Meet our Trustees
GOVERNANCE
The Trustees of the Trust share collective responsibility for ensuring good governance and they have adopted ‘Excellence in Governance’ – The Code for members and good practice guidance, as issued by the National Housing Federation. Trustees also follow guidance and regulations as issued by the Charity Commission.
The Board of Trustees between them have a deep understanding of housing, care and support issues. In addition, they are responsible for setting high level strategic objectives, ensuring the financial viability of the Trust, for approving business plans and importantly, in monitoring operational performance to ensure that we’re actually achieving agreed objectives.
Rachel Chiu | Chair of the Board
Rachel has over 20 years’ experience in the West Midlands, with a track record of working as a development and governance professional within the housing and not-for-profit sector. Her areas of work include health and well-being, life skills and employability, heritage, arts and culture, community asset transfers and enhancement of statutory service provision. Her breadth of experience in strategic, operational and cross-sector scenarios enables her to create practical solutions both as an individual and in partnership with others.
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Alethea (Leeya) Balbuena
Alethea joined us in 2021. She is Director of Operations for charity CW Mind and is responsible for a diverse portfolio of services including children and young people’s mental health provision, housing support services and registered CQC services and brings considerable experience of service design, development and management in the health and social care sector and tender/bid writing.
Cllr. Ken Meeson | SMBC Nominated Trustee
Councillor Ken Meeson has been a Trustee since 1995 and has served in a number of roles locally, including Cabinet Member for Children and Adult Services, Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board and Leader of Solihull Council. He is currently Mayor of Solihull. Nationally he has sat on boards of the Local Government Association and was a long-serving Trustee of the National Children’s Bureau. Professionally he spent many years as UK Development Manager for a Lloyds of London underwriting group and before retiring became Company Secretary and Governance Adviser to Birmingham Metropolitan and Dudley Colleges. He is a former NHS Director and Chair of Audit and currently a Lay Hospital Manager under the Mental Health Act. He is also a Governor of Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Trust, a Safeguarding Adviser to the Scout Association and Trustee of the National Youth Agency.
Cllr. Gareth Moore | BCC Nominated Trustee
Gareth is a serving Councillor with Birmingham City Council representing the constituents of the Erdington Ward. Gareth was appointed as a Trustee in October 2011 and he has a particular interest in housing issues.
Edward Rutledge
Edward is a former Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and was the sole principal and then Senior Partner of Lawrence and Wightman, Chartered Surveyors for nearly 40 years. Edward, who joined the Board in 2019, has been an Arbitrator/Independent Expert in a broad range of rental and valuation disputes and an Assessor for the RICS for over a period of 30 years assessing and interviewing candidates who were seeking to become Chartered Surveyors.
Philip Soule
Philip is now retired. After obtaining his first degree in law, he also obtained a MA masters degree in environmental law. He specialised in commercial property, which also included a specialism in mineral law.
Philip is currently completing an induction to enable him to be the South Birmingham divisional secretary for SSAFA which is the oldest military charity in the country.
Jonathan Pyke
Jonathan qualified as a solicitor in 1993 and was appointed as a Trustee in December 2016. Since 2021, he has been employed by a "challenger" bank (which offers banking services through its mobile app) as in-house counsel. He is trusted to deal with a wide range of operational issues including disputes and is part of a business seeking to radically reshape banking.
Kallum Chumber
Kallum was appointed to the board of trustees in December 2022. He has worked in multiple roles within IT, in both private and public sectors, for various organisations ranging from small independent businesses to large corporate structures. Kallum works within an Applications team, that maintains and develops various business systems for a Construction and Regeneration Group.
Tanvi Joshi
Tanvi is an experienced social housing professional with expertise in supported living, governance, strategy and business development. Tanvi studied for a Masters in Human Rights from UCL and has been committed to working within the charitable sector; she currently works as a Strategy Manager for a G15 housing association and is also a Trustee for a children's charity.
Hitesh Champaneri
An experienced manager, professionally qualified in the field of social housing. Having spent over 20 years as Development Manager for a well-known family Trust in Birmingham. Well used to all aspects of social housing development both new build and refurbishment. Passionate about providing quality social housing and related fields to enhance peoples quality of life.
Sian Thomas
Sian has spent the majority of her career in operational management in the NHS, alongside a stint in management consultancy. She has worked in mental health, learning disability and physical health services in both the community and acute hospital sectors.