My teenage years and early career were marked by my father’s severe mental ill health. My parents divorced and there was no money. Fortunately Mum had returned to work and was able to look after us. The resulting family turbulence meant my prep for GCSEs was sporadic – I went off the rails a bit, scraped a few exams and left school aged 16 (and home at 18).

Working life started with a Youth Training Scheme place in the housing department of my local council. That provided a springboard to a career in housing. Driven and ambitious, I changed job every two years, landing my first executive director role, aged 28, at a Midlands Housing Association.

This was followed by senior roles in consultancy and client side. I joined Savills in 2012 as a director in the housing consultancy team, taking over as head in 2017 and joining the UK Board in 2020. I served as Chair of the Management Board and President of the Chartered Institute of Housing 2009-12, and completed my MSc in housing in 2019. In my eyes, it’s never too late to learn.

I’ve achieved recognition as a senior leader in the affordable housing world, regularly speaking at industry events and involved in policy-leading initiatives. I couldn’t have done that without the support and encouragement of a succession of inspirational and supportive bosses, the opportunity to study via day release during the early years of my career, and the support of my husband and 10-year-old daughter.

Since joining Savills, I’ve been blown away by the flexibility and support given to me to develop my role as a senior leader. Home is in the Midlands, and my team is London based. Savills enables me to work three days from its London head office and the rest of the week is spent out and about with clients or working from home or the Birmingham office.

This provides the flexibility to balance work and home life. Savills is a business that recognises and supports different ways of working to attract and retain  talent – the culture embraces diversity and the flexible approach underpins much of our success.

Undoubtedly the property industry as a whole still has some way to go to achieve gender balance. Female representation in senior leadership remains a challenge. Savills is making good progress in this regard – our graduate intake is 50/50 gender split, and the business has a strong focus on career retention and progression for women returning from having children. Shared parental leave take-up rates are still low, but hopefully this will improve over time to enable more men to share the child raising years so the career impact is less polarised.

The thing I most love about working for Savills is the entrepreneurial culture and the spirit of fun that permeates the business. For a company that has grown so large, relatively quickly, it manages to ensure everyone has a voice and can make a difference.

Colleague engagement around key diversity and inclusion issues such as gender equality, ethnicity, LGBTQ+, age, socio economic and disability has dramatically improved in recent years and we have groups working hard within the business to make changes for the better across all these areas.

We have a lively and engaged next generation group helping to drive the business forward. Our HR policies are market leading in many areas which is allowing us to attract some of the best talent. We’re seeing more women in senior roles and greater flexibility in day-to-day working patterns to help colleagues balance their work life commitments.

Put simply, Savills makes me feel recognised and valued as an individual. As a business leader, that’s what I try to do for others – helping the next generation of leaders develop themselves and grow the business.

Further information

Contact Affordable Housing