Welcome to WISH South East

Melissa Woodall is the Chair of the South East WISH network. She has worked within Social Housing for over 14 years and brings strength and depth to the role, building on her commercial expertise gained working in numerous sales and business development roles across the sector.

She currently heads up the Business Development department at PiLON, a refurbishment specialist for social housing. She leads a team of five and has overall responsibility for driving company revenue, supporting the company’s ambitious growth plans for 2019 and beyond.

Melissa’s enthusiasm and passion for social housing is infectious and she is a firm believer in creating a plentiful supply of quality social housing to enable communities to flourish.

Her ambition through WISH is to enable other women in the sector to benefit from her extensive experience and to help lead and inspire others to excel in their roles. Melissa is supported in her role as Chair of WISH South East by seven other influential leaders across the sector.

Shirley is an Associate Director at GL Hearn within the Development Consultancy & Agency Team.

In her role, Shirley provides housing and development consultancy to local authority, housing association, public bodies and private sector clients.

She also advises on opportunities for specialist housing – partnership and delivery structures, funding models and requirements, for provider and investor clients, plus liaison and negotiation with local authority and commissioning bodies.

She joined GL Hearn in 2018 from Rentplus UK, where she was Partnerships Manager for London and Southeast. Previously, Shirley has held senior roles in affordable housing and development across public and private sectors, with a number of Housing Associations, Local Authority and building contractor.

Shirley says;

"The WISH organization has long been recognized as a positive presence in the sector, providing a forum and support for women in housing, whatever stage in their careers. I’m thrilled to be part of it, and looking forward to our launch of the Southeast branch of WISH."

Ali is the Development Director at Raven Housing Trust. Raven are committed to Building Homes and Changing Lives and the role that new build housing plays in tackling the housing crisis. Her career has focused on Development and Sales where she has held a number of roles.

Ali is a Board member of Sutton Housing Society. She is a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Housing, a Full member of the Association of Project Managers and a MSP foundation Programme Manager.

Sarah is a partner in law firm Cripps LLP based in Tunbridge Wells specialising in property work within the affordable housing team including development land acquisitions, section106 schemes and stock transfers.

Alma is Head of Marketing and Communications at Greenacre Recruitment in Hertfordshire, a progressive and forward-thinking social housing recruitment consultancy heavily involved in the research and development of strategy changes in leadership, efficiency, equality and diversity across all areas of the sector. Alma writes and collaborates on research and topics and articles with Greenacre aimed at supporting, advising and reflecting on the current issues facing the sector, and is also a contributing author at Housing Futures, a global online social housing magazine.

Becky is currently Associate Consultant at Greenacre Recruitment in Hertfordshire, a progressive and forward-thinking social housing recruitment consultancy heavily involved in the research and development of strategy changes in leadership, efficiency, equality and diversity across all areas of the sector. Becky brings with her over 15 years management experience within the housing and lettings sector and specialises in housing development and regeneration within social housing across the UK.

Sarah is a CIMA qualified Treasury Analyst and has worked for over ten years in the manufacturing industry before she joined Golding Homes, a profit for purpose housing association which provides homes for more than 20,000 people across Kent. As well as being a full time working Mum, juggling family life with work and other commitments Sarah is a member of a school PTA, Captain of a netball team and enjoys caravanning weekends with her family.

Joanne is the Head of Property (Assets) at West Kent Housing Association which she joined in 2013 from Barking and Dagenham Council where she was the Responsive Repairs Manager. Joanne has extensive experience within the Housing Sector having worked in Tenancy Services, Service Improvements and Tenant Participation before moving into the Repairs and Maintenance Team to head up the responsive repairs section.

Joanne’s experience within the Repairs and Maintenance field has enabled her to become familiar with procurement and running multi-million-pound contracts. As well as running the Asset Team Joanne and her team have delivered many special projects including the refurbishment of sheltered housing and the rebuilding of block of bedsits to provide self-contained flats for people with learning difficulties.

As a full -time, working mum of three children she is also dedicated to helping the local community and is a qualified football coach and is supporting the development disability football in the Kent area.