Welcome to WISH London

Erica Carras is an Associate at Walker Construction Consultants, a vibrant construction consultancy providing project management services across London and the South East.

Erica has over 12 years high-level safety and risk management experience. She has extensive experience in Health and Safety including corporate compliance within CDM Regulations 2015, and has technical knowledge of the construction industry working on new construction, refurbishment, repairs and maintenance contracts. Erica said, “I am delighted to be the new chair of WISH London, I am looking forward to working with this great networking organisation.”

E-mail: [email protected]

Business Development Director at MAP Chartered Surveyors

I like people and get great satisfaction in developing business relationships and in time, hopefully, clients become friends.

Prior to working for MAP Chartered Surveyors, I worked for an established legal based Institute.  The Institute was member based lead, offering courses and seminars within the legal profession, but most of my working career has been in Merchant Banking where I had the opportunity of working for number of major Japanese Merchant Banks based in the City of London.

In my supervisory role within Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Operations I liaised with various Companies from around the world and was delighted to be chosen to represent the Company in Switzerland, where I joined other selected Company representatives from across the world to complete my Association of International Bond Dealers examination which I am happy to report,  I successfully passed.

As mentioned, today I enjoy working for MAP Chartered Surveyors as their Business Development Director.  My role is challenging, varied, interesting, but most of all, it enables me to meet great professionals from an array of business sectors and develop long standing business relationships that has organically grown over a period of time.

WISH is a fantastic group that brings professional women together who represent companies that provide an array of professional services for the Housing Sector.  WISH provides support, positivity and empowers women to be proactive within their chosen field.

I have gained so much from being a member of WISH and now hope to give something back by accepting the role of Events co-ordinator.

Email: [email protected]

Email: [email protected]

Theresa is a Partner in Trowers & Hamlins’ Dispute Avoidance and Resolution Team, specialising in contentious construction, which she joined in June 2010 from a boutique construction law practice. Theresa was admitted to the Bar of England and Wales in 2005 and qualified as a Solicitor in 2007.

Theresa has extensive experience of acting for Employers and Main Contractors, making High Court applications and the Enforcement of Adjudicators’ decisions in the Technology and Construction Court. She is familiar with both standard and bespoke forms of construction contracts. Theresa also has experience of adjudication, running High Court trials, instructing experts on technical engineering matters, resolving construction disputes through mediation and drafting settlement agreements, claims, defences and adjudication submissions.

Theresa is a regular speaker for the RICS, author for Construction Manager and Construction News and is Chair of the National Association of Women in Construction.  Theresa was awarded Best Woman in Construction Law 2017 of the European Women in Construction and Engineering Awards.

Email: [email protected]

Email: [email protected]

Email: [email protected]

Senior Construction Project Manager at Network Homes

Abi Jacobs is a Senior Construction Project Manager with Network Homes; an award winning Housing Association with over 20,000 homes across London, Hertfordshire and the South East.

Abi’s particular expertise is in Housing Development having over 20 years managerial experience spanning both the Private and the Public sector.

Abi says ‘ I am delighted to be joining the WISH executive team as a Sponsorship Board member and look forward to working with the team’

Email: [email protected]

Eleanor is a Founding Partner at Graphic Structures LLP, a structural and civil design consultancy focused on design collaboration.  She has a diverse portfolio of building design experience, which includes a number of projects working with Housing Associations to provide new build, mixed-use schemes.

Eleanor started her career with Faber Maunsell, now AECOM, where her projects were in the education sector. Eleanor moved to Price and Myers where she built experience in the private residential sector and in cross laminated timber design, before taking a secondment as Site Engineer to work in the rail sector for Crossrail. Since then, she has started Graphic Structures and designed a number of large scale, mixed use developments and health care projects.

As well as running her business, Eleanor is a STEM ambassador and a mentor.  She joined WISH in 2016 and has found it to be a supportive environment in which to network, which she wants to encourage new members to enjoy.

Email: [email protected]

Annemarie has over 10 years experience of working in social housing, both within local authority and more recently housing association, One Housing Group. In her role as Assistant Director she leads on a variety of property management functions. Annemarie is also a qualified solicitor and started her career in property law before becoming involved in more general property and people management within the social housing sector.

She is passionate about mentoring and has recently supported managers at her employer through a management training programme scheme and she also sits on One Housing’s gender pay gap working group. As a full time working mum of three young children she is dedicated to supporting and motivating other parents who want to pursue their careers while juggling all the demands of family life.

In her spare time she enjoys the outdoors, being active and doing sprint triathlons during the summer season.

Email: [email protected] or [email protected]

Frances is an Associate Director with Lichfields, Planning and Development consultancy. She has a broad range of planning, regeneration and development experience, having worked in both the private and public sectors. Frances advises a number of registered housing providers and private clients on a range of housing led projects within London and the South East, including the development of strategic sites, estate regeneration and housing-led mixed use schemes and EIA development. Prior to joining Lichfields Frances was an Associate at Tibbalds Monro (Architects and Planners), a Senior Planner at the London Borough of Camden and a research consultant at the Centre for Environmental Studies, where she undertook research on outer housing estates. Frances has a strong interest in housing and is a member of the Royal Town Planning Institute and a Chartered Member of the Housing Institute.

Email: [email protected]

Tessa Shelley is the Quality and Community Involvement Manager for Rydon Maintenance Ltd, (part of the Rydon Group).  Tessa has been in service with the Rydon Group since 1999 and in that time has held several managerial roles, including Resident Liaison Team Manager; Business Development and Procurement; Regeneration Project Delivery; Corporate Social Responsibility; Considerate Constructors Scheme Champion; Community Engagement and more recently Lead Quality Auditing (BSI ISO9001:2015).  Rydon partner with businesses and communities; driven by a commitment to consistent quality, Rydon delivers construction, regeneration, and maintenance solutions for education, housing and healthcare, across England.

Tessa brings a wealth of experience from her work both on regeneration sites, in the heart of communities and within the, quality management, education and sustainability areas of the business.  Having delivered safety and industry based careers awareness workshops to children and young people from the ages of 3-19 for many years, Tessa is keen to engage WISH members and the wider community, to educate girls and young women about the incredibly wide variety of options and careers prospects open to them, when working in the regeneration and maintenance sectors, serving community housing, schools, and healthcare facilities.

Email: [email protected]

Aisha has worked in the social housing sector for over five years in a variety of different communications and marketing roles and is currently leading the public affairs activity for One Housing Group.

She has sat on a number of charity boards and currently sits on her local primary school board and has recently been appointed to the Board of Trustees of the Multi Academy Trust.

She’s a passionate advocate of women in business and politics and was one of the founders of the Conservative Young Women’s organisation and now sits on their advisory board. She also sits on her employer’s gender pay gap working group and is working with women in the company to promote, encourage and support other women to senior leadership positions.

If she’s not at the office you can often find her training at the pool having recently represented Team GB at the 2017 FINA World Masters Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

Email: [email protected]

Emma works within the Business Improvement Directorate at Notting Hill Genesis ensuring that the organisation is robust in terms of regulatory and legislative requirements. She is also responsible for rents, service charges and the development of automated bespoke databases to increase efficiencies and manage compliance risks.With over 10 years experience in the sector, Emma has qualifications Law and various project management methodologies including Prince 2 and Lean 6 Sigma. Emma has volunteered as a mentor through the Housing Diversity Network programme and is passionate about the advancement of women within the sector and joins WISH as an Education Board member.

Email: [email protected]

As the Director of Curious Minds Consulting Tracey is a fully qualified leadership coach who specialises in coaching individuals and teams in emotional intelligence, diversity and creativity.

Following a successful career in leadership roles in sales and marketing for Cadbury Trebor Bassett, Tracey took some time out to develop her creative talent gaining a BA (Hons) and an MA in fine art photography. She then went on to gain her professional qualification in Coaching from Henley Business School. In 2015 Tracey worked with her first housing client and has continued to build a strong client base within the housing sector.     

In joining the board of WISH London I welcome the challenge to have a positive impact on the diversity agenda with in housing.  

Email: [email protected]

Alexandra is an Architect with over 5 years of experience in social housing, community engagement and urban regeneration. She is passionate about people and believes in a collaborative approach to design innovation by closely working with professionals from all sectors of the industry.

At PRP Alexandra has been leading regeneration and residential projects of various scales and tenures, developing the detail design and stakeholder consultation strategies for projects in South Wimbledon, Stratford and Harlow. Focused on client and industry awareness, she is organising and regularly attending seminars and workshops focused on updates and reviews of planning policy and regulations.

Alexandra is actively involved in Academia and coordinates the Work Experience programme at PRP, mentoring young individuals into becoming architects.

She organises events within, as well as outside PRP. These include the Change Exchange (an interactive workshop part of Clerkenwell Design Week), Architecture in Schools (educational workshops with primary schools - in collaboration with Open City) and Archikids/Open House Families (leading on organising this event for the past 5 years).

At WISH, Alexandra is aiming to bring together her passion for people, design innovation and co-production to create events that promote knowledge sharing and meaningful networking.