John Keegan – Chief Executive
John has been the Chief Executive of MHA since we were established in January 2008. Over the past 10 years he has overseen MHA transform as a landlord and business and he expects that in the next 10 years we will transform again. He realises the importance of not losing sight of why we were set up and our mission; “To provide high quality homes and services that put people first.” He wants every existing and new tenant to feel that they are living in a home and community that we care for every bit as much as they do.
John wants MHA to be accessible, transparent and someone that people want to work with and for. He wants key partners to think “MHA are involved, that’s great, this is going to work” and wants our contractors to think – “they are great to work with, we will be better for it, they will help us succeed”. John wants everyone who comes in to contact with MHA to share in our success and help us to achieve even more.
Last but not least, John wants people to think that at MHA they have a trusted landlord and friend who is there to help when needed and who knows that the human spirit thrives in an environment where we work together for common goals.
Gwyndaf Tobias – Director of Resources & Deputy Chief Executive
Gwyndaf joined MHA in July 2020 as Director of Resources, having previously worked within the Higher Education, Health, Housing and Local Government sectors over the last 30 years. During that time he has held a number of senior management positions, and has operated at Director level for over 20 years. He is also a full member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy (CIPFA).
He is extremely passionate about housing and enjoy working for such an innovative and progressive housing association, whose values are rooted in enabling communities to realise their ambitions through transformational change, putting tenants and staff at the heart of its vision and objectives. His priorities within the role will include securing additional facilities to meet MHA’s exciting vision for growth and providing homes and services that meet our stakeholders’ expectations.
Michele Morgan – Director of Housing & Communities
Michele was appointed as the Director of Housing & Communities in November 2018, having previously worked for MHA since stock transfer. Her housing career spans 20 years having worked for the Local Authority prior to joining MHA. Michele is a Corporate Member of the Chartered Institute of Housing and holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Housing from Cardiff University. She has lived in Monmouthshire all her life so knows the County very well, she currently lives in Monmouth with her husband and teenage son.
Michele enjoys being a part of MHA’s journey to improve the housing stock and build new affordable homes for local people. As Director, she is responsible for ensuring that we deliver high quality homes and services to our tenants and this is something that she is incredibly passionate about. Working closely with our tenants and partners to continuously improve services, sustain tenancies and build communities is something the she takes a great deal of pride in.
Karen Tarbox – Director of Property Services
Karen joined MHA as the Director of Property Services in August 2015, having previously worked in various Local Authority Housing Services since 1999. She is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Housing and has an MSc in Public Administration and an MSc in Building Surveying. Karen has two adult children, who are just starting out on their working careers and family life, and who are both finding it hard to set up home… one is currently living with her sister, as her home is close to her daughter’s workplace and her daughter cannot afford to rent in the local area, and the other is in private rented accommodation, which is costing the proverbially “arm and a leg!”
Having been brought up in a Council owned home as a child, she values the importance of having access to affordable housing. In her role at MHA, Karen is fortunate to be able to focus on increasing the availability of new affordable homes through our new build development programme and ensuring that our existing homes are maintained to a high quality standard, through the provision of our repairs and planned maintenance services. Karen is particularly looking forward to seeing some of our new build schemes being completed this year as these will provide much needed additional family accommodation.
Tony Deakin – Chair
With over 25 years’ experience working in social housing, Tony has held a number of Executive and Non-Executive roles in both Wales and England. These have included roles with both stock transfer and traditional Registered Social Landlords as well as local authority housing departments.
Tony is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy and is a member of the Institute’s Housing Panel.
Dimitri Batrouni – Vice Chair
Councillor Dimitri Batrouni currently serves as a local representative for the Gaer and Maesglas ward in Newport and is also the Cabinet member for organisational transformation. He has a BSc in Computer Science, a Masters in International Relations and a PhD in Political Science from the University of Bristol. He previously worked in the computing industry before undertaking his Masters. Since then, he has worked in the UK Parliament for eight years, the Welsh Parliament for four years and was a lecturer in politics at the University of Bristol for four years. He is now a Senior Analyst for the Independent Monitoring Authority (IMA) attached to the Ministry of Justice set up to monitor Brexit and citizens’ rights. He grew up in Monmouthshire and is a passionate supporter of providing services and support to the people of Monmouthshire.
Colin Lewis
Colin was born in Trethomas. He studied sciences at university, obtaining a Joint Honours Degree in Chemistry and Biology, and a Masters in Chemistry. He is a Member of the Association of Project Management. Colin was Head of Business Change at Principality Building Society for 8 years. He left to set up the not for profit Tirion Group. Tirion Group has been created to deliver affordable homes, supported by the Welsh Government and Principality Building Society utilising a novel funding model.
Colin lives in Monmouth with his school teacher wife, and sometimes one or both of his grown up children. He is an active member of Monmouth Rowing Club, regularly taking part in races both in the U.K. and further afield.
Reg Kilpatrick
Reg began his career with British Airways as an aircraft engineer before studying for a degree in Behavioural Sciences. On graduating, he joined the Welsh Office as a statistician where he worked in a range of statistical posts. Following this he spent a number of years managing the NHS budget and health authority allocations before moving to culture, Welsh language and sport policy, sponsoring the National Museum of Wales and securing political and financial approval from the National Assembly to the Wales Millennium Centre. He also moved in to Local Government Policy Division where he led policy on local authorities.
In May 2011 he became Director of Local Government and Public Services where he is responsible for the local government funding regime and allocations; corporate support and improvement for councils; and the Government’s general reform programme. In addition he has oversight of policy and strategic direction of the fire service; emergency planning and civil contingencies, counter extremism strategies and community safety.
Cael Sendell-Price
Cael studied Law at Aberystwyth University followed by a Legal Practice Course at BPP Law School. In addition Cael completed an MSc in International Criminal Justice, with a thesis on public procurement fraud & corruption, and is now working on his Doctorate in the strategic value of public procurement.
Cael worked across local government for a number of years running complex multimillion pound procurement exercises across a range of categories. He was Head of Strategic Procurement, for one of the largest Councils in the UK supporting a procured annual budget of over £460 million. He now works as a management consultant advising high profile public and private clients on procurement and supply chain transformation programmes.
Cael is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply and in 2020 won the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply’s Excellence Award for Young talent. He also volunteers as a Magistrate dealing with criminal cases.
John Miller
John worked overseas for approximately 20 years. During this time holding several senior executive positions including CEO of PET–ICT, one of Malaysia’s largest ICT companies. John was also the Group CIO for Petronas, Malaysia’s state owned oil and gas company which at the time was a Fortune 100 company.
Prior to working in Malaysia, John was based in Australia for 12 years. John has an extensive ICT career spanning multiple industries including pharmaceutical, education, software development, consulting engineering and Oil & Gas. He is a strategist and has been described as a transformational leader, understanding the requirements for successful execution. He has a ‘can do’, pragmatic and positive approach when dealing with the business challenges that today’s uncertain environment present and encourages his organisation to continually adapt to the changing business needs.
Nicola Tindale
Nicola is delighted to be joining the board of MHA in September 2023.
Nicola is a very experienced property professional having jointly set up, and been an executive director of, a property development company for over 27 years. Her particular experience is of residential development, seeking to create architecturally excellent homes and quality environments.
Nicola is passionate about building environments that create community and homes that can foster lives.
Nicola is a member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. She has three adult children and so knows only too well the struggle to afford rents and the clear need for affordable homes.
Alan Soper
Alan has a BSc in Mathematics and has held a plethora of senior positions across the transport, waste, facilities management and property management sectors. His last posting as Managing Director of Ian Williams Ltd. Alan was also a sponsor for Shelter and Diocese of Worcester Multi-Agency Trust, Bishop Anthony Educational Trust, Chairman of the Community Shop and latterly with Teign Housing Association as Board Director and Chair of the Audit Committee.
