Our leadership team
Get to know the people who are responsible for everything we do – our Executive team and Group Board members.
Our Executive team
Fiona Fletcher-Smith
Group Chief Executive
Fiona was appointed as L&Q’s Chief Executive in September 2020.
With almost 30 years of experience in the housing sector, Fiona has worked in a variety of voluntary and public sector roles including advising homeless people in Dublin, housing management, development and regeneration, strategy, and policy development.
Fiona was previously L&Q’s Director of Development and Sales, spearheading a £5.1 billion development programme. Whilst in this role, Fiona led our development and strategic land programmes, including landmark projects such as the 10,800-home Barking Riverside development. She also oversaw the group’s expansion beyond the South East and delivered change programmes to improve both the efficiency and diversity of our Development and Sales function.
Before joining L&Q, Fiona was Executive Director for Development, Enterprise and Environment at the Greater London Authority (GLA). As part of their senior management team, Fiona was responsible for overseeing the delivery and implementation of key strategies such as the London Plan and overseeing the operation of the Mayor’s powers concerning significant planning applications in the capital.
Fiona is the current Chair of Trustees at the Centre for London, helping the capital’s think tank to meet their charitable objectives. She is also chair of the G15, a group of London’s largest housing associations.
Waqar Ahmed
Executive Group Director, Finance
Waqar has worked for L&Q for more than 25 years and was appointed Group Finance Director in 2008.
His priority has been to develop a management culture across L&Q that aims to optimise our social objectives by adopting a commercial approach to all areas of operations as well as taking measured risks to maximise investment in growth.
Waqar has supported L&Q in taking on commercial activities, strategic joint ventures and vertical integration in both operational and development functions to generate significant financial strength to maximise our social impact. Furthermore, he is the Executive lead for L&Q's £1.5 billion Private Rented Sector business.
Waqar has further supported the L&Q Foundation in creating long-term sustainable partnerships with other like-minded charities investing in the social fabric of the areas we work in.
Waqar also sits on the boards of the National Housing Federation and is a trustee of the national homeless charity, Crisis.
Matt Foreman
Executive Group Director, Customer Services
Matt joined L&Q from his position as the Integration and Operations Director at Trafford Housing Trust, where he was responsible for leading the delivery of services and successfully delivering the alignment of Trafford into the L&Q Group. Matt has more than 25 years of experience in Social Housing and transformation of services, with over 12 years in leadership teams.
Matt has a wealth of experience leading customer services and delivering transformational change within Local Authorities, ALMO’s, Stock Transfer Organisations and Registered Providers in both England and Scotland. Some of Matt's most recent roles include Managing Director of DGHP, part of the Wheatley Group and Customer Service Director at Your Homes Newcastle.
Matt is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Housing and he is also a board member for Scottish Borders Housing Association.
Matt has a passion for delivering excellent customer service. His extensive experience in social housing and focus on social purpose will ensure that L&Q continues to deliver great outcomes for our customers.
David Lewis
Executive Group Director, Property Services
David joined L&Q in October 2020 as Director of Property Services and has led our sector-leading £3bn, 15-year major works investment programme.
David has three decades of experience working in social housing in a wide range of senior property and asset roles. Before joining L&Q he was most recently Executive Director of Property Services at Homes for Haringey, Director of Asset Strategy at Westminster Council and Director of Asset Management at Clarion Housing Group.
David is a member of the Chartered Institute of Housing and an associate of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. Over the last 14 years David has been a non-executive director for several housing associations and until recently was a Group board member of Southern Housing Group.
Steve Moseley
Executive Group Director, Governance and Transformation
Steve has responsibility for the corporate in-house teams delivering governance, strategy, communications, transformation, technology and health and safety.
He has extensive experience having worked in the housing sector since 1998.
Steve joined the senior management team of L&Q’s home ownership subsidiary in 2006 and has since worked in a variety of senior management roles across the organisation. He has led business planning and strategy, product development, organisational change and customer insight.
His current role is to lead the central services directorate and ensure that good governance runs through the core of the organisation so that L&Q continues to deliver on its social purpose; engaging and empowering residents and delivering much-needed quality homes and services for the benefit of all residents and customers.
Steve is also a board member at Barking Riverside Limited, a joint venture between L&Q and the Greater London Authority.
In his spare time, he is a volunteer lifeboat crew member with the RNLI.
Tom Nicholls
Executive Group Director, Human Resources
Tom has worked for L&Q for more than 20 years and was appointed as Group Director of Human Resources (HR) in 2008.
Tom has responsibility for the development and delivery of the HR strategy. This includes organisational change, recruitment and selection, talent development, pay and reward and providing expert advice and guidance on all people matters across L&Q.
Tom has also played a key role in numerous mergers and acquisitions as part of the senior management team.
A large part of his role has been the development of L&Q's employee brand, our people, which has helped the organisation become an Investors in People Gold organisation and been placed in the Great Places to Work listing, as well as other accolades that have made L&Q an employer of choice.
Vicky Savage
Executive Group Director, Development and Sales
Vicky is responsible for L&Q’s Development and Sales functions, including stock portfolio management and our in-house construction team.
Since joining L&Q in February 2018, she has held senior roles including London Managing Director, overseeing L&Q’s development operations across the capital.
Vicky has worked in a wide range of development and regeneration roles for over 25 years, including 13 years at Network Homes, three of which were as Executive Director of Development and Sales.
Vicky is a board member of Barking Riverside Ltd and a board member at Freebridge Housing Association, where she is also Chair of the Development Committee.
Our Group Board
Aubrey Adams OBE
Chair of L&Q Group
Aubrey is the former Chief Executive of Savills plc, a leading global real estate service provider, employing 35,000 people across a network of over 700 offices.
Aubrey’s previous external experiences include Senior Independent Director of Associated British Ports plc, Chair of Air Partner plc, Chair of Max Property Group plc and Non-Executive Director of The British Land Company plc.
Aubrey’s current external appointments include Chair of the Board of Trustees of Wigmore Hall and Chair of Tritax Big Box REIT plc.
Waqar Ahmed
Group Director, Finance
Waqar has worked for L&Q for more than 25 years and was appointed Group Finance Director in 2008.
His priority has been to develop a management culture across L&Q that aims to optimise our social objectives by adopting a commercial approach to all areas of operations as well as taking measured risks to maximise investment in growth.
Waqar has supported L&Q in taking on commercial activities, strategic joint ventures and vertical integration in both operational and development functions to generate significant financial strength to maximise our social impact. Furthermore, he is the executive lead for L&Q's £1.5 billion Private Rented Sector business.
Waqar has further supported the L&Q Foundation in creating long-term sustainable partnerships with other like-minded charities investing in the social fabric of the areas we work in.
Waqar also sits on the boards of the National Housing Federation and is a trustee of the national homeless charity, Crisis.
Dr. Louise Brooke-Smith OBE
Chair of Development Committee
Louise is a Chartered Surveyor and Chartered Town Planner with experience drawn, over 40 years, from the UK and overseas.
She provides strategic development advice for national and international clients from the public and private sectors. Formerly a Partner of Arcadis LLP, a Global Consultancy for the Built Environment, she was UK Head of Development & Strategic Planning, Head of Social Value, and continues to advise as a Strategic Consultant.
Louise was the first female Global President of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. She championed diversity and inclusion and led initiatives including the RICS Inclusive Employers Quality Mark and the Property Strategy for Sub-Saharan Africa.
Her accolades include Outstanding Woman in Construction and National Achiever in Construction. Louise was awarded an OBE in 2019 for ‘services to the built environment, diversity and inclusion’.
Louise is an experienced non-executive director holding positions on many boards, including board member and Employee Engagement Lead for Genuity Group plc, board trustee of The Land Trust and board member of the Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP. She is also a board member at Enterprise Zone (Birmingham City Council), Birmingham City University, Birmingham Museums Trust, and Stockport Mayoral Development Company.
Maria Da Cunha
Maria is a former senior executive of British Airways plc where she worked for 18 years until 2018. Maria was BA’s Head of Legal and Government and Industry Affairs for four years before becoming its Director of People and Legal in 2011, responsible for human resources, legal, risk and compliance.
Maria has extensive experience in corporate governance, risk and compliance, regulated industries, transformation programmes, employee engagement and industrial relations.
Before joining BA, Maria held various positions with Lloyds of London, Lovells LLP and the College of Europe. She was formerly a Non-Executive Director of De La Rue plc and a Trustee of Community Integrated Care.
Maria is a Non-Executive Director of International Distribution Services plc and Irwin Mitchell Holdings LLP and a panel member of the Competition and Markets Authority.
Fiona Fletcher-Smith
Group Chief Executive
Fiona was appointed as L&Q’s Chief Executive in September 2020.
With almost 30 years of experience in the housing sector, Fiona has worked in a variety of voluntary and public sector roles including advising homeless people in Dublin, housing management, development and regeneration, strategy, and policy development.
Fiona was previously L&Q’s Director of Development and Sales, spearheading a £5.1 billion development programme. Whilst in this role, Fiona led our development and strategic land programmes, including landmark projects such as the 10,800-home Barking Riverside development. She also oversaw the group’s expansion beyond the South East and delivered change programmes to improve both the efficiency and diversity of our Development and Sales function.
Before joining L&Q, Fiona was Executive Director for Development, Enterprise and Environment at the Greater London Authority (GLA). As part of their senior management team, Fiona was responsible for overseeing the delivery and implementation of key strategies such as the London Plan and overseeing the operation of the Mayor’s powers in relation to significant planning applications in the capital.
Fiona is the current Chair of Trustees at the Centre for London, helping the capital’s think tank to meet their charitable objectives. She is also Chair of the G15, a group of London’s largest housing associations.
Nigel Hopkins
Chair of Audit and Risk Committee
Nigel Hopkins is a Non-Executive Director at MHS Homes, Herts Urgent Care Social Finance fund for End-of-Life Care, Symmetry Housing and NPH Consult Ltd.
He has enjoyed a successful and varied executive career with International Blue Chip and Regulated businesses.
He has extensive experience in organisational transformation in both the private and public sectors, most recently in businesses delivering social impact through housing, skills, jobs, senior living, and care.
Dominique Kent
Chair of L&Q Living Board
Dominique holds a number of Non-Executive Director and advisory roles in the Health and Social Care sector and has built her experience in Executive posts throughout her career.
Dominique was CEO of Pacific Investments for their Senior Living business until November 2022. Prior to this, she was appointed by Sodexo as the COO for the Sodexo UK and Ireland Homecare business portfolio. This was subsequent to the Sodexo takeover in April 2019 when Dominique was appointed Managing Director for The Good Care Group (TGCG).
TGCG was a fast-growing provider of live-in care services enabling older people to stay in their own homes and communities. Dominique is particularly proud to have achieved an Outstanding Care Quality Commission (CQC) rating in all five categories. Prior to that, she held positions with Sunrise Senior Living and Sainsbury’s.
Dominique has also Chaired the Homecare Association, where she was a Non-Executive Director for nine years. She is Chair of the L&Q Living Board and a member of L&Q’s Group Board. Dominique is a Non-Executive Director at Trinity Home Care and County Cousins. She is also an advisor for Thalamos, a business set up to improve outcomes for mental healthcare.
Raj Kumar
Raj has more than 35 years of practical experience working in the registered provider sector. This includes being Head of Service for a Local Authority, during which he helped set up an Arm’s Length Management Organisation (ALMO).
Since 2006, Raj has headed up One Enterprise Ltd, a housing consultancy working across the UK.
He has previously managed several best practice clubs for Housemark. He also heads up an Independent Tenant Advisory (ITA) service, which is supporting residents on a regeneration scheme in Harrow.
Raj is the Independent Chair of the Customer Committee at Nottingham Community HA.
Raj is a member of the Chartered Institute of Housing, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and Manufacturing (RSA) and a qualified mediator.
Fayann Simpson OBE
Chair of Resident Services Board
Fayann has been an L&Q resident for more than 20 years and an involved resident for more than 15 years.
Fayann is Chair of the L&Q Resident Services Board, as well as a member of L&Q’s Group Board, Audit and Risk Committee, Governance and Remuneration Committee and was recently appointed as Senior Independent Director.
She has many years of experience working for global law firms and investment banks.
Fayann is also a member of the Independent Safety Steering Group, chaired by Dame Judith Hackett.
Fayann was awarded the OBE in the birthday honours list in 2020 for services to people living in social housing.
Fayann has been a board member at Sustainability for Housing since July 2021. She is also a member of the Mount Anvil Advisory Panel and Independent Residents Advisory Panel.
Related documents
Register of Board and Committee interests
Group Board and Committee meeting attendance 2021/22