Board and executive

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.

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 2019. She is now a Non-Executive Director of a small number of organisations, including The Enforcement Conduct Board and is Chair of professional dance company Ballet Black.

Althea was awarded a CBE in the 2016 Birthday Honours.

Ian was Metropolitan’s Executive Director of Finance. He joined the organisation in 2015 and became a member of its Board the following year.

Ian has 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 $2bn 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.

Ingrid joined the Board in August 2018 and 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 the retail, telecommunications and the hospitality sectors. 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 property maintenance and development. His housing association background includes time at The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Notting Hill Housing and Places for People.  More recently, 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 Development Director of Lifestyle by Engie, focussing on housing solutions for people of all ages.

Nigel is currently Head of Housing Delivery at the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority. He is also an independent judge for NHBC Pride in the Job awards and a commercial director at Anchorwood Limited – a small private house building subsidiary of North Devon Homes – a local Registered Provider in the Southwest.  Nigel has recently been appointed as a Non-executive director of 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 is a Committee Member of the Migration Foundation and he 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.  He is Honorary Treasurer of both Barnardos and the London Playing Fields Foundation; and is 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 London and Quadrant Housing Trust.

Trevor has been a non-executive director of The Leasehold Advisory Service, a member of the Advisory Board of Zoopla, recently served on the All-Party Parliamentary Committee Inquiry “Rental Housing for an Aged Population” and 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.

Gary Admans joined the Board in June 2022 having previously been an Independent Member of the Treasury Committee from April 2021. 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 Head of Capital Markets. 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, a steering Committee Member of the International Capital Markets Association’s Corporate Issuers Forum and has recently been part of the Bank of England’s RfR Bond working group on the discontinuation of LIBOR.

Geeta is Chief Executive of Metropolitan Thames Valley. Across a career of nearly 35 years she has held a variety of leadership roles in the housing sector. She joined Metropolitan as Chief Executive in October 2017, and previously led Thames Valley Housing as Chief Executive for over nine years.  She has overseen the establishment of a successful market rent subsidiary, Fizzy Living, and several Joint ventures including with Vistry, Countryside and Legal and General.

Geeta is a board member of the National Housing Federation and a director of PRS REIT PLC. Geeta has served on the Boards of a number of other housing organisations and charities as well as McCarthy and Stone PLC, and has been involved in a number of housing commissions, most recently being appointed to the older people taskforce.  She has been invited to join Prince William’s panel of experts – ‘Homewards’ – to tackle homelessness. She is also an ambassador for the charity World Child Cancer. In 2013, Geeta was awarded an OBE for achievements in social housing.