Our Board
Lord Austin
Chair, Non-executive memberLord Austin joins as chair having previously served as Housing Minister for the West Midlands and MP for Dudley North. Lord Austin has returned to his roots, having previously worked for Focus Housing, one of the organisations that merged to create Midland Heart in 2006. Lord Austin also spent six years working at the Treasury as an adviser to Chancellor Gordon Brown.
Glenn Harris MBE
Chief ExecutiveGlenn has been Chief Executive of Midland Heart since March 2018. Prior to this he was our Executive Director of Corporate Services, responsible for Strategy, Finance, HR and IT.
Abigaile Bromfield
Non-executive memberAbigaile Bromfield is an expert in urban planning strategy and growth, and currently serves as Strategic Director for the Midlands UK Cities, Planning and Design teams at Arup, a global consultancy dedicated to sustainable development.
Llewellyn Graham
Non-executive memberLlewellyn has more than 30 years experience in the voluntary, social housing and not-for-profit sectors, with a particular focus on serving multicultural communities. He is Chief Executive Officer of Nehemiah United Churches Housing Association.
Dasos Christou
Non-executive memberDasos Christou is currently Executive Director (Customer Relations) for Silva Homes, a housing association providing affordable homes to over 14,000 customers across South East England.
Dominic Wong
Non-executive memberDominic joined Deloitte LLP in 1991 and spent 28 years there, transforming it into an innovative and highly profitable market leader. In 2019, he left Deloitte to set up Lamp-post Associates Limited, which provides turnaround and restructuring advice to its clients. Dominic is a chartered accountant and a licensed insolvency practitioner.
Louise McFadzean
Non-executive memberLouise is an experienced and successful Chartered Accountant who has worked in a range of business sectors (Food and Travel Retail, Manufacturing and Public Sector Organisations) as a senior finance professional for over 25 years.
Pamela Leonce
Non-executive memberPamela Leonce is the Founder and CEO of Stowhill Careers, specialising in business consultancy and executive career coaching. Pamela is also Chair of Inquilab Housing Association, Board Member of Sovereign Housing Association and Local Space, and Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Advisor to Saxton Bampfylde.
Baljinder Kang
Executive memberBal joined us in 2014 and has nearly 25 years of people management experience gained across the private, NHS, charitable and not for profit sectors.
Joe Reeves
Executive memberJoe joined us in July 2013 following 15 years at PwC in public sector audit and advisory and the Corporate Finance Infrastructure and Government teams.
David Taylor
Executive memberDavid joined us in 2009 as Head of Housing and became a member of the Executive Team in 2015. He has strategic responsibility for all of our front line services.
Midland Heart is committed to the principles of good corporate governance and to high standards of business integrity, ethics and professionalism across all of its activities. Our Code of Conduct sets out the values we expect our staff to adopt in carrying out Midland Heart’s business.
Midland Heart has adopted the National Housing Federation’s (NHF) Code of Governance as the code against which it measures the effectiveness of its governance practices, so as to provide governance assurance to stakeholders.
The NHF Code (which can be read here) contains a broad range of governance measures for the Board to address in relation to such matters as:
- Constitution and Composition of the Board
- Essential Functions of the Board and Chair
- Board Skills, Renewal and Review
- Conduct of the Board and Committee Business
- The Chief Executive
- Audit and Risk
- Conduct, Probity and Openness
The Board has reviewed its compliance with the Code and confirms it complies with all of the provisions.
For more on Midland Heart's governance structure, browse the menu below
Our operations are organised into three core areas:
• Housing Management, which manages social housing
• Retirement Living and Supported Housing
• Commercial Operations, which includes private rental properties.
All receive a full range of services, from asset management and property development, to IT, finance, HR, business development, communications, procurement and legal services.
Company Structure – as at 28 February 2017
Midland Heart Ltd is the parent company.
It owns all social housing assets, is the employer of all staff and has five subsidiaries:
- Cygnet Property Management plc - has 115 properties for market rent and access to its own funding sources.
- Midland Heart Development Ltd - provides construction related services.
- Midland Heart Capital plc - issues capital market bonds on behalf of and to raise finance for Midland Heart.
- Prime Focus Regeneration Group - provides Head Office accommodation for Midland Heart.
- Prime Focus Finance Ltd - a special purpose borrowing vehicle holding one loan for the benefit of Midland Heart Group.
The Board has responsibility for the overall management and performance of the Group, its overall strategy and planning, including strategic objectives, financial viability, internal controls and risk management. The Board has delegated day to day management of the Group to the Executive Team.
The Board delegates specific responsibilities to a number of Committees of the Board under Terms of Reference approved by the Board.
As at 31 March 2017, there were ten board members, of whom nine are non-executives and one is an executive officer. Recruitment to the Board takes place as appropriate to maintain orderly succession to the Board and an appropriate mix of skills and experience. Induction and development programmes are provided to all Board Members.
Collectively, Board Members bring a wide range of experience and expertise to the business of governing Midland Heart. Executive Directors attend all Board meetings and members are provided with appropriate papers and information in advance of all Board and Committee meetings.
During 2015, the Board commissioned an in depth independent review of the effectiveness of its governance which was delivered by Deloitte. Deloitte looked at the effectiveness of both the Board and the overall governance system within Midland Heart and concluded that:
- The Board is led by a strong leadership team and is comprised of high calibre individuals who bring a range of skills and experience that are well matched to the organisation’s strategy, risk and opportunities.
- The Board demonstrates many of the features of a highly effective Board and is delivering on its governance responsibilities
As part of our Fit for the Future Corporate Plan the Board commissioned PWC in 2016 to advise on whether any changes are required to board composition and governance structures to optimise the governance of the business in the period to 2020. A number of changes were recommended by PWC which the Board has agreed to make during 2017, as follows:
- Appointment of new non-executive directors to Midland Heart board, to replace members retiring from the board during 2017.
- Appointment of two additional executive members to the Board.
- Governance and Search Committee will cease to operate, with the responsibilities being reallocated to Board, Audit and Risk Committee and the newly formed Operations Committee.
