Our Board

Sir David Bell KCB brings with him a wealth of experience following a career spanning over 37 years, holding a number of major posts across the education system. Between 2012 and 2018, he was Vice-Chancellor at the University of Reading. Previously, he was Permanent Secretary at the Department for Education for six years, serving four Secretaries of State and three Prime Ministers. He also served as Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools for nearly four years.

Adrian Stanley is Chair of Prince Bishops Homes and a Karbon Homes Board Member

Adrian has been a lawyer for over 30 years. His main areas of practice are public sector development schemes, regeneration projects and funding agreements for local authorities, Homes England (formerly the HCA), public sector companies such as the old URCs, registered providers, and private sector companies. He has experience of development agreements, property joint ventures, funding, state aid and procurement. The majority of his career was spent with Eversheds Sutherland where he was the senior partner of the Newcastle office.

Adrian has been on the boards of a number of charities and not-for-profit organisations including Byker Bridge Housing Association (now Tyne Housing Association), The North East Employment Bond, Dame Allan's Schools and North East Architecture.

Currently, he is an academic tutor at Sunderland University teaching postgraduate students in the pro bono law clinic.

Outside of work, Adrian enjoys running, walking, gardening and reading.

Alexis is an experienced Non-Executive Director/Trustee working in such roles for 20 years in government departments, the third sector, higher education and pension funds.

In her Civil Service career, most recently she was Director-General for Transformational Government at the Cabinet Office in Whitehall from 2007-2011.

Prior to that, she was Chief Executive of the Pension Service from 2002 to 2007, overseeing the introduction of Pension Credit and working with Ministers on Pension Policy development.

Before that appointment, Alexis was Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency, which was the largest government agency at the time. She was responsible for an extensive network of local officers and processing centres employing over 80,000 people.

A Statistician by training Alexis has also been a CIO and led HR. Finance, Estates and Procurement Services

Currently, Alexis is also a Non-Executive Director at the Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Trust, a Mental Health Foundation Trust.

Anne Mulroy has held a number of senior posts in housing and regeneration. She was - until recently - head of North East for the Homes & Communities Agency, where she had a strong track record of involvements in major regeneration projects. Prior to this she led the Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder for Newcastle and Gateshead and worked as a senior manager for Places for People.

Anne is a proven senior leader, with extensive experience of working in partnership with public and private sector organisations.

David Butler is a Fellow and Past President of the Chartered Institute of Housing. He is also a Chartered Surveyor and Chartered Secretary and has an M.Sc. in Public Sector Management.

He began his career in housing in 1966 and after working in Tyneside and South Yorkshire was appointed Director of Housing at Newcastle City Council in 1984, aged 34. He was appointed as Chief Executive of the CIH in 1998 and retired from full-time employment in 2008. During his ten years at the CIH, membership grew by 40% and CIH launched HouseMark, now the Sector's leading data and analysis service.

Prior to the creation of Karbon Homes he was Chairman of Cestria from 2012 and a member of the Isos Board from 2014.

In addition to his role as Vice Chairman of Karbon Homes he is Chairman of East Durham College, which has recently benefited from a £12.75m investment in its Houghall Campus, and is a member of the Property Committee of Durham Cathedral.

Hanif is currently employed as the Director of a Charitable Foundation and was previously the Chief Executive of a leading Community organisation in Leeds and then Chief Operating Officer of an International Humanitarian Charity. He has over 20 years’ experience of operating at a strategic level having been a Non-Executive Director of several boards.

Having developed and implemented a plethora of community-related projects across health, sport, young people’s work and regeneration during his career, Hanif has a significant understanding of community engagement processes.

He has previously completed a six-year period as on the national Sport England Board where he was also Chair of the Project Committee and the Board lead for Equality & Diversity.

His work on inclusion and diversity stretches back over the past two decades and he is a certified practitioner in this regard with the National Centre of Diversity.

In addition to his paid role, he is currently an Ambassador at the Children’s Heart Surgery Fund in Leeds and a board member at Yorkshire County Cricket Club (where he became the first individual of BME origin to be appointed to the board in the 153-year history of the club)

His prolonged period of working alongside and supporting communities at a local, regional and national level was recognised in July 2014 through being awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Leeds Beckett University for ‘services to the public’ and on receiving an OBE in the Queen's Honours for ‘Services to the Community’ in June 2016.

Julie Taylor has a strong track record of leading complex, customer-facing transformation, with a significant digital element, including in senior roles in the North East with Virgin Money and previously with Barclays and HSBC.

Mike Mullaney brings substantial experience from the banking sector, particularly as a former regional director at Lloyds Banking Group, and at Royal Bank of Scotland.

He has held external appointments at a range of high profile organisations including the CBI and Business in the Community

Sarah is an Executive Coach, having established her own business upon leaving her role as Group HR Director at Northumbrian Water after eight years.

Prior to this she was the Director of HR and OD at Places for People for five years, and her earlier career was in HR and Business Transformation roles in Nestle and Northern Foods.

In her career of over 30 years Sarah has worked with CEOs and senior teams in three different sectors, and she brings a wealth of experience to support our People and Culture agenda. In 2018 the CIPD named her as the ‘Inspirational Practitioner’ in the north east of England. She holds a post-graduate qualification in Business and Executive Coaching, at the Senior Practitioner level, and she now works as a coach with senior leaders in a range of businesses and organisations across the UK.

Sarah is a Trustee at Beamish Museum, and established the Business Friends of Beamish in 2013. She teaches a regular yoga class in Chester le Street and occasional corporate yoga.

Stephen is a Chartered Accountant, and an experienced non-executive director, charity trustee, consultant and coach.

He has recently returned to the UK after a varied international career with KPMG, where as a board member and Chief Operating Officer he managed their operations in eastern Europe, helping to build a number of professional services businesses across that region, as well as starting some from scratch.

During his career with KPMG, he lived in five countries, worked in several more, and operated across a wide range of management activity, including People, Finance, Business Development, Marketing and Communications, and IT.

He started his career with PwC, working in UK and Italy, after graduating from Oxford University.