Board members

Ian Peters

Ian Peters is Chair of Legal & General Affordable Homes Limited. In his executive career he gained extensive management expertise in a range of energy and financial service positions. As Chief Executive of British Gas he initiated the roll out of the UK’s largest smart meter network and shaped the consumer facing “Connected Homes” technology including Hive. He held various positions at NatWest including Head of Retail Marketing and Sales.

Ian is also Chair of the UK Health Security Agency, a new government agency responsible for protecting the public from all health hazards including the pandemic, overseeing its creation and restructuring. He chairs a number of small, growth technology, sustainability, and social impact companies and he is a trustee of the Canal & River Trust. He was previously Chair at Bart’s Health NHS Trust as well as Vice Chair of the Peabody Trust where he led the merger of Family Mosaic with Peabody to create one of London’s largest housing associations.

Kevin Gould

Kevin Gould is a chartered accountant with 30 years’ experience in financial services and consulting, focussing on governance, risk, and audit. He worked as Chief Internal Auditor at the International Bank of Qatar and later led Internal Audit’s strategic initiatives and support operations at the Royal Bank of Scotland. He now provides consulting and advisory services, primarily relating to sustainability and ESG risk, and is vice chair of the Independent Decision-Making Body of the Bar Standards Board.

Kevin is a non-executive director and Chair of Audit and Risk Committee for both Grand Union Housing Group, a 12,500-home provider, and Look Ahead Care & Support. He is also a member of the Board of Governors at Staffordshire University, where he chairs the Sustainability & Resources Committee. He previously served as a non-executive director at Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, a Specialist NHS foundation trust, where he also chaired the Audit Committee

Sarah Melinek

Sarah is an Independent Non-Executive Director and Senior Independent Director of Legal & General Affordable Homes and joined the Board in November 2020.

Sarah has over 25 years’ experience in operational and customer focused roles both in the UK and internationally across the telecommunications, utilities and financial services sectors for organisations serving millions of customers. Sarah has expertise as a Consultant and Director in transforming customer experience and customer service, embedding customer needs at the heart of business decision making, reducing customer effort and bringing the voice of the customer into the board room.

Sarah has a degree in French and Spanish from the University of Exeter.

Kathryn Davis

Kathryn Davis spent 26 years (17 of them as a corporate/commercial partner) with city law firm Slaughter and May. During her legal career she advised clients from a variety of sectors, primarily FTSE 100/250 companies, across a wide range of practice areas including public and private M&A, commercial contracts, debt financing, equity and debt capital markets, regulatory enquiries, insolvency situations and general corporate advice.

Kathryn is an external member of the University of Oxford’s Audit and Scrutiny Committee, where she is the lead member for Counter Fraud and Health & Safety. She is a non-executive director, Deputy Chair of Council and Chair of the Estates Committee at the Girls’ Day School Trust, a large educational charity and the UK’s leading family of 25 independent girls’ schools, including two academies.

Kathryn is a Visiting Senior Fellow in Practice at LSE Law School, where she delivers commercial awareness and negotiation skills workshops to students. She also recruits and mentors trainee solicitors on a consultancy basis for innovative legal training provider, Accutrainee.

Kathryn was formerly a non-executive director at G15 housing association Metropolitan Thames Valley where she was Chair of Treasury Committee and a member of Group Audit and Risk Committee, roles which she also fulfilled at one of its predecessor organisations, Thames Valley Housing.

Ben Denton

Ben is Chief Executive of Legal & General Affordable Homes and joined at the inception of the business in August 2018.

Ben has over 30 years of experience across housing design and development, regeneration and real estate. Ben joined Legal & General Affordable Homes from Sovereign Housing Association, the 6th largest housing association in the UK where he was Executive Director of Property and Development, responsible for sales and a development programme of 1,300 homes a year. Previous positions include Group Director of Strategy and Business Development at house builder Keepmoat, Executive Director of Growth, Planning and Housing at Westminster City Council, Director of Investment at First Base and was a Director and Executive Consultant for ABROS financial advisory and KPMG.

Additionally, Ben was previously Chair at Westminster Community Homes and held various Board and Committee positions at Thames Valley Housing Association.

Ben Denton is also the Health & Safety Lead for Legal & General Affordable Homes.

Karl Shaw

Karl Shaw is the Corporate Development Director for Legal & General Retirement. He has a remit of Corporate Finance activities for the division, including the funding of Affordable Housing and other L&G businesses. Karl is a qualified actuary who has worked in the life insurance industry for over 25 years, with the majority of that time in various roles at Legal & General.

Karl holds a first class degree in Mathematics from Cambridge University.

Pete Gladwell

After an erstwhile life as a Youth Worker, Pete joined Legal & General in 2007, launching a new generation of property funds focussed on liability matching and Defined Contributions pension schemes, and L&G’s partnerships with NEST and PGGM, which total over £5bn. In 2015, Pete moved to lead L&G’s investments with the Public Sector – including the Cabinet Office, Combined & Local Authorities, NHS, Housing Associations and Universities – which now total over £6bn.

Pete continues to lead on public sector investments, as part of a broader remit to identify and drive strategic investments and initiatives through which L&G can use its resources to benefit society. This includes L&G’s partnership with Sir Michael Marmot to address health inequality.
Pete holds an MA from Brasenose College, Oxford in Computation, the IMC, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts and Honorary Professor at University College London.

Pete is heavily involved in local community projects in Harlesden, west London and a Trustee of the Fairness Foundation, the Institute of Community Studies, and the Young Foundation, which works to create a more equal and just society through social innovation.

Register of Board Members’ Interests

Ian Peters

Legal & General Directorships

Other Directorships

Agility Impact Holdings Limited
Jordan TopCo Limited / IMServ
Canal & River Trust
UK Health Security Agency
Friends of Peterhouse Limited
Clef House Limited
Sagacity Solutions Limited

Other Interests

None

Connected Persons’ Interests

None

Ben Denton

Legal & General Directorships

Legal & General Affordable Homes Limited
Legal & General Affordable Homes (Development 3) Limited
Legal & General Affordable Homes (Capital) Limited
Legal & General Affordable Homes (AR) LLP
Legal & General Affordable Homes (SO) LLP
Legal & General Affordable Homes (Operations) Limited

Other Directorships

EM Devco Limited

Other Interests

None

Connected Persons’ Interests

Ben’s wife is a partner of Gowling LLP

Kevin Gould

Legal & General Directorships

Other Directorships

Sharpthorne Services Ltd
Grand Union Housing Group
Look Ahead Care and Support
Centre for Alternative Technology Charity Ltd

Other Interests

Staffordshire University – Independent member of the Board of Governors

Connected Persons’ Interests

None

Karl Shaw

Legal & General Directorships

Other Directorships

None

Other Interests

None

Connected Persons’ Interests

None

Sarah Melinek

Legal & General Directorships

Other Directorships

Langley Place Residents Management Company Limited
CX Transformation Limited

Other Interests

None

Connected Persons’ Interests

Sarah’s daughter is an Operational Restructuring Manager at PwC

Pete Gladwell

Legal & General Directorships

Other Directorships

Fairness Foundation – Trustee

Other Interests

None

Connected Persons’ Interests

None

Kathryn Davis

Legal & General Directorships

Other Directorships

The Girls’ Day School Trust – Trustee, NED and Deputy Chair of Council

Other Interests

University of Oxford – External Member of the Audit and Scrutiny Committee
London School of Economics – Consultancy role
Accutrainee Ltd – Consultancy role

Connected Persons’ Interests

None

Simon Pistell

Legal & General Directorships

Legal & General Holdings No.2 Limited

Other Directorships

None

Other Interests

None

Connected Persons’ Interests

Simon’s son is employed by BDO as a trainee accountant.

Executive Committee

Meet the Executive Committee