Debbie obtained a history degree from Cambridge and moved to Cardiff in 1988, obtaining her chartered accountancy qualification in 1991. Having worked in the private, public and charitable sector, Debbie started her career in housing with Dewi Sant in 2005. Formerly the Group Finance Director, she took up the post of Chief Executive in April 2014.

Debbie believes in working towards a fairer and more equal society and that access to a good quality, affordable home in a sustainable community is a key part of this. She is a former Chair of both Chwarae Teg, the charity working towards economic development and equality for women in Wales, former Chair of Community Housing Cymru and Trustee of the leading Welsh mental health and wellbeing charity, Platfform (previously Gofal). Debbie is also a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Housing.

Luke has worked in the housing sector for over 20 years within local authorities and housing association’s in both England and Wales. He qualified with an MSc in Housing from Cardiff University and started his career as a trainee housing manager. He is a Chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Housing.

Following several years working for local authorities in Wales, Luke moved to England to work for Places for People Group, one of the largest social housing landlords in the UK. Luke was responsible for large multi functional teams and led on regeneration projects and operations in the South West and North West of England whilst working as the Regional Manager.

In 2014 Luke returned to live in and work in Wales and begin his new role as Director of Housing Services with Rhondda Housing Association. Following 4 years in this post Luke took up the role of Chief Executive in 2018 where he has overseen a significant period of change. During this time Luke has also held non executive roles as Chair of the Regional Partnership Board for Cwm Taf Morgannwg and is currently Board member of Business in the Community Cymru.

Caroline started out in the legal profession, having obtained a law degree, before specialising in employment law and then making the move to a career in HR.  Having worked in the legal, private, public and charitable sectors, Caroline started her career in housing in 2002.

After holding the position of Head of HR & Corporate Services, Caroline became the Director of HR and Organisational Development in 2013, and then Executive Director in 2017.

Caroline is a voluntary Regional Facilitator for the CIPD in Wales and National Council Member, a member of the Living Wage steering group for Mid and West Wales, and is a member of  the Community Housing Cymru (CHC) Strategic HR Delivery Group. Caroline has a Masters in Human Resources, an MBA and is a qualified coach and mentor. A Fellow of the CIPD, Fellow of the ILM and a member of CIH, Caroline is also Director of Belasco Associates Ltd, along with her husband, who runs a commercial management consultancy business.

David Thomas is a strategic finance and transformation leader, with significant experience spanning financial planning and analysis, performance management and delivering data-driven insights and decisioning across large, multi-national organisations.

After obtaining a degree in Modern History from the University of Oxford, David began his career at KPMG auditing private and public sector clients, including multiple housing associations across South Wales and beyond, before holding senior roles at BT, EE and Legal & General Asset Management, where he led Financial Planning & Analysis for the UK’s largest asset manager.

At Beacon Cymru, David brings strong commercial and financial expertise alongside a commitment to social purpose, focusing on strengthening financial resilience, improving data-driven decision-making and supporting the provision of quality, affordable housing in helping communities thrive.

Serena started her career working in homeless hostels and refuges in London before joining Capital Housing (now St Martins) in 1996, starting as a project worker and later securing promotion to her first management role. In 2001, Serena joined Look Ahead in a management position at their Gateway Foyer, later becoming Head of Quality and Performance until she left in 2008 to move to Wales. After seven years with Grŵp Gwalia (now Pobl), initially as Director of Supported Housing and latterly as Director of Strategy and Governance, Serena joined Beacon in 2014 as Director of Operations.

Serena is a Business and Civic Commissioner in the Swansea Poverty Truth Commission, the first to be run in Wales and a sector representative on the Ending Homelessness National Advisory Board (Wales). She was vice chair of Community Housing Cymru’s Housing and Welfare Strategic Delivery Group and remains an active member. She has been part of the strategic leadership group for Local Area Coordination in Swansea since 2016. Serena has a keen interest in relational, strengths based approaches and in designing services to meet what matters to residents.

In 2015, Serena became a foster parent with the local authority in Swansea, and is a keen advocate for Looked After Children. Serena has formerly held voluntary roles for a UK youth charity and as a school governor in Swansea. She is a member of the Chartered Institute of Housing.

Jen has worked in the housing sector for 25 years, spending the majority of her career in local government before moving into the housing association sector in 2019, when she joined RHA as Director of Operations. Throughout her career, Jen has held responsibility for a wide range of operational and strategic housing services. In her previous role at RHA, Jen led the housing, asset management, maintenance, and resident engagement service areas, driving performance and service improvement across these functions.

Jen is passionate about the use of data‑driven insight to support service transformation and continuous improvement. In 2025, she took up the position of Executive Director of Transformation and Business Insight at Beacon, where she leads the delivery of the organisation’s ambitions in this area. Her portfolio includes responsibility for technology services, business insight, and the delivery of Beacon’s Transformation Strategy. Through this role, Jen works closely with colleagues across the organisation to harness the benefits of data and technology, enabling Beacon to deliver its vision and purpose.

Rhianydd Jenkins is an experienced and trusted construction and property professional with over 20 years’ hands-on experience in development, specialising in the delivery of affordable housing and mixed-use schemes.

She has built her career within the Registered Social Landlord sector in South Wales and brings significant expertise, credibility, and passion to her role. As Executive Director of Development & Growth, Rhianydd is responsible for Beacon’s overall development programme, including the delivery of approximately 200 new homes per annum, strategic partnerships, and wider growth opportunities.

Alongside the commercial aspects of her portfolio, Rhianydd leads on Social Value at Beacon. By embedding social value across procurement, development programmes, and organisational culture, she ensures that Beacon’s work responds directly to community need, aligns with Welsh social value expectations, and contributes to a fairer, more sustainable future.

Peter’s career has been spent in banking – initially in commercial banking roles within NatWest and subsequently leading the Principality Building Society’s Commercial Team for almost 20 years, before standing down in 2021.

In the latter role, the division played a significant part in supporting the Welsh housing agenda across a broad spectrum from SME house builders to social landlords, which fuelled Peter’s passion for the housing association sector. Through this position, and also as Chair of UK Finance, Peter has forged strong links with many of the housing industry stakeholders at both policy and strategic level.

Married with two children, Peter went to a Welsh school in North Wales and is re-learning his Welsh skills.

Recently retired from the Principality Building Society, Patrick has a proven track record of using a systems thinking methodology that demonstrates improvement in service, efficiency, costs and morale across a range of service industries. He is experienced in working with leading brands in competitive industries with the primary focus on exceeding expectations for customer service delivery through core quality management.

From 2009-2017, Patrick was a freelance consultant with Vanguard Consulting Limited which included redesigning work for public sector and private sector organisations. During this time he worked with seven different Housing Associations in the UK and Ireland focusing on improving services for residents. Prior to this, Patrick spent 17 years with ‘The Halifax’ which included spells as a Call Centre Manager and an Operations Director.

One of only 45 people worldwide to be accredited to use the Vanguard Consulting Ltd methodology, he has a degree in Sports Science from Loughborough University, is the Chair of his local Community Fridge and coaches young athletes at a running club in Newport.

Aaron has spent over a decade working in senior policy and influencing roles across the UK, on issues ranging from housing to transport, health and education.

His time in housing has included spells as Director of Policy & Membership with the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations and Head of Policy & External Affairs with Community Housing Cymru, where he work with housing associations on areas including finance, development, governance and decarbonisation.

He has also previously served as Chair of Public Affairs Cymru, and as a trustee for a number of local charities.

Bethan has worked in Local Government, the Public and Private sectors, supporting people with a disability to maximise their opportunities and realise their aspirations for 30 years.

For the last 17 years, she has worked at Exec-Board level, leading organisations and teams to deliver high quality, person-centred services. Whilst she has primarily worked within health and social care, she has also led services within the social housing and welfare-to-work sectors.

Bethan is currently Group MD for a Social Care Company, leading teams that operate Care Homes in both Wales and England. She is passionate about supporting others and has a track record in effective people leadership, performance management and of business development.

Edward, who has lived in Swansea since 2006, had worked with HSBC Commercial Bank for a number of years before setting up a consultancy firm in 2013.

He works with businesses in Wales that contribute positively to their immediate environments. This includes roles with Swansea Council’s Economic Development and Regeneration team, in addition to a renewable rnergy and med-tech provider here in Wales.

Edward initially supports from a strategic perspective however, he can raise funding, restructure activities or coach teams depending on the immediate and longer-term needs.

Originally from Swansea, Gurmel moved to Hatfield to attend the University of Hertfordshire for initial degree in pharmaceutical science after progressing to pharmacy at De Montfort University in Leicester.

Having worked in forensic toxicology, career progression led Gurmel to work for Public Health England (PHE) developing and manufacturing biopharmaceuticals. Whilst at PHE he attained a master’s in healthcare management from Swansea University.

Gurmel moved back to Swansea in 2016 where he currently works as a manager in the National Health Service (NHS), overseeing research in Wales and leading staff approving research at NHS sites. Gurmel works closely with counterparts in England, Northern Ireland, and Scotland so that research processes are aligned and therefore provide a better availability of research to participants. He is also a Vice-Chair Governor at a local primary school.

Gurmel is passionate about supporting diversity in the community, the links between social housing and healthcare which falls in line with the same beliefs and values of Beacon.

Jane has considerable experience in the voluntary sector as past CEO at PLANED. The organisation has been in existence for over 30 years. It is regarded to be the most established Community Led Local Development organisation in Wales.

Having been a Chief Executive of a charity and a volunteer trustee, Jane has experience of both ‘sides’ of operations. Currently employed as a Community and Public Liaison Officer in the Construction and Civil Engineering Industry, Jane has an MBA (Distinction) Dissertation ‘Accountability and Governance in Charities.’

Her personal interests are in Sustainability, with a keen interest in the Ellen MacArthur Foundation which works with business, government and academia to build a framework which is restorative and regenerative by design.

Previously a trustee with Arthritis Care and Wales representative, Jane worked with the Board and Executive team during the merger with Arthritis Research UK to form Versus Arthritis. She  also volunteers with Prince’s Trust Cymru as an enterprise mentor and supports the volunteer recruitment team.

Jane has been involved with rural regeneration policy and actions over 25 years and the Regeneration plans at Beacon being predominantly urban have been an area of interest for her.

Previously worked within the Royal Bank of Scotland Group before joining Santander in 2015. Extensive experience of finance across a wide range of sectors with a specialism around Real Estate.

Jonathan has run a number of Teams and had responsibility for strategy, achieving challenging goals and people development.

Luke has worked in the housing sector for over 20 years within local authorities and housing association’s in both England and Wales. He qualified with an MSc in Housing from Cardiff University and started his career as a trainee housing manager. He is a Chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Housing.

Following several years working for local authorities in Wales, Luke moved to England to work for Places for People Group, one of the largest social housing landlords in the UK. Luke was responsible for large multi functional teams and led on regeneration projects and operations in the South West and North West of England whilst working as the Regional Manager.

In 2014 Luke returned to live in and work in Wales and begin his new role as Director of Housing Services with Rhondda Housing Association. Following 4 years in this post Luke took up the role of Chief Executive in 2018 where he has overseen a significant period of change. During this time Luke has also held non executive roles as Chair of the Regional Partnership Board for Cwm Taf Morgannwg and is currently Board member of Business in the Community Cymru.

Scott was born in Neath, studied town planning at Sheffield University and trained in London with the National Audit Office where he qualified with the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy.

Scott has extensive experience in both private and public sectors having worked in various senior finance, audit and risk roles in Export Finance, Standard Chartered Bank, Welsh Funding Councils and Cardiff University.

Scott then spent the final 8 years of his career as Vice Principal at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama where he was responsible for finance, audit, risk, HR, estates and all other professional support services.

Scott is a qualified Chartered Surveyor and RICS Registered Valuer.  Currently Director of the property consultancy Savills where he heads up the Development team in Cardiff advising a range of public sector and private clients on property development and regeneration.