Anchor Board

Christopher Kemball

Independent Non-Executive Chair of the Board, Chair of the Nominations Committee and a member of the Remuneration Committee.

Christopher joined the Anchor Board in 2019. He is currently Chair of St. Elizabeth's Centre, an independent charitable trust which supports vulnerable children, young people and adults with epilepsy and other complex medical conditions and Non-Executive Director and founder shareholder of Wren Investment Office Limited, a multi-family office wealth adviser. He is also a Trustee of St. Joseph's Society, a charity which owns and manages 31 almshouses in West London

He has served as a non-executive director on the boards of, and chaired, several publicly listed and private equity owned companies in the financial, business services and healthcare sectors. Prior to that he worked in the United States and Europe as a senior M&A and corporate finance advisor.

Christopher served with the British Army for seven years after graduating from Cambridge University with a BA Hons in Law.

 

Elizabeth Froude

Independent Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Asset Investment & Development Committee.

Elizabeth joined the Anchor Board in September 2023. She is currently Group Chief Executive at Platform Housing Group, one of the largest associations in the Midlands. Elizabeth has been involved in the housing sector for almost 20 years having worked for large and complex organisations in several geographical areas of England. 

Prior to working in housing she worked for several large FTSE organisations both in the UK, USA and across Europe in roles particularly focussed in change and performance improvement, often in M&A environments. Elizabeth was previously a Board member and Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee of Settle Housing Group and stepped down from this position in August 2024 after six years.

Elizabeth is a strong supporter of the sustainability agenda for the sector and is the Chair of National Housing Federation Sustainability Strategy Group and is also a member of the Board of the Future Homes Hub, which undertake research to support policy development on future housing standards in the new build environment. Elizabeth steps down from Settle Housing Group after six years as a Board member and Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee in August 2024.

 

Nicola Bruce

Senior Independent Director, Chair of the Remuneration and a member of the Nominations Committee and Asset Investment & Development Committee.

Nicola is currently a Non-Executive Director and Remuneration Committee Chair at Stelrad plc, MJ Gleeson plc and Ibstock plc. She is also a Non- Executive Director for OFWAT, the economic regulator for the water sector in England and Wales.

Nicola was previously a Partner at the strategy consultancy Monitor Group. Prior to this she worked as an economist for Coopers & Lybrand, leading economic development and regeneration strategies for UK regions and was subsequently Group Director of Strategy at De La Rue plc. She is a Chartered Management Accountant. 

Nicola has an MA (PPE) from Oxford University and an MBA from INSEAD. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.

 

Mike Green

Independent Non-Executive Director, Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee and a member of the Services Quality Committee.

Mike currently has other non-executive roles with the Government Legal Department, where he chairs the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee and is a Trustee and the Honorary Treasurer of the Royal Television Society.

Mike was a Senior Manager at KPMG during his 11 years’ service and then spent 20 years in commercial television, his last role being Deputy Group Finance Director at ITV plc. He also represented ITV on the Boards of ITN and TV3 and for an international joint venture involved in cinema advertising.

He was previously a non-executive director and chair of the Audit Committee of Southend University Hospital (NHS Foundation Trust) and also of Metropolitan (Housing Association) where he was chair of the Audit and Risk Committee.

Mike is a graduate of the London School of Economics and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

 

Denise Peart

Independent Non-Executive Director and a member of the Nominations, Remuneration and Service Quality Committees.

Denise brings over 25 years’ business experience and knowledge gained in senior leadership positions including Chief Talent and Diversity Officer at Sky and Global Talent Director at The Coca-Cola Company based in Atlanta, GA. In addition, she has worked at the helm of the HR functions for high-profile, consumer facing organisations undergoing significant change, such as Tesco, GE, BP and M&S.

Denise is skilled at creating and implementing commercial HR strategies that build organisational capability to deliver strategy, sustainable shareholder value and competitive advantage. She also has extensive experience of creating and embedding innovative people practices.

Denise holds a MA in Human Resource Management, BA(Hons) in English Literature and Philosophy, and is a fellow of the CIPD.

 

Katy Taylor

Independent Non-Executive Director, Chair of the Service Quality Committee and a member of the Audit and Risk Committee.

Katy became the Chief Executive Officer of Wightlink in August 2024 having previously been Chief Customer Officer of Southern Water since 2021. Before this she was Chief Strategy and Customer Officer at Go-Ahead, the FTSE 250 international passenger transport business. She is also a Board Governor at Kingston University, and Advisory Board member at micro-giving charity Pennies.  She is a founding member of the Business in the Community Place initiative.

Katy has held director-level roles in financial services, media and professional services including Kroll, VTB Bank and IG Group, focussing on digital retailing, reputation, marketing and customer experience.

 

Peter Truscott

Independent Non-Executive Director,  a member of the Asset Investment & Development Committee and the Audit and Risk Committee.

Peter is a director of Artillery Mansions Estate Management Company Limited and was Group Chief Executive of Crest Nicholson until June 2024. 

Peter was formerly Group Chief Executive of Galliford Try plc and also worked at Taylor Wimpey plc for over 30 years where he was Divisional Chair for 11 years and was responsible for the Spanish business and served as a member of the Executive Committee. Peter also previously worked for CALA Homes as Area Land Director, South.

 

Fred Angole

Independent Non-Executive Director and a member of the Audit and Risk Committee and the Asset Investment & Development Committee.

Fred joined Anchor as a Board member in September 2023. He is currently a non-executive board member and Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee at Notting Hill Genesis Housing Association. He is also Finance Director and Deputy Chief Executive of YMCA St. Paul’s Group, a supported housing provider that specialises in providing accommodation and wellbeing services to vulnerable young Londoners.

He was previously Director of Corporate Services at Homes for Haringey and a trustee of Black Cultural Archives.

Fred is a qualified accountant with over 30 years’ experience in the social housing sector, as a regulator, finance executive and non-executive director. He is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and has an MSc in Finance and Investment.

 

Lyn Romeo CBE

Independent Non-Executive Director and a member of the Service Quality Committee.

Lyn joined the Anchor Board in August 2024.

Lyn is a registered social worker with over 46 years of social work practice experience both as a front-line social worker and at various management levels in organisations delivering social work, social care, housing and health services and as a Social Services Inspector with the Social Services Inspectorate, now replaced by CQC.

She was appointed as the first ever Chief Social Worker for Adults in England, working at the heart of government to raise the visibility and the vital role that social work and care plays in improving people's lives and ensuring that social work practice continued to improve at all levels.

She has extensive senior leadership experience at operational and strategic levels across a broad range of social care services. She has a proven track record of delivering positive results for the organisations for which she has worked, both in Yorkshire and London. Her key skills include driving performance improvement and quality assurance through all levels of service, service review and modernisation, delivering significant efficiencies through service remodelling and ensuring that people experience social care are at the centre of shaping and improving services to deliver the best outcomes.  

Lyn has a Bachelor of Social Work degree, a Master of Business Administration Degree (Health and Social Services) and two Doctor of Letters Honoris Causa (The Manchester Metropolitan University and Middlesex University). She was also awarded a CBE for her services to social work.

 

 

Amanda Holgate

Interim Chief Executive (CEO) and Chief Financial Officer (CFO)

Amanda joined Anchor in February 2023 and joined the Anchor Board in May 2023. 

As CFO, she is accountable for ensuring that Anchor is a financially sustainable organisation with the resources needed to meet its commitments to existing customers, deliver value for money to all stakeholders, to finance the development of new services and manage risk. 

Amanda has worked in the housing sector for ten years, first as Deputy Finance Director at Family Mosaic and then as Director, Finance Services at Peabody. Prior to joining Anchor she was CFO of Southern Housing Group. Amanda also has more than 20 years’ financial and commercial experience in a range of sectors including financial services, technology and retail asset management. 

Amanda is a Board Trustee and the Chair of Audit and Risk Committee at Centrepoint, a youth homelessness charity. 

Amanda is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.