Welcome to WISH North West

Emma strives to challenge herself, make a difference in the sector and smash through the barriers of being a woman in construction. Having started as a trainee bid writer, she now works as Business Development Manager for Casey.

As Chair, Emma wants to share best practise within the industry and help others to develop their career through interactive, thought provoking workshops. Collaboration is hugely important to Emma and she wants to bring together all those who work within housing to develop new ideas and innovation.

Having graduated from Leeds Metropolitan with a Marketing degree, she wants to encourage the next generation to consider housing and construction as a choice, not an accident. Emma is an Enterprise Advisor for a local school in Rochdale and works to connect employers to students.

Emma is also a committee member of G4C North West, who are on a mission to improve performance, drive best practise and encourage, promote and engage with the next generation.

Emma is also a committee member of G4C North West, who are on a mission to improve performance, drive best practise and encourage, promote and engage with the next future generation.

Nicola Brown has over twenty years commercial experience in providing software solutions to the Social Housing Sector. 

A key leader in business development in her field, Nicola feels passionately it is strong customer relationships and partnership working that is at the forefront of successful implementations. 

Nicola feels strongly that WISH should be a forum for personal growth and for women to help other women succeed in the sector. 

Nicola has complemented her IT career with diverse roles in the voluntary and charity sectors including roles with HMP Leeds, IMB, and NCT Cheshire.

Claire is an indirect tax advisor who specialises in VAT.  She has over 11 years’ experience working in VAT, and is ATT and CTA qualified. 

She works with a variety of not-for-profit clients, including housing associations and care providers, as well as commercial clients.  Claire spends over half of her time working with housing groups to advise on a variety of matters, including complex property transactions.

Claire is keen to be part of the refresh of the North West region of WISH and to expand its reach to a variety of women across the region.

Sarah Davies has spent nearly two decades working with organisations across the public and not-for-profit sector, leading and delivering transformational technology-led change. 

Starting her career with the Audit Commission before moving into strategic leadership roles in Police, Fire and Social Housing; Sarah’s passion is service delivery with the customer at its core. 

Sarah believes in keeping it simple, understanding purpose and not being afraid to fail. ‘Be clear about where you want to get to and why; have a plan but don’t worry if things go wrong, keep control, learn, adjust and deliver. And make sure you listen; always.’

Her professional qualifications include a Master’s degree in Business (MBA) and the International Certificate of Enterprise Risk Management.

Outside of work, Sarah is a Mum and enjoys running; completing her first London Marathon in 2019.

Angela is a Partner in leading independent legal practice Brabners LLP.

Angela qualified in 1988 and has acted almost exclusively for registered providers and charities during her initial career in London and 25 years at Brabners.

Angela’s expertise is in all aspects of land acquisitions for development including multi party/mixed use consortium/ collaboration transactions; complex development agreements / building leases for multi million-pound residential development; overarching agreements; option agreements; conditional contracts and golden brick transactions. Angela deals with national house builders in acquisition of residential units under Section 106 Agreements, and variations to Section 106 Agreements.  Angela has also acted for national housebuilder in private residential sales

Angela advises registered providers on grant funding agreements with Homes England/HCA, has dealt with residential development funded in part with HCA grant and disposal of numerous residential units sold via homebuy/shared ownership sales.  Angela has also acted for numerous registered providers in all aspects of due diligence, securing large scale portfolio for multi-million-pound facilities.

Angela is keen to mentor young women in the housing sector drawing on her experience in acting for registered providers.

Jenny Neville is a senior executive with over 17 years’ management experience, including 11 years as a board director.

With 12 years commercial experience working across professional services and contracting organisations, where she led significant growth and diversifications programmes, as well as five years management consulting experience  to social housing providers, Jenny understands the diverse challenges faced by housing organisations and contractors and the respective business models and approaches required. 

A group director at ForViva since September 2019, Jenny feels strongly about equal opportunities and inclusion, and unlocking and developing potential across the housing and contracting sectors. Through her involvement with WISH North West, she wants to encourage and support more women into leadership roles.  

Qualifications include MBA, BA (Hons) Politics and History, Diploma in Marketing, ILM leadership and Management and various coaching/mentoring courses.

Outside of work, Jenny has two young children and loves a sporting challenge! Her last challenge was Tough Mudder and the next is her first marathon since having children.

Liz Brown is a Project Manager, working for RPS Group Plc, delivering property developments of varying sizes and across multiple sectors in and around the north of England.

With a background in architecture Liz has significant experience across a wide-range of public sector projects in the Residential, Education and Leisure sectors, spanning 12 years as a qualified Architect. In addition to being a board member at WISH NW, Liz is a member of Women in Property, an organisation focusing on the promotion of the construction industry as an equal platform and seeking to enable opportunities for all.

Liz is a highly-organised and enthusiastic individual, who brings to the table a pragmatic and down-to-earth sensibility, who is using her background in managing various CPD programmes to continue the delivery of the WISH learning event programme.

In her spare time, she is an avid reader, paints and is training to compete in her first marathon.

Gemma has worked in housing development and regeneration for 15 years, taking up roles in Registered Providers, Private consultancy and a Local Authority. She is currently Head of Development and Regeneration at RBH in Rochdale, leading a team delivering an ambitious programme of new home delivery and a large scale regeneration project in Rochdale Town Centre.

Qualifications include a BA (Hons) in Economic and Social Studies and a MA in Real Estate Development. She was nominated for Young Achiever in Housing Development at the Women in Housing Awards in 2015.

Gemma attended WISH events for a number of years prior to becoming a Board member and is committed to supporting and encouraging women in the sector to achieve their potential and personal ambition and to overcome barriers to do this. She is looking forward to helping to shape the direction of WISH NW and in developing an exciting programme of events for members.

Outside of work, Gemma has a baby daughter who keeps her very busy! She enjoys walks with her family and baking sweet treats!