Chief Executive

As Chief Executive of resident-led housing association Eastlight Community Homes, Emma is committed to making a difference to the lives of residents and communities across the East of England.

The former Chief Executive of Greenfields Community Housing, before it merged with Colne Housing to become Eastlight in July 2020, Emma knows how to work with her team, customers and communities to create better places to live and work.

Prior to Greenfields, Emma was a member of Flagship Group’s Executive Team for more than a decade, holding executive roles including Chief Executive of its wholly-owned subsidiary RFT Service Ltd and Executive Director of Customer Services.

Emma’s experience spans a range of housing associations and local authorities in the East, South and London, including East Thames, Estuary, Moat and Ipswich Borough Council. She began her career as a Housing Apprentice at Suffolk Heritage Housing Association.

She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Housing and Chair of BuildEast. She is a leading advocate for improving the disabled experience for colleagues and customers, engaging with housing providers across the country through Eastlight’s partnership with national disability organisation, Purple.

Emma is also Senior Independent Director at EastendHomes, and Board Member and Chair of the Customer Services Committee at A2Dominion. 

In June 2023, Emma was granted the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award at Inside Housing's Housing Heroes Awards, in recognition of her career in the industry. You can read more about the impressive accolade here.

Emma holds a BSc (Hons) in Housing Management and Development.

Executive Director, Business Growth, Data & Change

As Eastlight’s Executive Director of Business Growth, Data & Change, Dan has executive responsibility for data strategy and analytics, information technology, annual planning, performance reporting, business improvement, continuity and major projects.

He joined the housing association in September 2020 having held senior leadership roles in the sector since 2015. Prior to Eastlight, Dan was Executive Director of Integration at Metropolitan Thames Valley, having previously been Executive Director of Strategy & Planning at Metropolitan Housing Trust. He was also our Executive Director of Development & Asset Management before being appointed to his current role.

His previous experience was in the private retail sector where his focus was on operational improvement, performance analytics and customer insight at organisations including Tesco, BT, WHSmith and Sainsbury’s.

Dan has an MBiochem (Hons) in Biochemistry from Oxford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Executive Director, People & Business Services (Health & Safety Lead)

At Eastlight, Sharon has executive responsibility for customer services, communications and external affairs, human resources, recruitment and retention, organisational development, facilities, internal policy, and equality, diversity, and inclusion.

Sharon is also Eastlight's Health & Safety Lead, responsible for the overall health, safety and wellbeing of our residents, staff members and any third parties, including volunteers, that work with us or by our instructions.

Sharon has over 30 years of leadership experience spanning the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. Prior to joining Eastlight (then Greenfields) in 2019, she held senior HR roles at Guinness Care, Optivo (now Southern Housing) and Southern Water, as well as leading roles within the police service, including at the Nottinghamshire and Sussex forces.

At the heart of Sharon’s work is investing in the capabilities of our people, delivering excellent customer service, embracing diversity at every level of the organisation, and building an inclusive culture for our people, residents and communities.

Executive Director, Finance

David leads Eastlight’s financial services, including our financial operations, procurement, income, insurance and treasury teams.

Originally joining Eastlight as Finance Director in 2023, David brings a wealth of experience from the housing sector, spanning strategy, governance, investor relations and financial control. He is well-versed in leading large-scale business transformations through mergers and acquisitions across both private and not-for-profit sectors.

David was formerly the Assistant Director of Resources at 6,000-home Thrive Homes UK. He previously also held leadership positions at some of the UK’s largest housing associations, including Settle, Peabody, Circle and Wheatley Group.

David is committed to delivering value for money and supporting his colleagues to do the best job they can in serving customers and communities.

Passionate about championing equality and diversity, David promotes a culture of ‘giving back’ and is dedicated to supporting charitable causes.

Executive Director, Strategy, Governance & Assurance (Complaints & Resolutions Lead)

Jo heads up Eastlight’s governance, strategy, risk and assurance teams. She is also responsible for our strategic partnerships, GDPR and regulatory compliance, as well as complaints and resolutions.

With over 25 years of experience in local authorities, housing associations and as a consultant, Jo was the previous Director of Policy & Projects at Flagship Group before joining Eastlight in 2023 as our Strategy & Assurance Director.

Jo is a Non-Executive Director at Freebridge Community Housing, and she is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Housing.

Committed to ensuring excellence in the housing sector, Jo strives to make a positive impact on the people, places and communities for which she works.

Jo has a First-Class BA (Hons) degree in Housing Studies.

Executive Director, Operations (Consumer Regulation Lead)

Andrew's role encompasses a wide variety of teams and services, including Housing Services, Resident Engagement, Safeguarding, and Development and Regeneration.

Andrew is also Eastlight's Consumer Regulations Lead, responsible for ensuring we remain compliant with the Consumer Standards as set out in the Social Housing (Regulation) Act.

Andrew has a wealth of experience at Eastlight, previously heading up the delivery of Eastlight’s new homes programme, including land acquisition, sales and aftercare. As our past Development Director, Andrew has brought to bear his experience in both affordable housing and commercial property.

His wide-ranging experience and ability to build positive stakeholder relations across Essex and the East of England enables Eastlight to deliver homes that meet the needs of communities in an increasingly diverse and competitive development environment.

Before joining Eastlight in 2019, Andrew ran his own development consultancy for six years. At the helm of his own business, Andrew worked on a range of development projects, from housing to healthcare, hotels to transport.

He established his career and held several leadership positions in the affordable housing sector and in local authorities, including at Braintree District Council, Thrive Homes, Circle Housing (now part of Clarion) and Moat.

Andrew is also a Housing Today Expert Panel Member.

A mental health advocate, Andrew ensures that colleagues across Eastlight have access to the resources and support they need to look after their wellbeing.

Executive Director, Property

Charlotte joined Eastlight in 2020. As our Executive Director of Property, she has strategic responsibility for asset management, capital investment and compliance across the 13,000 homes in our portfolio, including fire safety and sustainability.

In her role, she also oversees our Reactive Repairs, Planned Works and Estate Services teams.

A surveyor by trade, Charlotte has over 20 years of experience in housing management and property services. She played an integral role as part of the leadership team responsible for supporting the merger to form Eastlight in 2020.

Prior to that, Charlotte gained experience working for housing associations, including at Orbit Group, and in local authorities.

Charlotte is completing her Chartered Membership of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. She is also currently undergoing an MSc in Sustainability at Cranfield University.

Technology Director

Jon oversees Eastlight’s information and technology service, including infrastructure, business systems, cyber security and improvement. He took on the role of Technology Director in 2022 after joining the organisation as Head of ICT & Business Services in 2019.

Jon has over 30 years’ experience across B2B, B2C, professional services, technology and consulting, in corporate sectors for UK, EMEA, APAC, India and the US.

Following Markit’s acquisition by American-based multinational IHS Inc., Jon ran a global team of IT specialists working across 14 countries, providing end-to-end user support to 14,000 colleagues in 33 countries.

He previously held senior global, EMEA and APAC directorial roles at IHS. He also worked at Janes Information Group – a professional service company specialising in defence and geo-security – which was acquired by IHS in 2007. Before that, he was the UK Lead for ATIS GDN at Accenture.

In 2017, Jon took a yearlong career break to take part in the Clipper 2017/18 Round the World Race. This involved racing a sailing boat over 45,000 miles around the globe.

People Director

Tracy has strategic responsibility for human resources, organisational development, learning and development, equality, diversity and inclusion, recruitment and retention, and health and safety.

With more than 30 years’ experience in sectors including care, learning disability support, sales, marketing, manufacturing and financial services, Tracy has provided people leadership and management at organisations operating in the UK and overseas.

She has also provided strategic and operational support on the people impact of mergers, acquisitions and change programmes.

Prior to Eastlight, Tracy held leading roles at organisations including Guinness Care, HfT, European Marketing (UK) Ltd., and Lloyds TSB Group.

An advocate of employee and customer engagement and excellence, Tracy achieved an MA in Personnel & Development (MAPD). She is also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (FCIPD).

Communications & External Affairs Director

Lydia has strategic responsibility for the way Eastlight communicates with its people, customers, communities and external partners. Before joining Eastlight in 2023, Lydia was Head of Marketing & Communications at national maternity safety charity, Baby Lifeline.

Prior to that, Lydia was Group Account Director and Public Relations Director at specialist agency See Media, where she worked for over five years. Her key clients included, PA Housing, Housing 21, Look Ahead Housing and Care, the ExtraCare Charitable Trust, and Eastlight - where she previously provided PR support as an external communications consultant.

An award-winning journalist, Lydia was an Editor at Inside Housing from 2009-2014, where she specialised in writing and commissioning interviews and investigations.

She is a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.