Independent Committee Members

Asset Management and Maintenance Committee

Niall-Sheridan

A career housing professional Niall has over 37  years experience of the social housing sector in N Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, most recently as Group Director of Development & Asset Management at Choice Housing Ireland ltd (retired December 2020).

He has extensive experience in the strategic and operational delivery of capital development and asset management programmes comprising “high net value” new build, regeneration and award winning energy efficient housing projects.

He studied at Queens University Belfast (Geography/Town & Country Planning) and Ulster University (MBA), is a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIHCM) and Chartered Town Planner (MRTPI).

Niall has solid governance experience gained from a number of non-executive director roles on voluntary boards including chairing a main Board, Audit & Risk Committee and is currently Vice Chair of the N Ireland Advisory Board of the Chartered Institute of Housing.

Niall is a Member of the Housing Executive’s Asset Management & Maintenance Committee.

Una-Davey.jpg

Una Davey is currently working as a Business Consultant, Executive Coach and Facilitator where she, inter alia, supports change management and efficiency initiatives in organisations across the UK and Ireland; assists the growth and development of senior leaders in the private, public and third sectors and facilitates group coaching, strategic planning and training to enable effective involvement, ideas generation, decision making and reaching agreement.  

She has worked as Secretary to the Governing Body of the South West College and spent time working as a Collaborative Network Executive at Invest Northern Ireland. Una lived in England and Wales for 25 years where she spent much of her career in the private sector in senior operational roles at BT plc and Heathrow Airport Limited. 

During her career, her responsibilities have included:

  • Governance and compliance with regulatory requirements;
  • Financial and budgetary control (Up to £37m); 
  • People Leadership & Performance Management;
  • Succession Planning;
  • Resource and capacity planning (up to 900 people);
  • Change management; 
  • Development of cluster networks across industry, academia and the public sector;
  • Writing of successful funding applications;
  • Engagement with government departments;
  • Trade Union negotiation (Executive level). 

She has a committed and pragmatic approach to the roles she undertakes, recognising the need to work together to achieve success. She is a Member of the Housing Executive’s Asset Management & Maintenance Committee. Una lives in Clanabogan, outside Omagh, with her husband John, their 8 year old son, Tomas, and their dog, Cassie. 

Her hobbies include walking, reading, writing poetry and attempting to develop a vegetable garden! (Hints and tips welcome!)

Audit and Risk Assurance Committee - independent members

David-Peacock.jpg

A graduate of Bristol University, David Peacock B.Sc. (Hons) FCA CTA is a chartered accountant by profession with over 25 years of experience working within the UK and Irish Financial Services industry, including senior managerial positions in risk management, corporate governance, finance and project work.  

David is a member of the Housing Executive’s Audit & Risk Assurance Committee.

David holds no other public appointments and has not undertaken any political activity.

Sharon Hetherington is an accountant by profession with over 20 years of experience working across the public sector including the Northern Ireland Audit Office, the Further Education sector, the Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunals Service and the Department for Economy.  

Sharon was Finance Director and then Modernisation Director of the Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunals Service.  She is currently Finance Director in the Department for the Economy.

In addition to being an independent member of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive Audit and Risk Assurance Committee, Sharon is an independent member of the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Audit and Risk Assurance Committee, and is a school governor..

Resources and Performance Committee

Mark Lowry has almost 40 years’ experience in the building and construction materials industry. Since May 2019, he has been the CEO of The McAvoy Group, a leading company in the growing offsite construction sector, based In Lisburn.

Mark is retiring as CEO of McAvoy at the end of September 2021, remaining on in the business as a non-Executive Director.

Prior to that, Mark had been 32 years with the CRH plc group, most recently in the role of global Group Sustainability Director, and before that had progressed within the group in the various roles of: Project Manager (notably on the Belfast Cross Harbour bridges); Business Development Director – Farrans; MD – Farrans, and CEO - Northstone.

In 2012 he moved to Warsaw to take up the position of CRH Country Managing Director for Poland, where he spent four years before taking up the sustainability role, living in Amsterdam and Dublin, until returning home to County Fermanagh.

A Chartered Engineer by profession, he is a graduate of QUB, a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, a Fellow of the Irish Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Building. Mark sits on the Construction Advisory Panel for the HS2 High Speed rail project in the UK and holds an independent non-Executive role on Thomas Telford Ltd, the knowledge business of the Institution of Civil Engineers.  

Mark is a member of the Housing Executive’s Resources & Performance Committee.

 

Parvesh is an accomplished risk professional and a serial entrepreneur, astute investor and an advisor to banks/financial institutions and some big and small companies.
 
He has held various board responsibilities in India, UK and Ireland.  He was on the board of the Irish Credit Bureau (ICB), Hire Purchase Ireland, Lombard Ireland, and Victoria College Belfast to name a few. He is currently on the Board of Acaasa Group Companies in India and Presta Management Services in UK where he is the Chair of Finance and Audit committee and is a member of the Remuneration Committee.  

Parvesh is a member of the Housing Executive’s Resources and Performance Committee.
 
As a private equity, Parvesh works closely with the founders/promoters to drive strategic transformation and help them execute their plans to scale up business. He provides advisory and leadership support to start-ups by leveraging his expertise across business and risk and innovation. He is passionate about job creation, especially in the hinterland, by supporting start-ups and incubating and running businesses that support such endeavours. As a person of Significant Influence,

Parvesh has worked with financial regulators across geographies and brings a substantial expertise in this area. He has substantial Corporate and Retail Risk expertise particularly in designing and implementing Credit and Collections policies, Analytics and models build and managing portfolio sales.
 
With an Economics and Mathematics degree and a Masters in Business Administration from Shimla University, Parvesh has over 25 years of work experience. Earlier in his career, Parvesh has worked with a myriad of banks and financials institutions in Asia, UK and Ireland. Some of the organisations include Citibank, American Express Bank, Bank of America, ABN AMRO, RBS to name a few and has held multiple operating/ CXO roles over last several years.

Parvesh spends his time both in India as well as in UK.

Tenant and Customer Services Committee

Linda has been a Housing Executive tenant for over 30 years and has over 20 years’ experience in the community & voluntary sector.  She has been the manager of a community group in the Waterside area of Derry/Londonderry since 2006.

Linda is a member on many boards and forums both locally and regionally including chairperson of the Waterside Neighbourhood Renewal Partnership Board, vice-chair of Supporting Communities, member of council’s Strategic Growth Partnership, independent member on the local PCSP and a board of governor of Lisneal College.

Linda is also on the board of Apex Housing Association where she is the chairperson of their Housing Management Committee and she is currently the chairperson of the NI Housing Executive’s Central Housing Forum.

She is a member of the Housing Executive’s Tenant & Customer Services Committee.

David Thompson
David has extensive experience of strategic and operational housing management, maintenance and regeneration. His twenty five years of director level experience with large local authority, arms length management and housing association providers has included both urban and rural housing service delivery and investment.
He has shaped and driven housing service improvements and housing asset renewal at scale with the housing applicants, tenants and owners of homes affected. Meaningful engagement with all service users has been the motivating factor in all that he has achieved.
After securing town planning, regional planning and professional housing qualifications, David’s work with social housing residents in London and Birmingham in securing innovative solutions to poor performance and developing alternative social housing investment vehicles was recognised by successive governments.
David currently has non-executive responsibilities for the £ 1.2 billion Tower Hamlets Council Pension Fund and also the 5,000 new housing development programme of the 23,000 home, Longhurst Housing Association Group.
For eight years at the very start of his career in the 1970s and 1980s David was both a Housing Executive tenant for part of the period and an employee for the entire period. David is married to Anne who was born in Co Down and they have three sons.