Group Board

Terrie Alafat CBE

Group Chair

Terrie served as Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing from 2015 to 2019, and has a wealth of housing experience spanning over 30 years.

Her previous appointments include Director of Housing at the Department of Communities and Local Government where she was responsible for national housing polices including affordable housing, homelessness and supported housing.

Terrie has extensive NED experience in housing and homelessness organisations. Currently she is a trustee of the Nationwide Foundation and JRF, as well as chairing JRHT. She is also Senior Independent Director for Grosvenor Hart Homes.

Her wealth of knowledge of the housing sector and her work in shaping policy is instrumental in continuing to take the Riverside Group forward as one of the country’s leading providers of housing and homelessness services.

Maggie Porteous

Vice Chair

Appointed 16 June 2025

Maggie worked for the John Lewis Partnership for 31 years, culminating in leading the 20,000 Partners who worked in the 51 John Lewis Department Stores as Director of Shop Trade.

As a non executive Director Maggie has Chaired the John Lewis Foundation, has served on the Board of Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and is currently the Senior Independent Director of the Abri Group and a Trustee of the Octavia Foundation.

Maggie has a care and passion for people and believes that a culture of high performance and employee engagement can deliver exemplary customer service and strong operational results. She is passionate about providing the safety and security of a decent home as a platform for social mobility.

Paul Dolan

Co-Optee

Paul joined Riverside as Group Chief Executive in May 2024, following seven years as Chief Executive of Accent Group.

With extensive experience leading housing organisations through transformation, Paul has a strong track record of driving business improvement, cultural change and regulatory compliance. He has successfully led both not-for-profit and commercial organisations, delivering financial stability, governance reform and organisational growth.

During his time at Accent, Paul secured a record-breaking public bond deal for the social housing sector and launched the #MorethanHomes campaign, which raised £1 million for the Trussell Trust in response to the economic impact of COVID-19.

Prior to Accent, Paul held chief executive roles at Johnnie Johnson Housing Trust and Sadeh Lok Housing Group, where he led significant organisational change, strengthened governance and delivered long-term strategic growth.

Paul has also held a number of sector leadership positions and brings a wealth of experience in housing, stakeholder engagement and organisational transformation to Riverside.

Olwen Lintott

Group Board Member

Appointed 1 January 2022.

Olwen’s early working life included working in the retail sector, at both Tesco and then Marks & Spencer. Olwen went to university and qualified as an Early Years teacher when she was in her forties. From there Olwen has spent a number of years in teaching and became Head of Early Years. Olwen was always interested in Special educational needs and was SENCO for the school she worked at. Later, Olwen joined the county advisory team as an Early Years Coordinator/ Area SENCO. This role enabled Olwen to travel around (mostly) West Cumbria, visiting Nurseries and schools, offering advice in best practice and supporting settings and families with additional needs provision.

Olwen is a leaseholder in a general needs building and has been for over 16 years. During that time Olwen has always taken an interest in her home and surrounding area.

Olwen was a former Tenant Board member of Impact Housing Association Ltd and Impact Committee until full integration in October 2021 and was involved in a variety of Impact residents’ groups and has joined the Riverside Voice online group.

Fenella Edge

Group Board Member

Fenella is an experienced Treasurer with over 30 years experience in treasury and risk.

After 21 years in post, she has recently stepped down from her role as Group Treasurer of The Housing Finance Corporation Limited (THFC) – a not-for-profit lender to Housing Associations in the UK – where she was also an Executive Director and member of the THFC Group Board and its subsidiaries. Her main area of expertise is in debt capital markets funding where she has raised over £4.5billion through the issuance of bonds under THFC’s various programmes, in addition to arranging over £2billion of funding from the European Investment Bank. She was instrumental in THFC’s delivery of over £3billion of long term funding under the Government Affordable Housing Guarantee Scheme (2013).

Fenella has also been a non-executive board member of Dolphin Living Limited – a Registered Provider operating in Central London for the past 9 years and a member of the Acquisition, Finance and Development Committee.

Prior to joining THFC in 2002 she spent 11 years at Abbey National Treasury Services (ANTS) in a variety of roles covering capital markets, derivatives and market risk, joining the Board of ANTS in 1996.

Kei-Retta Farrell

Group Board Member

Appointed December 2023

Kei-Retta is an award-winning Diversity, Equity and Inclusion practitioner with professional experience at grassroots, national and international levels in innovative strategy development, programme design, monitoring, evaluation and learning. Currently Kei-Retta is the Head of Office and UK Representative for the Government of Montserrat.

Additionally, Kei-Retta currently serves as the Chair of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Committee and the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) where she advises on the EDI programme across UKCP, oversees implementation and monitors progress of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan.

Driven by her passion for social justice, Kei-Retta has made it her mission in life to contribute to the development of a more equitable world and leads several initiatives in her local community that address poverty, homelessness and the refugee crisis in her local community.

Pauline Ford

Group Board Member

Appointed May 2024

Pauline is an experienced Executive and Non-Executive who has worked with a range of housing organisations and charities for over 28 years, most recently as an Executive Director at Peabody in London, and as an independent consultant. She brings experience in charity and not-for-profit sector governance; leading and designing customer services; property and asset management; customer and client engagement; and devising and delivering change programmes to improve outcomes for customers/clients and staff teams.

She has a passionate interest in care and support services and has seen the real difference that a safe environment and the right care and support can provide. In addition to being Chair of the Care and Support Committee and Board Member with Riverside, she is Chair of Southdown Housing Association a housing, care and support provider based in Sussex.

Nigel Holland

Group Board Member

Appointed 1 July 2022

With over 28 years of experience in the new homes industry, mostly spent with Taylor Wimpey and its legacy companies, Nigel is currently the Director of Gnosis Executive Limited.

Starting in Sales & Marketing and with roles as a Managing Director and Divisional Managing Director, he has a strong land procurement, commercial management and customer service focus. Nigel has a Board advisory role with Thakeham Homes since January 2025. He has previously been the Chair of the Home Builders Federation South West Region.

Nigel is also Chair of the Investment & Development Committee.

Richard Williams

Group Board Member

Appointed April 2024

Richard is an experienced CEO, having operated across the Public and Private Sectors specialising in the areas of Healthcare, Retirement & Housing.

He recently set up Brigid Investment Limited on behalf of John Laing and was CEO of the business. It is the largest owner and investor of specialist new build retirement rental assets across the UK. Previously he was CEO of Rangeford, a Retirement Development and Domiciliary Care Business and a Managing Director at McCarthy Stone. He has also worked as a Director at St Andrew’s Healthcare, and Octopus Healthcare.

He holds several Non Executive Director roles, with a Local Authority owned Residential Development Company, Community Health Partnerships, an NHS backed Investment and Operating Company and was previously Group Vice Chair of Abri.

Richard is also Chair of the Homes Committee.

Tracy Thomas

Group Board Member

Appointed 1 August 2025

Tracy has over 20 years’ experience in Local Government and is currently a Service Manager in Resident Services for one of London’s most ethnically diverse boroughs. Her career spans Customer Services, Service Improvement and Benefits, with a consistent focus on delivering fair, resident centred services.

Tracy is a member of the newly co created resident engagement framework, TRIP. She played a role in its development, from consultation to task & finish groups to implementation,  helping shape a model that strengthens resident voice and accountability across the organisation.

A longstanding One Housing resident, Tracy served as a Non-Executive Director on their board. Now part of Riverside, Tracy served as a Member of Riverside’s Customer Experience Committee for 2 years and was appointed Group Board Member from 1 August 2025, bringing both professional insight and lived experience to strategic decision making.

Tracy is also a founding member of the G15 Residents’ Group, representing residents from London’s largest housing associations. The group is a forum set up to deliver resident-led sector change that includes amplifying resident voices and contributing to government policy making.

Richard Petty

Group Board Member

Appointed 16 June 2025

Richard is a retired Chartered Surveyor who was formerly Head of UK Residential Valuation at JLL, a leading, global firm of property advisers.  He has 30 years’ experience as a specialist valuer and property adviser in the social housing sector, as well as wide experience across other residential asset classes and commercial property.

Richard also has over 25 years’ experience as a housing association board member. He has recently served as a board member of Watford Community Housing Trust, and Chair of its private development company, Clarendon Living Limited.  He is a past Chair of Richmond Housing Partnership in south west London; a past Vice Chair of Anchor Hanover Group, the UK’s largest not-for-profit provider of older persons’ housing and care; and a past Chair of Dolphin Living Limited, based in Westminster.

Angela Lockwood

Group Board Member

Appointed 16 June 2025

Angela was Chief Executive Officer at North Star Housing Group for 15 years and has spent her entire career in social housing working for a Local Authority and Housing Associations. Consequently, she has extensive social housing experience alongside a track record in governance through many NED roles, including not for profits, a membership organisation and a PLC.

With a passion for customer service, organisational development and people, she is known for her cultural change work with trust at its heart that has led to successful outcomes. She would describe herself as a seasoned social housing person with particular experience of regeneration, supported housing, development and governance.

Robert Macnaughton

Group Board Member

Appointed 1 January 2026

Bob is a Chartered Accountant who worked in practice with Ernst & Young, in senior finance roles within J Sainsbury’s Group and at Homebase. He joined National Car Parks as Chief Financial Officer and became Chief Executive Officer following a change of ownership.

He has held non executive roles across a range of sectors including in renewable energy, the NHS, social housing, in education and commercial property development. He was Chair at Hightown Housing Association and is currently an Independent Governor and Chair of the Audit & Risk Committee at the University of Hertfordshire and Chair of ACS International Schools.

He is a graduate of the University of Liverpool, with a degree in Physical Geography and Geology and he worked as a Geotechnical Engineer before training as an accountant.

Paula Simpson

Board Observer

Appointed January 2026

Paula has been a member of the Customer Experience Committee since January 2024 and has been a general needs tenant for almost 20 years with Riverside,  and a member of Riverside Customer Voice Executive for 4 years.

Her role within RCVE is Media Officer and she runs RCVE social media platforms for 6 reginal groups of Riverside customers. This role has given Paula firsthand experience and knowledge of the real-life issues that affect all types of Riverside customers, and this has motivated her to do all she can to develop an improved relationship between Riverside and all its customers.

Paula sits on several customer panels both local and national and has a personal interest in equality, diversity and inclusion. Paula is happy to ask hard-hitting questions and is always encouraging Riverside to be transparent, fair, respectful and accountable if things go wrong.

Paula’s career has always been focused on people, as a licensee and then within a customer support role. For the past 8 years, she has worked for the local authority fostering services and recently been invited to sit on the newly formed Corporate Parenting Board for the local authority’s children’s services.

The satisfaction she gets from helping others be the best they can be, is what keeps her going.