Member Biographies
August 2010
Table of content
Planning Group
Julia Unwin
Nancy Kelley
Paul Birtill
Heather Petch
Mary Carter
3
3
3
4
4
4
Lived Experience
Azim El-Hassan
Michael Gelling
Arten Llazari
Elahe Panahi
Alona Tirzite
6
6
6
7
7
7
Local Government
Ann Branson
Neil Coles
Cllr Nigel Lee
Jon Lord
Rob Warm
7
7
8
8
9
9
Housing
Tom Murtha
Bill Payne
Vicky Stark
10
10
10
10
Voluntary Community Sector
Jenny Edwards
Leonie McCarthy
Neil Stott
11
11
11
12
Policy
Richard Capie
Tim Finch
Gill Green
Sue Lukes
John Perry
12
12
13
13
13
14
Planning Group
Julia Unwin
Chair – Housing and Migration Network
Chief Executive – Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF)
Julia Unwin was appointed Chief Executive of the Foundation and the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust in
January 2007.
She was a member of the Housing Corporation Board for 10 years and a Charity Commissioner from
1998-2003. Julia was also Deputy Chair of the Food Standards Agency and worked as an independent
consultant operating within government and the voluntary and corporate sectors. In that role, she
focused on the development of services, and in particular the governance and funding of voluntary
organisations. Julia has researched and written extensively on the role, governance and funding of the
voluntary sector.
She previously held a position as chair of the Refugee Council from 1995 until 1998, and is now a trustee
of York Museums and Gallery Trust, and (from August 2009) a member of the University of York’s Council.
She is also a Governor of the Pensions Policy Institute.
Nancy Kelley
Acting Co-Director, Policy and Research - Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF)
Nancy joined JRF from the British Refugee Council, where she was Head of UK and International Policy,
responsible for the Council’s policy and research teams as well as projects supporting refugees to requalify and teach in the UK, offering independent advice on voluntary return and bringing together
international NGOs working in Afghanistan.
Prior to this she was a Principal Policy Officer for Barnardos and Chair of the Refugee Children's
Consortium. She was previously a Programme Director at the Children's Rights Commissioner for London.
Her career started as a mental health advice worker at Oxfordshire Mind, before moving to Mind
nationally to work as their first Advocacy Legal Adviser.
Paul Birtill
Director of Development and Investment – Metropolitan Support Trust (MST)
Paul joined Refugee Housing Association (now Refugee Support) in 2001 and now manages community
investment, new business and research teams ATMST, with a specific lead responsibility for the
development of new migrant initiatives. Prior to that, Paul worked in the area of community
development with the Scarman Trust. Paul has also worked in various capacities with Comic Relief, the
London Borough Grants Unit, Brent Council and the National Association for the Care and Resettlement
of Offenders (NACRO).
Heather Petch
Director – HACT
Heather has been Director of HACT since January 2000. Prior to her current position, Heather was
working in Leeds and London on two regeneration initiatives supporting local community organisations in
developing regeneration projects. She also worked as a policy adviser to the Commission on Poverty,
Participation and Power. She is a former trustee and now National Assembly member of the National
Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) and was a member of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s
Immigration and Inclusion committee.
Mary Carter
HACT Associate
Mary has been a freelance social policy and research consultant for over 15 years, specialising in strategy,
policy, organisational management and participation and qualitative research methods, with experience
across a number of sectors, characterised by excluded groups and those with limited voice. She is
currently working with HACT on Collaborate and the Opportunity Agenda’s Housing Empowerment
Network.
Lived Experience
Azim El-Hassan
Associate – HACT
Originally from Sudan, Azim finished his PhD in economics at Bradford and worked for various academic
and voluntary sector bodies, including managing HACT's Refugee Housing Integration Programme 19982005.
He is a founding member and chair of Sudan Research Group: a network of Sudanese researchers and
practitioners contributing to the debate on conflict and development in Sudan. He is also a board
member or director of various charities such as Asylum Aid, Trust for London’s Grant Committee,
Newham Homes (ALMO) and has chaired the Housing and Community Safety committee of the National
Refugee Integration Forum which advised the Home Office (2006-7).
Azim currently works as freelance consultant and journalist and is a HACT associate.
Michael Gelling
Chair – Tenants and Residents Organisation of England (TAROE)
Michael is the Chairperson of his local estate Neighbourhood Forum, Palace Fields in Runcorn, Halton and
is also delegate and founder member of Runcorn Residents Federation, which traditionally covered a
New Town area. Michael served on the local Council for sixteen years and held a number of key positions
in that time including that of Vice Chair of Housing. Michael has continued in the housing arena through
his membership of the Tenants and Residents Organisations of England which he has chaired for the past
six years.
Michael has served as a Director of the Independent Housing Ombudsman's service representing
T.A.R.O.E. for a full six year period.
In Runcorn where he lives, Michael is involved in many voluntary and community groups which cover the
disciplines of community safety, poverty, disability, youth, welfare rights and drug issues. Michael is very
proud to be the Chair of the very successful Halton Credit Union, Chair of the seventy place Acorn
Community Nursery and is equally proud to be the Company Secretary of Halton Community Partnership
Trust, which is a one-stop shop for the voluntary sector.
Michael has a background in personnel and has served, since 1979, as a lay member of the Employment
Tribunals service and is also the Chairperson of the Liverpool Employment Tribunals Members
Association.
Arten Llazari
Chief Executive – Refugee & Migrants Centre (Black Country)
Arten Llazari is the CEO of the Refugee & Migrant Centre. He was one of the volunteers that in 1999 set
up this advice and advocacy service. The centre has now developed into a well established organisation
that operates across the Black Country region and provides a wide range of services. It assists thousands
of asylum seekers, refugees and new migrants from over 115 different nationalities.
Arten is involved in several voluntary sector initiatives both regionally and nationally (e.g. Vice-Chair of
Migrant’s Rights Network, board member of West Midlands Strategic Migration Partnership and his local
Citizens Advice Bureau).
Elahe Panahi
Director – St John's Community Centre (London)
Elahe Panahi has more than 20 years experience in the voluntary sector – particularly in the migrant and
refugee sector both as a Trustee and paid staff. She has chaired and participated in many refugee
organisations, forums and working parties including the Refugee Arrival Project, the Refugee Women’s
Association, the Refugee Council, Asylum Aid and many others. She has been chair and Trustee of Evelyn
Oldfield Unit which provides technical and managerial support to migrant and refugee community
organisations. She is also a member of Refugee Education Award Committee and Trustee of
Supplementary and Mother Tongue Resource Unit.
Elahe has extensive experience on grant committees – She has been a Trustee and an advisory committee
member of the Housing Association Charitable Trust from 1996–1998 and trustee of City Parochial
Foundation and Trust for London since 2001-date. She is currently Chair of Trust for London Grants
Committee and Vice Chair of City Parochial Grants Committee. She has been member of advisory
committee of UK grant committee of Comic Relief from 2005-2008.
She is currently Director of a support Centre in East London focusing on promoting community cohesion
and integration of migrant communities in issues that affect them and their families. In her spare time
she works as freelance management consultant for Charities Aid Foundation supporting migrant and
refugee communities with their organisational development.
Alona Tirzite
Migrant Communities Officer – Lincolnshire County Council
Alona was born in Latvia and has a degree in Economics and Law.
She is currently employed by Lincolnshire County Council as a Community Engagement Officer, working
with many different community groups across Lincolnshire on the number of projects i.e. organising
cultural events, delivering learning programmes and reader development activities.
Prior to LCC Alona was working for 2 years at Community Lincs on the “Building Bridges” project, which
aimed to increase community cohesion and improve the quality of life of the increasing rural population
in Boston Borough and South Holland.
Alona also worked for 2 years at South Holland District Council on “The dynamics of migrant labour in
South Lincolnshire,” a comprehensive research project into migrant labour.
Since then Alona has carried out a number of research studies into migrant communities including: “A
Study of Migrant Workers in East Lindsey”.
Local Government
Ann Branson
Divisional Director, Housing Strategy and Options – Leicester CC
Ann is Director of Housing Strategy and Options at Leicester City Council, covering all aspects of housing
that are not actually managing the stock. Leicester was selected as one of the Home office's asylum
seeker cluster areas and in the early years she was very involved in setting up the structures to welcome
those who were dispersed to Leicester. She chaired the Home Office Accommodation Group and
eventually succeeded in getting the Home Office and Department of Communities to recognise the
housing link in making sound, fair and sustainable plans for refugees when they got their decisions.
Leicester is proud of its record of community cohesion, but recognises this is achieved by always being
aware of wider changes in society.
Neil Coles
Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) Team Manager – Newham Council
Neil is currently the chair of the National HMO Network, a not for profit organisation that aims to
improve the quality of houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) through the promotion and sharing of best
practice and the improvement of knowledge of both private sector landlords and local government
officers.
Neil is also the HMO Team Manager for the London Borough of Newham, and is involved in delivering
one of the successful projects funded through the Migration Impact Fund. The project aims to build a
clearer picture of the many migrant communities within Newham through gathering information on their
individual housing choices, decisions, and aspirations. It is hoped that the project will provide important
data to form Newham's future housing service provision for migrant communities.
Throughout his career, Neil has specialised within the field of private sector housing and has been
involved in numerous cases where members of migrant communities have been housed in sub-standard
and often dangerous accommodation.
Cllr Nigel Lee
Cabinet Member Climate Change, Housing and Sustainability – Coventry CC
Born and educated in Coventry, Nigel was trained as a Gas Turbine overhaul specialist with Rolls-Royce
and spent many years travelling the world, initially on overhaul, and latterly in Marketing.
Nigel changed career in 1988 to export management in the bus and coaches business working primarily
in East Africa and the Middle East. He subsequently returned to engineering in 1990 starting a property
maintenance business specialising in electrical installations for commercial and retail customers. This
eventually was directed to customers in the residential lettings market. From 1998 to 2001 he was
employed in the electrical wholesale business in the Midlands area in the role of Branch manager, and
purchasing manager. Nigel has been self employed in the property management business ever since.
Nigel was elected as a councillor in June 2004 for the Westwood Ward, and was re-elected in 2007.
During this period Nigel has held positions on many committees both within and outside the Council. He
has been Deputy Chair of Scrutiny for Finance and Governance (2005-2006), was Chair of Scrutiny for
Children Learning and Young People (2006-2008), and was promoted to Cabinet member for Climate
Change, Housing and Sustainability in May 2008. Since then Nigel has been driving towards a cleaner
greener council and city.
Jon Lord
Chief Executive - Bolton at Home
After starting his career as a Funeral Director, Jon made the move into Housing in 1987. Having carried
out a variety of roles in housing management and tenant participation, he became the Access and Advice
Manager in 1995. During that time, Jon was responsible for the introduction of the first comprehensive
choice-based lettings scheme in the UK and led Bolton in achieving Beacon status for its homelessness
services.
Jon became a Chief Officer in 2001 and has been the Chair of the Greater Manchester Consortium for
refugees and asylum seekers since that time. In addition, he now has a unique joint role across the Local
Authority, ALMO and Strategic Housing Partnership, managing a wide range of housing services as well as
responsibility for the development of affordable housing. Jon was awarded an OBE in 2007 for services
to Housing.
On a personal note, Jon’s values are based upon pragmatism and hedonism in equal measure.
Rob Warm
Regional Manager - Yorkshire and Humber Regional Migration Partnership
Rob Warm is the Regional Manager for the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Migration Partnership.
The Local Authority led Partnership, hosted by Leeds City Council, has around 20 staff, and is
responsible for:
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Providing strategic leadership on migration issues for the region
Centrally managing the public sector accommodation contract from asylum seekers across
10 Local Authorities in the region (around 3600 bed spaces)
Aspects of refugee integration and support
Data and Intelligence to make sure regional and local strategies reflect the needs of our
changing population.
Rob came into this post in January 2009, following 6 years at the Yorkshire and Humber Assembly
where, for the last 3 years, he was the Head of Housing and Communities. In that role he was lead
officer for the Regional Housing Board, which advised Government on how £559m of housing
investment should be spent in the region. Before that he was the Assembly’s Social Policy Manager
– with responsibility for a range of inclusion issues.
Before joining the Assembly, Rob worked in Partnership and Strategy for Legal Services Commission
(a government body), and worked in the voluntary sector and in academia following the completion
of his Ph.D. Rob has a strong interest in migration issues, housing, political decision making
structures, change management and regional policy.
Housing
Tom Murtha
Chief Executive Officer – Midland Heart
Tom has worked in the sector for 33 years and is Chief Executive Officer of Midland Heart. Prior to his
appointment, he was Chief Executive of Keynote from 2001-2006, and Chief Executive of Midland Area
from 1996 to 2001.
Throughout his career, Tom has also held a number of executive positions at Riverside and other housing
and regeneration organisations. He is a former Chair of Birmingham Social Housing and has served on a
number of national committees, mainly in relation to regeneration and diversity.
In addition to this, Tom was a statutory non-executive appointee to Staffordshire Housing Association
and Walsall Housing Group.
Bill Payne
Chief Executive Officer – Metropolitan Housing Trust (MHT)
Bill joined MHP in February 2008. He is a qualified Housing Manager and Chartered Surveyor. Previously
he was Chief Executive of Yorkshire Housing for 19 years, and, prior to that, Chief Executive of Moat
Housing Society from 1984 to 1989.
Bill is a past President and National Council Member of the Chartered Institute of Housing and was Chair
of Homeless International from 1997 to 2005.
Vicky Stark
Chief Executive – Look Ahead Housing and Care
Victoria Stark, Chief Executive of Look Ahead Housing and Care, has been with the organisation for 28
years. Look Ahead is a large specialist provider of housing, care and support services to vulnerable
people across London and the South East.
Look Ahead works in partnership with 27 local authorities and primary care trusts to support some 4,000
people a week, all of whom are amongst society’s most vulnerable and disadvantaged. Core client
groups are focused on homelessness, mental health, learning disabilities and young people.
Victoria is Chair of both the Special Needs Housing Associations Group and the London Housing
Federation.
She was awarded the CBE in 2003 for services to homeless people in London.
Voluntary Community Sector
Jenny Edwards
CEO – Homeless Link
Jenny Edwards is Chief Executive of Homeless Link, the national umbrella body for organisations
providing accommodation, advice, support and other services to people who are homeless.
Jenny chair’s the Mayor’s Homelessness Roundtable and the Conservatives’ Homelessness Foundation.
Jenny is a member of the Mayor’s London Delivery Board and London Housing Forum.
Jenny was a member of the Communities Secretary’s Housing Reform Liaison Group, following the Hills
Review, the Supporting People Sounding Board and the Housing Corporation's Advisory Panel on
Vulnerable People. She has worked in the public sector in local government, the civil service, parliament
and for the Arts Council. She ran the National Campaign for the Arts for 5 years and has been a board
member in a range of voluntary sector organisations.
Leonie McCarthy
Citywide Neighbourhood Manager - New Links (Peterborough)
Recently appointed as City-wide Neighbourhoods Manager with special responsibility for gypsies and
travellers, rural communities and the voluntary sector, Leonie set up and manages Peterborough’s award
winning asylum and migration service, New Link. Since 2004, New Link’s team of 14 staff have managed
over 10,000 refugees, asylum seekers and migrant workers, of almost 100 nationalities, speaking 75
different languages. New Link spearheads integration and cohesion through working with the settled and
new communities, undertaking community development work with over 40 community and voluntary
groups. Leonie also developed an innovative refugee and migrant awareness training programme to bust
myths and perceptions, increasing cohesion and integration between settled and new communities.
Prior to managing New Link, Leonie set up and managed the first British Red Cross Refugee and Asylum
Seeker service in the UK.
She is also one of the first Accredited Peer Mentors in Integration and Cohesion for the Improvement and
Development Agency for Local Government (I&DeA).
In August 2006 Leonie was appointed a Commissioner to the Department of Communities and Local
Government’s Commission on Integration and Cohesion. The Commission reported in July 2007 and the
Government initially responded in October 2007, including allocating an additional £50m of resources for
the next 3 years.
Leonie was Peterborough Evening Telegraph’s Women in Leadership winner 2008; and was awarded an
MBE in 2009 New Years Honours List.
Neil Stott
Chief Executive – Keystone Development Trust
Neil Stott is Chief Executive of Keystone Development Trust. Keystone is one of the largest development
trusts in the country delivering children and youth services, community development, social enterprises
and property development (commercial, community and housing).
Keystone has delivered META (Mobile Europeans Taking Action) information and advice service since
2004. META currently operates in Thetford, across Suffolk and Cambridge. Keystone published ‘Workers
on the Move’ focusing on housing issues in 2008. Neil is a member of the East Region Migrant Executive
Group.
Previously Neil was Head of Community Development at Canterbury City Council, Principal Officer
(Community) at Cambridge City Council and a youth and community worker for a number of children’s
charities including Mencap, Elfrida Rathbone and Contact-a-Family in London.
Neil graduated from Bradford University with a BA (Hons) in Peace Studies (1983). More recently Neil
completed a Post -graduate Certificate in Sociology at Anglia Ruskin University in 2003, a Masters in
Community Enterprise at the Judge Business School, Cambridge University in 2005, and is currently
studying for a PhD at Brunel University.
Neil is Eastern Region Chair of the Development Trust Association and a member of the National
Community Forum (Department of Communities and Local Government). Neil is a Fellow of the Royal
Society of Arts (FRSA), Senior Fellow of the Institute of Place Management (SFIPM) and Member of the
Institute of Economic Development (MIED).
Policy
Richard Capie
Director of Policy and Practice – Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH)
Richard Capie is Director of Policy and Practice at the Chartered Institute of Housing. Prior to joining the
CIH he was Head of Policy at the Housing Corporation. In 2006 Richard spent 6 months seconded to
Communities and Local Government working on the review of housing and regeneration, the review that
led to the 2008 Housing and Regeneration Act. Prior to joining the Housing Corporation Richard worked
for a national housing association and a London local authority. Richard has an MA from the Australian
National University and an MSc from London School of Economics.
Tim Finch
Head of Migration, Equalities and Citizenship Team – Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR)
Before joining ippr in December 2008, Tim was Director of Communications at the Refugee Council for
four years. He worked for a number of years for the BBC, latterly as a senior political journalist based at
Westminster. Tim was chair of Refugee Week, is a trustee of Asylum Aid and the Zimbabwe Association
and helped found London City of Sanctuary. He has degrees in politics from the London School of
Economics and University of Essex.
Tim’s areas of expertise include: migration policy in the UK, refugee and asylum policy, the politics of
migration, the politics and the media, and strategic communications.
Tim has been a regular commentator and written widely on migration and asylum issues in the national
and international press.
Gill Green
Senior Research Manager – Audit Commission
Gill Green has worked for the Audit Commission for 14 years and worked on a range of local government
projects across Social Services, Education, Corporate Services and Housing as well as working on best
value and taking part in a number of audits and inspections. She has worked on two national reports on
the Supporting People programme. She project managed a report on migrant workers published in
January 2007: Crossing Borders – responding to the local challenge of migrant workers.
She is currently working on an evaluation of CAA and on the impact of the credit crunch on local authority
finances.
Sue Lukes
Independent Consultant
Sue has worked in housing and migration since the 1970s, as a refugee resettlement officer, a housing aid
adviser and manager and as a freelance consultant since 1996. She currently teaches and writes on
housing and immigration law, edits the housing-rights.info website, develops, advises and evaluates
projects, funding streams and services, conducts academic research and provides policy advice.
She is a director of MigrationWork CIC (a not-for-profit consultancy set up to help communities,
practitioners and policy-makers to respond to migration, in ways that ensure both migrant and ‘host’
communities can benefit from this process and move towards integration www.migrationwork.org ), is on
the board of various charities and a housing association and is a member of the London Mayor’s Housing
Equalities Standing Group. She chairs Music in Detention (works through music to give voice to
immigration detainees and create channels of communication between them, immigration and detention
staff, local communities and the wider public www.musicindetention.org.uk ) which she helped set up.
John Perry
Policy Adviser – Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH)
John was Director of Policy at CIH for twelve years until early 2003. He took the lead on a range of issues
including housing investment, housing strategies and welfare reform. Since March 2003 he has been
based in Nicaragua, where he is co-ordinating projects with low income farming families, including a
housing project funded by the CIH Presidential Appeal 1998/99 (see www.cih.org/nicaragua for further
details). He is now part-time Policy Adviser to CIH, and his recent UK work has been on housing finance
and the future of ALMOs, community cohesion, and refugees and migration.