within Commercial Services Group leading companies which serve education and the wider public sector.

He is well-versed in the social housing sector. He brings his experience of running companies to the Board, setting strategy, delivering financial and people performance, and managing change.

He is a strong advocate of housing associations' role in supporting their customers and communities to become the best they can be. He is committed to keeping our customers at the forefront of our decision-making.

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Mike Finister-Smith | Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee

As a qualified accountant, Mike has extensive experience in the finance and social housing sector, having held numerous roles as a senior leader, director, and social housing consultant.

He previously worked as a housing accountant in local government as a housing accountant. He has also worked as a private consultant, providing advice on setting up new housing associations.

He was a Board member of Nottingham Community Housing Association and its Audit and Risk Committee, and he is also Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee at Ongo Homes. He was also the Chair of Audit and Risk at Broadland in Norwich.

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Mike Hew | Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Governance and Remuneration Committee

Mike has over 23 years of experience as a senior housing executive, most recently as Chief Executive of Caldmore Area Housing Association and Caldmore Accord.

Until 2020, he was the Deputy Chair and later Interim Chair of Walsall Housing Group, where he also chaired the group’s Governance and Remuneration Committee. 

In his early career, spent time as a homelessness officer and as a housing manager, which has given him a deeper understanding of housing needs.

He uses this knowledge to strengthen Trent & Dove’s mission to improve lives, homes and communities.

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Tracey White | Non-Executive Director and Member Responsible for Complaints and Consumer Standards

 

Ursula Bennion | Chief Executive

Over a 25-year career in housing, Ursula has worked across the sector in a wide variety of roles ranging from her first job as a trainee Housing Officer to Director of Business Development and now as Chief Executive.