Advisory Board

The Advisory Board provides specific advice and support to the Housing Ombudsman on the development and implementation of:

• vision, values and objectives
• strategic direction and business planning
• public accountability for the subscriptions received

Membership comprises:

• the Ombudsman and Chief Operating Officer
• all members of the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee ARAC (see their profiles on the ARAC page)

Tim Archer

Tim is the Executive Director of Licensing and Standards at the Security Industry Authority and brings over 13 years of dispute resolution experience together with operational leadership from a parallel ombudsman service. Prior to joining the Financial Ombudsman Service, he held a variety of senior management roles at Barclays, where he worked for 13 years.

Tim has also previously been a member of the Finance and Development Committee of Tower Hamlets Community Housing, where he gained valuable insight into the running of a registered housing provider. He served as a local councillor on Tower Hamlets council for eight years, leading on a number of housing issues and was lead member for overview and scrutiny. Tim was most recently a councillor on Reigate and Banstead Borough Council where he held the Executive Portfolio of Investments and Companies.

Gill Bull 

Gill has worked in the public sector overseeing strategy and change, customer services and stakeholder engagement.  She was Director of Freedom of Information at the Information Commissioner’s Office and Director of Strategy and Insight at the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. Earlier in her career she worked at the London Borough of Sutton leading the council’s strategy, equalities, engagement and customer services functions. She now works freelance and is a qualified coach.

Maureen Corcoran

Maureen has worked in social housing for over 30 years. She started as a tenant and community activist in London, where she helped found several housing cooperatives and was active in many other housing and community projects, including the successful Coin Street campaign in London’s South Bank where the local community successfully fought for ‘homes not offices’.

She went on to work professionally in housing, rising up the ranks from being a front-line housing officer to become Head of Housing in the Audit Commission for London where she ran the housing inspection regime. She has also worked as a housing consultant and coach, taught on the housing and community studies degree at Birkbeck College and served on several housing association boards. She is a Churchill Fellow who has published research on lessons the UK can learn from housing in Germany and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Housing. She currently works as a London Blue Badge Tourist Guide.

David Holmes

David has extensive executive and governance experience ranging from roles in urban regeneration, social housing and engineering, and pension and committee board. From September 2012 until September 2023, David was a Board Member and Chair of the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee of Estuary Housing Association.

Working in the further and higher sectors since 2002, David has been involved in Chief Financial Officer roles with a broad portfolio of leadership responsibilities including audit and risk management, business continuity planning, student admissions and record systems, estate management, strategic campus master planning and development and IT.

David’s other governance roles include social housing (Board member Coin Street Housing Co-Operative and independent member of the Stonewater Housing Risk and Assurance Committee) and the Social Housing Pension Scheme (Committee member).

Tim Leslie

Tim was previously a board member of The Community Housing Group, a provider of social housing to the local communities around Kidderminster in the West Midlands, and is also a member of its Audit and Assurance Committee. He is also a Trustee of the Chester Diocesan Academies Trust, a multi-academy trust of primary schools.

Tim is a retired senior civil servant having held several positions at Ofqual, the exams regulator including its Director of Risk and Markets, Director of Strategic Reform during the reform of GCSEs and A levels, and Director of the National Reference Test. He has a broad background in regulation and risk management. Prior to joining Ofqual, he was Chief Executive and Director of Regulation at Standards for England, and also worked at the Financial Services Authority, supervising major banks.

Tim’s earlier career was in the private sector including Risk Director at Xansa plc, a business process and IT outsourcing company, and at NatWest in roles including Director of International Markets and Head of the Group’s Business Consultancy unit.

Hiten Patel

Hiten is Governance and Risk Director with an international technology organisation. He has also been a non-executive director for 20 years, working at board level, providing strategic, organisational, financial, and corporate direction. His experience covers governance, legal, compliance, people and culture, IT (digital and cybersecurity), QI (quality improvement), services, audit and risk management.

This has been across social housing, regulated, not-for-profit and third sector organisations. Hiten has served as Chair, Trustee and Governing Board Member, Chair of Audit and Risk and Chair of Finance Committees during this time, completing full terms at the Chartered Institute of Housing and Severn Vale Housing. He is a Board Member at The Pioneer Housing and Community Group, and member of its Audit and Assurance Committee.

Michael Rich

Michael has worked in a wide variety of roles primarily within the public sector during the last 20 years. Having begun his career with environmental charities, Michael moved into policy roles within central, local and regional government. He worked in regional and national roles at the Homes and Communities Agency including as Assistant Chief Executive before returning to local government serving as an Executive Director at Chesterfield Borough Council for four years. After leading significant organisational change as Chief Executive of the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, he is now undertaking strategic interim roles within local government.

Michael lives in Nottingham with his wife and two teenage children. He enjoys running, having recently taken on several ultramarathons, and plays drums as part of the band at his local church.