Grainia Long, Chief Executive

Grainia Long is the Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, the strategic housing authority for Northern Ireland and one of the largest publically owned social landlords in Europe.
 
Previously, Grainia was the Commissioner for Resilience for the city of Belfast, and co-Chaired the Belfast Climate Commission.

Grainia was also the Chief Executive of the National Child Protection Charity in the Republic of Ireland, ISPCC Childline. This position followed several years working in housing, including as Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH), and previously National Director of the CIH in Northern Ireland. 
 
She has served two terms as a member of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, was a member of the Lyons Commission on Housing Supply and Advisor to the Best Commission on the Future of Housing in Northern Ireland. 

With extensive experience as a Non-Executive Director, she spent six years as Senior Independent Director at Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing Trust, a social housing provider in England.

Grainia is currently a Board Member of the CEF (Chief Executive’s Forum), and is Chair of Business in the Community Northern Ireland (BITICNI) Environmental Leadership Team.

Paul Isherwood, Director of Asset Management
Paul joined the Housing Executive as Director of Asset Management in June 2015 to head up the newly created Asset Management Directorate having previously been the Director of Property Services in Helm Housing.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and the Chartered Institute of Building. He has over 25 years' social housing experience within property maintenance and asset management within a local authority and housing association context.

Paul began his career with Great Grimsby Council and over the years has held various technical and managerial roles within the property maintenance/asset management environment.

Through these various roles he has gained significant experience in the areas of asset management, project management, building safety, sustainability and procurement.

David Moore, Director of Corporate Services
David joined the Housing Executive in May 2019 as the Director of Corporate Services.

He is a chartered fellow of the Institute of Personnel and Development with over 25 years' experience in the public sector and consultancy. He currently has responsibility for Corporate Planning, Performance, Governance and Equality.

He is also responsible for the Human Resources and Organisational Development, Legal Services and Communications function for the organisation.

Catherine McFarland, CPFA, MA, MSC, Director of Finance, Audit and Assurance
Catherine is the Director of Finance, Audit and Assurance at the Northern Ireland Housing Executive which includes responsibility for the delivery of the Housing Benefit service for Northern Ireland, and ICT.

She is the Chair of the Leadership and Engagement Committee for the Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon Community Planning partnership and was recently Chair of Chartered institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, Northern Ireland.

She has also been a guest lecturer for the last eight years on the MSc in Leadership and innovation delivered by the Ulster University.

Jennifer Hawthorne, Director for Housing Services
Since joining the Housing Executive in 1978, Jennifer has worked in a number of roles, most recently as Regional Manager for Belfast.

She has undertaken a variety of roles throughout her career, including Assistant Manager for the Shankill area and Public Relations Manager for Belfast.

She also headed up the Community Cohesion division for ten years, with major accomplishments including the development of shared housing and peace wall barrier removal programmes. In 2015 Jennifer was awarded an OBE for her work with the transformation of post conflict communities.

Elma Newberry is the Director of the Strategic Housing Authority for Northern Ireland, within the Housing Executive.

She has over 40 years’ experience working in public housing in Northern Ireland with a particular focus on transforming communities post-conflict, ensuring public housing has a key role within housing-led regeneration and more recently leading the Housing Executive’s Sustainable Development Strategy.

She currently plays a lead role within Community Planning and Place Making with local Councils.

Nicole Lappin is Chair of the Housing Executive.

Nicole Lappin is a collaborative leader who is passionate about effective governance improving the delivery of public sector services.  She has expertise in regulation and governance, including education, health, justice, finance and the charity sector. She has led on changing Board governance structures and in overseeing an organisation transition from five separate bodies into a single entity.  Transformation of service delivery has been central to the organisations she has served.

Nicole qualified as a Barrister from King’s Inns Dublin and practised in both Dublin and Belfast for five years.  In 2015, she was an Inaugural Board Member of the Education Authority.  In 2017, she was appointed as an Independent Board Member of the Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunals Service, and she currently chairs its Audit and Risk committee. Also in 2017, she was appointed as a Non-Executive Director of the Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority in Dublin where she chaired its Audit committee.  In 2018, she was appointed Chair of the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service and, in 2019, she was appointed Chief Commissioner of the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland.  Last year Nicole became Chair of the Public Sector Chairs Forum, where she works alongside colleagues across the public sector.

Having served as a School Governor for over fifteen years, Nicole is delighted to be working in corporate governance, overseeing the delivery of public services in important areas such as health, education, justice, financial and charity regulation and now housing.  Married, with three children, Nicole has many interests outside governance and is a keen amateur photographer.  She is looking forward to meeting and working with new colleagues as she takes up her role with the Housing Executive.

John McMullan is Vice Chair of the Housing Executive

John was appointed Vice Chair of the Housing Executive Board on 1 April 2019.  
John holds a BA(Hon) Degree in Business Studies & a MBA from Ulster University. After 33 years John has retired as CEO of Bryson Group, one of the UK’s largest Social Enterprises.

John currently Chairs Social Enterprise NI and the Bank of England’s N Ireland Citizen’s Panel; holds board positions on a range of Social Enterprises including Drumlin Wind Co-op; WorkWest community enterprise agency and a community based Credit Union.

John served as the NI representative on the UK Landfill Tax Credit Forum to advise HM Revenue & Customs; as Chair of the Visiting Committee for Hydebank Wood Young Offenders Centre and the NI Association of Members of Boards of (prison) Visitors; as a member of DFP’s Social Enterprise Working Group and was a member of the ministerial (DSD) Taskforce on resourcing the Voluntary and Community Sector and the Minister’s Fuel Poverty Taskforce; was appointed by the Minister at the Department for Social Development as 1st Chair of the Northern Ireland Fuel Poverty Advisory Group until 2009 and by the Minister of State at the Department of Public Enterprise (Republic of Ireland), as a founding Board Member of the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (Sustainable Energy Ireland); was a Board member of Belfast Healthy Cities; Belfast Hills Partnership; Chaired the Visiting Professor’s Panel on Sustainability at the University of Ulster; Chaired the DoE’s Climate NI, climate change impact partnership; Chaired CO3, membership body for 3rd Sector leaders.

John is a Life Fellow of RSA, was NI & UK Social Enterprise Leader of the Year in 2011; was made a Distinguished Graduate of Ulster University; was awarded IoDNI 2012 & IoDUK 2013 Public & 3rd Sector Director of the Year. John was awarded a MBE in 1998 & an OBE in 2011. In 2015 was made a companion of the Chartered Management Institute. In 2017 was elected one of the first national Social Enterprise UK Fellows.

Pauline Leeson CBE is Chief Executive of Children in Northern Ireland.

She trained and qualified as a Social Worker and has worked in children’s services in Wales and Northern Ireland.  She is a Non - Executive Director in Southern Health and Social Care Trust and an Independent Member in Lisburn and Castlereagh Policing and Community Safety Partnership.  

She is a Member of the Housing Executive’s Asset Management & Maintenance Committee and the Resources & Performance Committee.

 

Jim McCall was Managing Director with Four Seasons Health Care Ireland and from May 2008 to 2015. He was also Chief Executive Officer with Ulster Supported Employment 2015-2016.

Jim has worked in Health and Personal Social Services in Northern Ireland for more than 40 years. He trained and qualified as a Social Worker and held a number of senior professional positions including Director of Social Services with a Health and Social Care Trust.

He has been employed in a number of Senior Management positions at Executive Director and Board Level including Chief Executive for 6 years of the largest integrated Health and Social Care Trust in Northern Ireland. Jim has extensive experience of working in challenging roles including managing Health and Community Social Services through significant reform, modernization and transformation programmes.

He has proven leadership credentials and a record of achievement.  He brings to the role of Non-Executive Director with the Northern Ireland Housing Executive experience of the Northern Ireland and UK Health and Social Care economy with vision, commitment and endurance.

He has studied at Queens University Belfast, University of Ulster, Brunel Institute and completed programmes at the Harvard Business School and European Business School (Insead) at Fontainebleau.

Jim is the Chair of the Housing Executive’s Tenant & Customer Services Committee and a member of the Audit, Risk & Assurance Committee.

Mr Wilson was first appointed to the Board of NIHE in June 2015 and in June 2020 was re-appointed for a further five years. 

He served on the Audit, Risk & Assurance Committee until December 2020 when he moved to become the inaugural chair of the Resources & Performance Committee.

He is a former banker with experience spanning almost four decades, latterly running mortgage businesses in NI, GB and RI. 

For ten years he was the chair of the NI mortgage committee of UK Finance, formerly the Council of Mortgage Lenders and also spent time as a part-time lecturer for the Institute of Bankers and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. He is a graduate of Queen's University, Belfast.

Mr Wilson was appointed to the Parades Commission for NI in January 2021 and also serves on the Governing Body of the South Eastern Regional College, to which he was appointed in November 2020.  He has served on the board of Co-ownership since 2019 and is a lay member of the Statutory Committee of the Pharmaceutical Society of NI. 

He is a Member of the NI Forum for a better housing market, a Member of the Centre for Collaboration on Housing Evidence and a Non-Executive Chair to the Northern Ireland Medical and Dental Training Agency.

Mr Wilson has not undertaken any political activity in the last five years.

Chris Welch has over 30 years’ experience in the housing sector, specialising in asset management and construction related services with a range of local authority and housing association providers.

He has worked extensively at head of service level and has held director level posts with Acclaim Group and Waterloo Housing through which he has experience of contributing to planning and implementation of strategy and operational responses.

Chris has experience of leading strategic reviews, streamlining processes and implementing improved management systems.

He is currently employed by Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust, is a former Trustee of Inspire North and a former Trustee of York CVS.

He is the Chair of the Housing Executive’s Asset Management & Maintenance Committee.