Meet the Management Team
Gavin
Cansfield, Chief Executive
Gavin joined us from Hanover in Hackney in November 2008, where
he has spent the last four years as Chief Executive. He was also a
member of the Executive team; his portfolio included responsibility
for strategy and improvement focusing on strategic change and
engagement opportunities for residents and staff.
With a background in housing, regeneration and
homelessness, Gavin has worked for a number of housing associations
in the West Midlands and London. He has managed services for
homeless people, a housing advice service, regeneration programmes,
including New Deal for Communities and, prior to joining Hanover,
he was London Regional Director for Southern Housing Group.
In Hackney Gavin was a member of the Local
Strategic Partnership – Team Hackney – where he was Board Champion
for the Local Area Agreement and Community Engagement and served as
co-chair of the Better Homes Partnership. He has been a member of
the National Council for the National Housing Federation, is a
member of the Commission for Co-operative and Mutual Housing and
board member of the Housing Association Charitable Trust
(‘hact’).
As Chief Executive, Gavin is responsible for
leading the work of Tower Hamlets Homes together with the Senior
Management Team. He works closely with the Chair of Tower Hamlets
Homes, the Board and the council, and believes providing excellent
services to our residents is the key to success at Tower Hamlets
Homes.

Liz Ormston, Interim Head of Asset
Management
Liz joins Tower Hamlets Homes from Tower
Hamlets Council, bringing 20 years senior management experience in
Housing.
She has held a number of challenging positions
in local government including Lettings Manager at Ealing Council,
Housing Service Manager for Poplar Neighbourhood and, most
recently, as New Partnerships and Initiatives Manager.
Her new team, Asset Management, is central to
delivering decent homes and is responsible for securing the
resources to not only deliver decent homes but to develop
initiatives to improve our estates in partnership with residents
and the council.
Liz will also oversee the repairs service,
delivery of the major works programme, lettings and health and
safety.
Jamie Carswell,
Director of Strategy and Performance
Jamie joins Tower Hamlets Homes from Hackney,
where he was Deputy Executive Mayor, having had a leading role in
strategic housing, performance management, communications and
forming local strategic partnerships. He has worked in housing for
9 years, and has been involved throughout in corporate governance,
regeneration and the relationships with tenants and residents;
previously he worked in the NHS.
Jamie manages performance improvement and
resident engagement across Tower Hamlets Homes, and oversees our
governance arrangements, such as the Board and its sub-committees.
His directorate also handles all communications with residents and
staff and will be aiming to improve responses to members and
residents’ complaints.

Paul Leo, Interim Head of Housing and Customer
Services
Setting up his own market research company was
one of a number of commercial roles Paul performed in his early
career, before taking on several challenging positions in the
public sector. These have included work for Merthyr Tydfil, Hull
City and West Sussex councils as well as Hammersmith and Fulham
Homes – and, most recently, as Director of Customer Services at
Three Valleys Housing in Derbyshire.
Housing and Customer Services is responsible
for many of the front line services and day to day management that
our residents need. The service area is
directly responsible for caretaking, rents, anti-social
behaviour, tenancy and leasehold management and, through the
partnership with the council, grass cutting, telephone responses
and the local one-stop shop housing reception service.

Derek Young, Interim Head of Finance
and Resources
Derek has worked in local government,
with RSL's and other ALMO's at senior and director level
positions. He has worked within Tower Hamlets, both for the
Council and Tower Hamlets Community Housing for the last 10
years.
The Finance and Resources team will
oversee all aspects of budgets and financial accounting for Tower
Hamlets Homes and for all payments. In addition, important
areas such as value for money and the review of service level
agreements with the Council will also be led by this
team. Other areas include leaseholder service charges, billing
and collection.