Board and executive

Mel is Chief Executive of MTVH.

Mel has extensive experience in local government, housing and regeneration. Prior to joining MTVH Mel was Chief Executive at Nottingham City Council where he provided leadership to the council’s 6,000 staff delivering vital public services on behalf of one of the UK’s Core Cities, securing economic growth and improving life chances.  He also collaborated with others to rapidly deliver the East Midlands devolution deal and oversaw the elections for the first-ever East Midlands regional mayor.

Mel has a successful track record in managing large-scale customer-facing services, organisational change and transformation initiatives, and working in partnership to deliver large-scale regeneration and development projects.

From 2015 to 2020 Mel was Chief Executive of Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council where he guided officers and elected members during the conclusion of a £1.2bn Joint Venture for the 3,500 home first phase of Manydown, a new Garden Community.

Mel holds a BSc (Hons) in Land Management, an MBA from City University Business School, London and is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

He is a Trustee of the Whitehall & Industry Group, a charity focused on collaborative senior-level leadership development across the public, private and voluntary sectors, and was previously a Commissioner on the Commission for Creating Healthy Cities established by Kellogg College, University of Oxford, in partnership with The Prince’s Foundation.

Althea Efunshile CBE has had a 40-year public sector career, during which she has gained extensive senior leadership experience in education, children’s services and culture. She has worked at both local and national levels of government and is familiar with large, complex and regulated organisations.

She has been Deputy Chief Executive at Arts Council England; a Senior Civil Servant within the Department of Education, employed in a number of director-level roles all aimed at improving outcomes for disadvantaged and socially excluded children; Executive Director for Education & Culture at the London Borough of Lewisham; and Assistant Director of Education at the London Borough of Merton.

Althea stepped down from a full-time executive career in 2016 and since then, has held various Non-Executive Director positions across the fields of Health, Further Education, Higher Education and Broadcasting. She is now a Non-Executive Director of The Enforcement Conduct Board and Chair of professional dance company Ballet Black.
Althea was awarded a CBE in the 2016 Birthday Honours

Ian joined MTVH in 2015 and became a member of its Board in 2016.

Ian spent most of his professional career in the development and contracting sectors, with more than a decade’s experience at board level. He has raised capital, completed re-banking exercises and conducted a business turnaround. He has also led a number of change projects, including merging two $2 billion US homebuilding businesses and a finance transformation project for National Grid.

Ian has worked in the USA, India and South Korea for extended periods. He is a chartered accountant and an ex-Royal Navy submarine officer.

Ian is a Director of Qualis Group Limited.

Development Committee Chair, Remuneration & Nominations Committee Chair, Senior Independent Director, Migration Foundation Chair.

Ingrid brings extensive experience of the housing sector and residential development. She worked at Savills for 15 years in the affordable housing division where she led a business unit, and is retained as a senior consultant, specialising in strategic advice on housing development, funding and delivery of affordable housing and estate regeneration. Whilst at Savills she has advised a wide variety of clients in the public and private sectors on residential development strategy and delivery, mainly regarding private/public partnerships, mixed tenure schemes, affordable housing development and funding.

Her career spans more than 40 years working for housing associations at senior executive level, running major development programmes at Notting Hill Housing Trust, Circle 33 Housing Trust and Acton Housing Association, and more recently as a development and housing consultant

Gurpreet Gujral has spent over two decades in global customer service roles across healthcare, retail, telecommunications, and the hospitality sector. Gurpreet is currently Business Services Director at Nuffield Health. Gurpreet’s skills and experience match our Board’s aspiration to refine MTVH’s digital customer service.

Prior to Nuffield Health he worked for Cazoo, IKEA and THREE. At IKEA and THREE, he oversaw delivery and transformation of customer services across various channels and digitalised the customer experience. During his time there, both organisations won several industry and customer awards.

Davinder Dhillon brings strong financial expertise to the Board, with significant experience in advising organisations on strategic and capital-raising opportunities. He is also passionate about sustainability and social impact and in his consulting career advises clients on their sustainability and social strategies. At MTVH he is the Board champion for sustainability.

He spent the first decade of his career as an investment banker at a number of city institutions. His principal focus during that time was on advising corporate and financial institution clients about debt and equity market solutions, and mergers and acquisitions. Now, as a strategy consultant he advises leading financial institutions and corporations globally on sustainability and their broader strategic agendas.

Nigel Ingram brings broad experience in strategic asset management, property maintenance and newbuild development. His housing association background includes time at The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Notting Hill Housing and Places for People.  He was a founding director of Aurora Estates – which specialises in the planning and preparation associated with large-scale residential and care-led schemes and was Development Director of Lifestyle by Engie, focussing on housing solutions for Later Living.

Nigel was recently Head of Housing Delivery at the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority and is now Head of Development at BCHA- a supported housing and general needs HA in Dorset & Devon. Nigel is also an independent judge for NHBC Pride in the Job awards. Nigel’s other Non-executive appointments include the Progress Housing Group and its commercial housebuilding subsidiary, Concert Living Ltd.

Ofei Kwafo-Akoto is a senior lawyer with broad corporate experience, as well as more specific real estate experience in acquisitions, disposals, development and asset management. He is currently Head of Legal at GLP Capital Partners, an investment manager. Prior to this, Ofei worked as a corporate lawyer in the City where he advised private equity houses, and real estate and sovereign wealth funds.

Ofei was a founding Committee Member of the Black Solicitors Network’s Junior Lawyers Group, which provides support and guidance for black junior lawyers, promoting increased diversity within the UK legal sector. Ofei also serves as a trustee of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.

Dennis Hone has spent over 30 years working in urban regeneration and retired as Group Finance Director of Mace, the construction and consultancy company, in 2020. He was previously Chief Executive of the London Legacy Development Corporation and the 2012 Olympic Delivery Authority, having previously held senior positions for English Partnerships and the Commission for New Towns.

In June 2013 he was awarded a CBE for his contribution to the London Olympic Games. Dennis is also chair of the Finance and Resources Committee and a Council member of Roehampton University.

Trevor Moross has been in the property industry for over 40 years, all of that time as an executive of Dorrington, a private residential and commercial property company. He continues his association with Dorrington as Non- Executive Director of its parent company, Hanover Acceptances Limited. Trevor is a Non-Executive Director of M&G UK Shared Ownership Limited. He is a Fellow of The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and a Past President of The British Property Federation.  He has served on the board of several housing associations including Circle 33, The Dolphin Square Foundation and L&Q.

Trevor has been a non-executive director of The Leasehold Advisory Service, a member of the Advisory Board of Zoopla, and served on the All-Party Parliamentary Committee Inquiry “Rental Housing for an Aged Population” He has chaired Salusbury World, a London refugee support charity.  Trevor is a Trustee of English Touring Opera and is a member of the International Advisory Board of the renowned orchestra – The Academy of St Martin in the Fields.

Helen has over 40 years’ experience in housing and regeneration at chief executive and senior director level as well as being a published author in housing policy. She has served on the boards of several housing, health and regeneration organisations. She was Vice Chair of Gateway Housing in London and Chair of Yarlington Housing Association now part of the Abri Group, which operates across the southwest.

As a consultant she undertook a wide range of projects including those around the development and management of high-density housing, preventing and tackling homelessness and community investment by housing associations, gaining a national reputation in these fields.

Helen is the Member Responsible for Complaints within the Ombudsman Code.

Gary Admans joined the Board having previously been an Independent Member of the Treasury Committee. He has worked in the financial markets for more than 30 years, firstly in the banking sector and for the last 26 years with BP p.l.c. where he is currently the Vice President, Capital Markets and Banking Relations. He has gained strong experience and knowledge of the key issues impacting a treasury function ranging from liquidity, funding, risk management and engaging with debt investors and rating agencies.

Gary is a member of the Financial Conduct Authority’s Listing Authority Advisory Panel and a steering Committee Member of the International Capital Markets Association’s Corporate Issuers Forum. Gary is also the Trustee Treasurer for The Autism Group, a Maidenhead based charity committed to supporting and enhancing the lives of young autistic people, their parents and their carers.