Our Board has overall responsibility for Fairhive Homes and must act in its best interest. It's role is to determine our vision and strategy, as well as to direct and scrutinise our activities. The Board, made up of residents, councillors and independent members, is also responsible for ensuring the financial well-being of the organisation, by ensuring that it's managed efficiently and effectively.
Scroll down to read more about our Board Members.
Parent Board Members - Fairhive Homes Limited
Chair - Peter Hughes
Vice Chair - Susan Ralphs
Sue Fogden, Matt McGeehan, Jesse Fajemisin, Julie Layton, Sanchia Neilson, Paula Heatley, Kate Bishop, Chris Cheeseman
Council nominees -
Cllr Matthew Walsh, Cllr Frank Mahon
Subsidiary Board Members
Matthew Applegate, Julie Porter, Izabela Falinska
Co-optee Committee Members
Charles Brooks - Audit & Risk Committee, Peter Merchant - Development & Assets Committee
Peter Hughes - Chair, Independent
Peter Hughes is a seasoned senior leader with over four decades of experience in banking, housing, and the third sector. He led the Principality Building Society Commercial Team for 20 years, driving financial performance and social impact, particularly in affordable housing. His leadership has earned recognition such as Wales Insider Property Personality of the Year 2020, and he is widely respected for his strategic insight and commitment to inclusive team development. Peter is also known for his external engagement across public and private sectors, including media and stakeholder relations.
As Chair of the Fairhive Board, Peter brings deep governance expertise and a collaborative approach. He was recently heavily involved with the merger of RHA Wales and Coastal Housing - ensuring the resulting creation of Beacon Cymru Group focused on improving service delivery for tenants, more investment in their homes alongside added financial resilience and opportunities for colleagues. He also serves as a non-executive director at Igneous Limited and Penhurst Properties, offering commercial and governance counsel. A Welsh speaker and active community participant, Peter is passionate about delivering positive outcomes for tenants and stakeholders.
Susan Ralphs - Vice Chair, Independent, and Subsidiary Director
Sue was appointed to the Board in April 2019 and brings to it a wealth of experience of managing teams, working with boards and driving strategic change, as well as commercial property development. She is a Chartered Accountant and has been in senior management for 25 years. She worked initially in Oxfam then as Finance Director at the women’s organisation and housing association, YWCA, for 10 years. She then joined Ethical Property, one of the UK’s leading social businesses, where she was firstly Finance Director then Managing Director for eight years. Sue currently lives in Oxford working as a consultant, a coach and she is a Non-Executive Director (NED) on other boards.
Sue Fogden - Independent
Sue was appointed to the Board in January 2022. A Chartered Surveyor with a wealth of experience in both private and public sectors, with the majority of her career closely involved in health. Directly and as an independent consultant, she has worked for a range of NHS health providers and commissioners.
Sue takes a systems approach to the leadership and delivery of her numerous, complex health infrastructure projects, engaging from board level to end-users. Navigating through tiers of bureaucracy to achieve much-needed improved infrastructure, she ensures buildings are enablers for and not barriers to good outcomes.
As well as being a surveyor, Sue is a Law graduate and a Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Evaluative Mediator. Through Fairhive she is fulfilling an ambition to be involved in social housing, because of the interdependencies of safe, good, quality housing and health equalities. She sits on the Development and Asset and Audit and Risk Committees and has met residents through the Board, the Residents Forum and during the creation of the new Corporate Strategy. Sue now looks forward to supporting the implementation of the Corporate Strategy and is rewarded both collectively and individually in her role.
Jesse Fajemisin - Independent
Jesse has many years’ experience working in the housing sector, in both larger and smaller providers, and over 6 years’ working at Executive level across all housing operations.
This has included leading on multiple successful Customer Service Excellence accreditations in the housing context, and sharing best practice nationally for health and safety performance transformations.
He has been Chair of the National Housing Federation’s Small Housing Association Network, representing providers nationally in forums with the Regulator and Housing Ombudsman.
He has existing Board Member experience, which has included being Vice-Chair of an Audit, Risk and Committee.
Julie Layton — Independent
Julie is a qualified accountant and a member of the Chartered Institute of Housing. She has extensive experience in the social housing sector and is currently Chief Executive at Advance, where she has strived to ensure the provision of good quality housing solutions and services that are tailored to the needs of individuals.
Julie is also Board Member of the Association of Mental Health Providers.
She is a strategic, visionary leader who is passionate about improving the lives of vulnerable people and believes the non-profit sector has a big part to play in delivering change. Her philosophy is to embed a collaborative and open culture within organisations that inspires and empowers people to perform well.
In her Chief Executive role Julie has proactively worked with customer groups to ensure they have flexible and meaningful ways to contribute to the strategic direction of the organisation and particularly to the way in which their services are delivered. She is keen to understand and engage with customers at Fairhive.
Matt McGeehan - Independent
Matt is a retired chartered accountant, who worked with international accounting firms in the UK and abroad. Followed by a career as a finance professional in industry.
Sanchia Neilson - Independent
Sanchia has spent 20 years working with data and tech across some of the world's best-known brands, including Samsung, The White Company, Monzo, GSK and Under Armour, most recently leading a team of 80 as Head of Data at Digitas, Publicis Groupe. She holds a maths degree from Cambridge and an MSc in Digital Marketing, and combines deep technical grounding with senior leadership experience. She is now Co-Founder of Data Everyday, delivering data fluency training to help people engage with data confidently.
Sanchia cares deeply about who gets a seat at the table. She is Vice Chair of Generation Success, working to open doors for underrepresented young people entering the workforce, and a Governor at Ronald Ross Primary School, an Ofsted Outstanding school with a high proportion of EAL and free school meals pupils. She co-chaired the Digitas DE&I board and sat on the Board of VivaWomen at Publicis, where she campaigned for and implemented women's policies including menopause, pregnancy loss, and improved maternity and return-to-work support.
Paula Heatley - Independent
Paula Heatley is an experienced housing and development leader with a strong track record in strategic growth, governance, building safety, and asset management. As Director of Development & Sales at Platform Housing Group, she leads a £750m+ development programme delivering around 1,600 new homes annually, while providing strategic oversight of risk, quality, compliance, and customer outcomes.
Alongside her executive career, Paula has served on various boards, most recently serving as Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Audit & Risk Committee at Building a Safer Future. She is recognised for her expertise in development, asset stewardship, regulatory compliance, and post-Grenfell building safety reform.
A values-driven leader, Paula is passionate about delivering safe, sustainable, high-quality homes and ensuring resident needs remain at the heart of decision-making. She combines strategic insight, commercial acumen, and strong governance experience with a commitment to creating lasting social impact and thriving communities.
Matthew Walsh — Council Board Member
Matthew is a dedicated public servant with extensive experience across Parliament, local government, fire governance, and civic leadership. He currently serves as Chief of Staff to Greg Smith MP and is the elected representative for Princes Risborough on Buckinghamshire Council, where he chairs the Audit and Governance Committee. Matthew also leads on finance and assets for the Buckinghamshire Fire Authority and has twice served as Town Mayor of Princes Risborough. His leadership has been recognised with several awards, including NALC Councillor of the Year and a Paul Harris Fellowship from Rotary. He is passionate about community engagement, public finance, and voluntary sector development.
Frank Mahon - Council Board Member
Frank brings a wealth of experience from the hospitality sector, having successfully run pubs in Buckinghamshire for over a decade. His focus on community engagement and team development has been central to his approach, fostering strong local ties and delivering a high-quality service. Alongside his professional career, Frank has served as a Parish Councillor since 2016, including six years as Chairman, and is currently a Buckinghamshire Councillor. He sits on several committees including Planning, Children & Education, and Standards & General Purposes, and chairs the North Bucks Community Board. Frank is also a presenter on 3Bs radio, reflecting his passion for local community initiatives.
Kate Bishop - Chair of the Remuneration and Selection Committee
Kate is an experienced Human Resources (HR) leader and executive with over 35 years’ experience in global Human Resources. She has served as Chief Human Resources Officer for multiple global organisations prior to founding her own HR consultancy, and brings extensive expertise in leadership, strategy formation, and corporate governance.
Having started her career as a technologist, Kate has held senior leadership roles across a range of sectors, including technology, education, financial services, and supply chain, working with diverse organisations such as IFS, FNZ, Pearson, Ceva Logistics, Dell Technologies, and Nortel. Her international career included living and working in multiple countries with extensive global travel.
Kate serves as a Non-Executive Director for Plane Saver Credit Union and was previously a Trustee for the Pearson Pension Plan and Involve Community Services. She holds an Executive MBA, is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (FCIPD), and is a Freeman of both the City of London and The Company of HR Professionals.
Chris Cheeseman - Chair of the Development & Assets Committee
Chris has been involved in affordable housing for well over 40 years having worked at several housing associations and as a consultant. In a non Executive capacity he chaired Golding Homes for seven years working with the Executive team and Board to secure C1 G1 rating. Chris's particular interests in housing combine development and low cost home ownership specialisms, together with working with employees to ensure that these opportunities offer wider benefits in the communities in which homes are provided. Outside of work Chris is a keen sports and music fan.
Peter Merchant - Co-optee Member of the Development & Assets Committee
Peter is a Chartered Surveyor, who has worked in the property industry for over 25 years. He is currently employed as an Investment Director for a real estate Investment Manager.
His experience spans both residential and commercial property investment and development working to deliver public and private finance to bring forward property lead housing, health and social investment. He has delivered health care accommodation for NHS primary care providers whilst working for General Practice Investments, Lead Development and Investment programs for a number of housing associations and at Savills provided viability valuation and consultancy services for a broad range of clients.
He was a board member of Buckinghamshire Housing Association from 2021 until it's merger with Fairhive in 2023. He has lived in the Aylesbury vale for over 13 years and has spent most of his life living and working around the Aylesbury area.
Charles Brooks - Co-optee Member of the Audit & Risk Committee
Charles is the Consulting Director and founding partner which formed 3C Consultants in 2015. 3C is now the largest independent consultancy practice operating in the housing sector and since 2018 have also been operating in the charity sector.
Charles is highly motivated with over thirty years work experience to more than one hundred different organisations. Charles has considerable experience in acting as a critical friend to boards and executive teams, providing strategic direction and guidance for target operating models, digital transformation, and mergers and acquisitions to ensure successful delivery and benefits realisation.
Charles has completed the London Marathon nine times raising over £70k for Leukaemia charities and hoping to complete his tenth in April 2023.
