Terrie Alafat CBE Chair of Trustees Expand Terrie retired in 2019 as the chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH), the independent voice for housing and the home of professional standards and was appointed as Chair of Trustees for Hestia in December 2018. Before joining CIH in 2015 Terrie was director of housing in the then-Department for Communities and Local Government, with overall policy responsibility for the supply and management of housing across all tenures, housing growth, and homelessness prevention and support. As part of this, she also led on sponsorship of the Homes and Communities Agency. She has worked in the civil service covering various housing policies and programmes since 2003.
Brendan Sarsfield Treasurer Expand Brendan was the former Chief Executive of Peabody, a housing association owning and managing 68,000 homes in London and the South East. Brendan has worked in housing all of his professional life and is a campaigner for the needs of ordinary Londoners and the importance of diversity in the city. Brendan is also chair of the Sustainable Housing Standards Board which focusses on the relationship between the sector and the finance sector on ESG issues. Brendan was appointed a Trustee of Hestia in May 2021 and sits on the Finance & Fundraising subcommittee.
Mike Trup Trustee Expand Mike has some 35 years of international business experience, during which he held management positions with a family company, the international divisions of Fortune 100 companies and most recently grew his own company from start-up to successful exit.
Christina Marriott Trustee Expand Following an early career in advertising, for 13 years Christina led the marketing consultancy she established in her 20s. She was tempted into academia as a research fellow working on health inequalities at the University of Central Lancashire and was seconded to health inspectorates to run a national census of mental health inpatients that investigated ethnicity-based inequalities. She moved into the NHS to spearhead a regional, place-based health equity programme before becoming National Lead for Health Inequalities in the then newly-formed NHS England. Her move into the third sector was via the Head of Policy and Public Affairs at Nacro before taking up the Chief Executive role at Revolving Doors Agency. Christina has served on a significant number of advisory Board including the Ministerial Advisory Board on Female Offenders, the Reducing Reoffending Third Sector Ministerial Advisory Group (RR3) and a Civil Justice Council working party. She chaired the Bradley Report Group and the Health Inequalities Reference Group. She was a Visiting Fellow at the University of Southampton and was a finalist in the Third Sector Awards Chief Executive of the Year 2019. Christina joined the board of Trustees at Hestia in December 2018.
Liz Zacharias Trustee Expand Liz is a senior manager and business development professional with many years’ experience in the supported housing and social care sector as a consultant and senior executive. This includes experience of working within a national care and support organisation and as a commissioner of supported housing and independent living services where she developed commissioning strategies for older people, people with mental health and learning disabilities as well as socially excluded groups and rough sleepers. She is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Personnel and Development. Liz also holds a Diploma in Fundraising from the Institute of Fundraising and previously spent five years as the lead on strategic growth for two housing organisations where she secured significant growth through public sector contracts. Liz Joined Hestia as a Trustee in January 2019.
Lauren Bowes-Byatt Trustee Expand Lauren is the Deputy Director for A Healthy Life Mission at Nesta. She is responsible for working across public, private and non-profit sectors to deliver innovative solutions that tackle obesity and loneliness in the UK. Previously, she worked at the Cabinet Office as Head of Planning and Coordination in the COVID-19 Task Force, where she was responsible for organising key COVID-19 policy moments. During this time, she was also deployed to NHS England's COVID-19 vaccination programme where she helped on delivery of the 'Get Boosted Now' campaign. Prior to that, Lauren held strategy roles within the Home Office and Cabinet Office. At the Cabinet Office, she oversaw the creation and delivery of the Government's Loneliness strategy. Lauren joined the Civil Service as a social researcher at the Ministry of Justice following analytics roles within media, publishing and market research companies. Lauren joined Hestia in March 2020 and is a member of our Digital & IT subcommittee.
Rebecca Pritchard Trustee Expand Bex has 30 years’ experience in the social care and homelessness field, and has held senior operational, policy, commissioning and consultancy/ advisory roles in the voluntary sector, local and central government. She started as a volunteer for the Southampton Resettlement Program working alongside people with lived experience in 1989. She has since worked for Shelter, Centrepoint and Crisis amongst others, led the establishment of the Supporting People program in Surrey and supported other Supporting People teams as an interim manager, run drug and alcohol treatment services and was embedded within the Department of Communities and Local Government as a specialist advisor on youth homelessness and rough sleeping. Bex is currently having a pause ahead of taking on new opportunities, with current commitments including being a Trustee of Hestia, and member of the NICE Guideline Development Group on integrated health and social care responses for people who are homeless. Bex joined Hestia in December 2019 and is as a member of our Performance Review Committee.
Liz Meek Trustee Expand Liz chairs Twining Enterprise, a charity helping people with mental health problems into work. She previously had nearly 40 years’ experience in the civil service and was head of the Government Office for London and then the North West delivering policies and programmes, mainly tackling poverty and disadvantage, for 12 Whitehall departments. Liz led the team of officials which created the Mayor of London. Since leaving the civil service, Liz has been founder chair of the Centre for London - a new think tank, vice chair of Birkbeck college and on a number of boards and commitees, mostly on mental health. She was a member of the London Fairness Commission. She proposed and served on the Schizophrenia Commission. Liz joined Hestia’s board in October 2020 and sits on the Finance & Fundraising subcommittee.
Sonal Shah Trustee Expand Sonal is a Partner at Greenwood Place, a London based B Corp which provides strategic advice and execution for philanthropists giving in the UK and globally. Prior to Greenwood Place, Sonal was Chief Executive of The London Community Foundation from 2009 to 2016, having joined the organisation in 2005 under its previous incarnation as the South East London Community Foundation. Under her leadership, the Foundation became a leading London grant maker and community philanthropy charity investing around £5 million a year into a vast range of social issues across the capital. In addition to her role at Centre for London, Sonal is an Advisory Board Member of Educate Girls and was previously a trustee of UK Community Foundations. Sonal began her career with the John Lewis Partnership after graduating from Oxford with a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics. Sonal joined Hestia’s board in February 2022 and sits on the Finance & Fundraising subcommittee.
Joanna Mark-Richards Vice Chair Expand Joanna joined as a Trustee in March 2022, prior to this she was Chair of the Hestia Governance & Remuneration Committee since 2016. Joanna has worked in Human Resources in various Housing Associations and universities including City University and Imperial College London. She was People Director at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and now working as People Director at Thames Reach, an organisation whose aim is to eradicate homelessness. She sits on the Performance Review Committee and continues to Chair the Governance & Remuneration committee.