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Strategy Committee

Ben Denton

Chief Executive

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.

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

In addition, Ben Denton holds the following responsibilities on behalf of Legal & General Affordable Homes’ Registered Providers:

– Health & Safety Lead
– Regulator of Social Housing’s Consumer Standards Lead
– Member responsible for Complaints, as required under the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code

Catherine Raynsford

Catherine Raynsford

MD Stock Acquisitions

Catherine brings a wealth of knowledge and over 20 years of sector experience. She was most recently a Director at The Hyde Group, where she led the establishment of their investment function and spearheaded their delivery of affordable housing in partnerships with institutional capital.

Her prior experience also includes a senior client-facing role at JLL and development positions at housing associations.

Chris Hewitt

Chief Investment Officer

Chris has extensive experience in asset management, investments and structured finance, having previously roles as Chief Financial Officer at Heylo Housing, an affordable housing investment business of over 5,000 homes, Investor Relations Director at Target Fund Managers and Associate Director of Fund Investments at Bank of Scotland.

Chris will work as a key business partner to LGAH’s Chief Executive, Ben Denton.

Nicky Blakeman

Director of Governance, Policy and Strategic Projects

Nicky is a chartered company secretary with 15 years’ experience in housing and PLC governance and risk, and joined LGAH after working as the Company Secretary for Legal & General Capital and Legal & General Asset Management.
 
Nicky has 16 years’ experience in the affordable housing sector, working in both governance and operational roles including PFI project management, regeneration management, customer engagement and business improvement.

Peter Cross

Peter Cross

Chief Operations Officer

Peter has 24 years of experience within the finance and real estate sectors and has held senior roles in M&A, portfolio integration and optimisation, operating platform build out and business strategy implementation.

He has significant experience across the residential, student and industrial real estate sectors and has worked with Blackstone, CPPIB and GIC in previous roles.