Our Executive Team and Board

Lindsey Williams: Group Chief Executive

Lindsey has been Chief Executive since Futures was formed in 2003 as Amber Valley Housing. She is a passionate advocate for social housing and firmly believes that providing a home is one of the most important things you can do for someone.

She has been a strategic leader on various boards and is an active member of the Chartered Institute of Housing, currently playing a key role in helping boost the housing sector’s profile with central Government as part of the National Housing Federation’s Political Positioning Group. She is also an East Midlands Chamber of Commerce board member.

Ian Skipp: Group Finance & Resources Director

Ian joined Futures from KPMG where he led the social housing practice in the Midlands. In addition to having specialist knowledge of social housing he has wide ranging commercial experience obtained from working with a range of organisations including multi-national plcs.

He is adept at putting in place and maintaining robust governance and risk management frameworks, achieving operating efficiencies, maximising income, developing corporate structures to meet strategic objectives as well as maintaining regulatory compliance.

He is a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and has extensive accounting and treasury management knowledge.

Ceri Theobald, Group Director of Strategic Partnerships & Growth

Ceri joined our Executive Team in 2020. He plays a leading role in delivering the ambitious growth plans set out in our new corporate plan with a particular focus on building strong partnerships. He is also responsible for strategic development, asset maximisation and investment and sits on the Board of Access Training. Ceri is also responsible for our communities, customer engagement and sustainability ambitions.

Ceri brings a breadth of experience from the private and public sectors with over 25 years’ experience and a broad range of strategic and operational skills. He joins Futures from Flagship Group where he has been Head of Partnerships & Business Development since 2016. Before that he worked as Operations Director with London-based One Housing Group and as Director of Business Improvement and Performance with Kier Group. He also sits on the Regional Board of the Chartered Institute of Housing and is a Regional Council Member with the CBI (Confederation of British Industry) and Chair of the Green Space Advisory Board.

Nicola Hope, Director of Business Transformation

Nicola has worked at Futures for eight years with six of those as Director of Business Change. Nicola oversees the delivery of organisational and culture change across the business and has responsibility for people, culture, strategic planning and all aspects of business change including transformations, projects, research and intelligence and change governance frameworks.

Having trained as a consultant with Deloitte, Nicola has worked across all sectors developing and implementing corporate strategies and has an understanding of what drives effective businesses.

Nicola has a psychology background complimented with a Masters degree in Adult Education and an MBA. She has a passion for developing and implementing models that can help people and organisations to understand leadership and culture change.

Nicola’s academic background and rigorous approach means that the programmes she develops are always underpinned by current thinking and up-to-date research.

Mike Stevenson: Group Chair

Mike has more than 30 years' commercial banking experience and 13 years as a Board member. He has specialised in the social housing, further and higher education, local government and large charity sectors. He has also worked as a senior member of the credit risk management team in a large commercial bank.

Ray Harding: Board Director and Chair of the Group Audit & Risk Committee

Ray is a Chartered Accountant with extensive managerial experience in diverse sectors and in many countries, he is also the trustee of a Tanzanian charity. He believes that housing is the most important area of public policy and hopes to contribute by giving an independent view to the Group’s governance.

David Brooks: Board Director

David has a commercial background predominantly in the food industry where he spent 20 years in senior executive roles. He has undertaken a range of non-executive activity since 2008 and on the 1 April 2021 was appointed to the Seafish Board.

He is currently on the Boards of the Food Standards Agency, the Publica Group, and an NHS out-of-hours service. He is also an advisor to two food businesses and now has significant experience of working with various Boards in various sectors.

His interests lie in delivering strong growth and change programmes using his general business and financial management experience.

Tim Slater: Board Director

Tim has held senior roles in both the public and private sector, particularly in IT leadership and programme management. He spent a year lecturing at the University of Derby’s Business School, and more recently gained a Master’s in Finance and Accounting at Nottingham Trent University. He is a Fellow of the British Computing Society, a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Higher Education Authority. He is also a Non-Executive Director at the UK Supreme Court.

Tim lives locally in the Belper area and is keen to contribute his experience and knowledge from outside the Social Housing sector to Futures Housing Group.

Mary Daunt, Board Director 

Appointed to the Board in May 2018, Mary is an experienced executive and non-executive director following 25 years in partnership as a real estate lawyer heading teams at law firms including Eversheds and Andersen Legal before becoming a consultant at Squire Patton Boggs.

Previous roles have included non-executive director and vice-chair of Birmingham Women’s NHS Foundation Trust, chief executive of Birmingham Forward and non-executive director of The Complete Works Limited.

Mary is also currently a non-executive director and trustee of Great Britain Wheelchair Rugby.

Lindsey Williams: Board Director

Lindsey sits on the Board in her capacity as Chief Executive of Futures Housing Group.

Ciara McMillan: Board Director and Chair of the Customer Insight Committee

Ciara has many years of experience working in the housing sector, most recently as an Account Director for Crimson supporting housing associations and local authorities to evolve, grow and digitalise using technology to enable transformational change.

Before this she worked for housing associations, leading neighbourhood management and community engagement services.

Sam Veal, Board Director, Chair of the Board of Futures Living Ltd and Chair of the Asset Investment Committee

Appointed to the Asset Investment Committee in 2020, Sam is a chartered surveyor with over 30 years experience in the field of development, asset management and new business working in both the profit for purpose and private sectors. An experienced organisational leader and property professional, Sam is Chief Executive of a regional regeneration specialist and has non-executive experience in special education, student accommodation partnerships and supported living. Sam is also a board member of Futures Living Ltd, the Group’s property development company.

Peter Burke, Board Director, member of the Board of Futures Living Ltd and member of the Asset Investment Committee

Peter is a NED for the Trafford Housing Trust, having previously worked as a commercial director for Bloor Homes in the South Midlands and before that, a number of other large well-known development companies. He is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Building and has worked with a range of housing associations for many years. He is keen to maintain his strategic involvement in contributing to solving the lack of affordable homes.

Laurice Ponting, Board Director

Laurice has significant experience of corporate and strategic leadership, property development and customer focused service delivery in the social housing sector having worked with large metropolitan councils, housing associations and commercial businesses. She also chairs and is trustee of a large national charity.”

Jackie Perry, Board Director and member of the Insight Committee

Jackie cares about delivering great services that make a real difference to people and places, with a strong commitment to ensuring the residents' voice matters and is truly embedded within an organisation's culture. She joined Futures as our first trainee board member in 2021 and was appointed to the Board and Insight Committee in 2023.

Jackie has 25 years’ experience in the social housing sector, more recently as the Executive Director - Customer Experience at Muir Group Housing Association where she leads on consumer regulation compliance, customer communications and engagement, customer experience, housing services and supported housing. She is a qualified housing professional, a member of the Chartered Institute of Housing, as well as a qualified Executive Coach and Mentor.

Pauline Davis, Senior Independent Director and Vice Chair

Pauline brings over 30 years’ experience in Housing, health, regeneration, and education, as well as a passion for place shaping and working with local communities. She retired from her role as Deputy Chief Executive and Corporate Direction of Economic Development and Regeneration at Hull City Council in 2014, having worked previously in Nottingham and Liverpool for the NHS and Local Government.

She has led multi-million-pound projects and programmes such as Housing Market Renewal, Building Schools for the Future and Economic Development.

Pauline is currently Independent Chair at Efficiency North Holdings Ltd, Vice Chair of The Riverside Housing Group (until October 2023) and Senior Independent Director at DHU NHS Ltd who provide NHS 111 and Urgent and Emergency Care across the East and West  Midlands.

Pauline holds a master’s degree in public health and is an Honorary Member of the Faculty of Public Health.

Jonathan Bemrose, Independent Member of the Group Audit & Risk committee

Jonathan is an experienced Board member with a financial background in healthcare and social care settings, including the NHS. He is currently Finance Director for a growing healthcare company, Pop, which runs GP practices and provides a range of community health services across Nottinghamshire. Previously he held roles as Chief Finance Officer of four statutory organisations with a total turnover of more than £1bn. 

Joshua Imuere, Trainee Board member

Joshua brings over 20 years experience in health and social care, across public and charity sectors. He has successfully led several charities to maturity and expansion of impact, as well as working and overseeing transformation programmes around mental health and domestic abuse. Initially trained as a teacher, he has a master's degree in educational policy and is a chartered management institute fellow. Currently he is Deputy Chief executive of a housing charity and is also a NED for the Northamptonshire Children’s Trust.

He lives locally and is committed to using his skills and experience strategically in providing affordable housing and particularly amplifying the voice and expertise of underrepresented groups.