Board Members
At EPIC, our Board brings together a diverse group of professionals dedicated to ensuring we meet our vision, mission and values.
Each member offers unique expertise and a shared commitment to our tenants.
Simon Wilson
Simon has been Chief Executive of the Pioneer Group a community led Housing Association in Birmingham since 2018. With nearly 30 years’ experience of working in the social housing sector, Simon started his housing career with Places for People in Bradford, West Yorkshire. He has also worked for Accent Group before, more recently spending 8 years as Director of Housing at Wulvern Housing in South Cheshire. He left to establish his own Housing Consultancy and worked as an associate with the Housing Quality Network specialising in resident engagement and scrutiny.
Simon studied Housing at Leeds Metropolitan University and has a Professional Certificate and Diploma in Housing and has been a corporate member of the Chartered Institute of Housing since 2005. An experienced senior executive, Simon has continued his professional development studying Strategic Leadership at Warwick Business School.
He has also served 9 years as a Non-Executive Director on boards and operational committees. Simon currently sits on the Executive for Birmingham Social Housing Partnership and represents the partnership on the Birmingham Community Safety Executive Board, MATRIX Development Consortia Board, National Housing Federation Regional Committee and the Leadership Group for Birmingham Anchor Institution Network.
Alun Bragg
Alun is an experienced housing professional with over 25 years’ experience working within local authority and housing associations across North Staffordshire and the South Cheshire region.
Alun has been a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Housing for over 17 years and is passionate about the social housing sector and putting the customer at the heart of service and community development.
He is the Director of Communities at Aspire Housing, and leads on all housing services including neighbourhood management, tenancy support, contact centre and customer engagement.
Rachel Challinor
Rachel has over 20 years’ experience working in the housing sector; she currently works for Amplius as the Director for Governance, Compliance and Regulation.
Her skills and expertise are in governance, compliance and assurance. She has additional experience which includes portfolio management of commercial and residential loans and she was previously a school governor Chair for a local, special education school.
Margaret Dodwell
Margaret has worked in the social housing sector since 1996 and is a member of both the CIH and CIPFA.
She is the Chief Operating Officer at VIVID, and also an Executive Board Member and on the Board of their charitable arm, VIVID Plus.
She has previously been a non-executive director of two Housing associations.
Rob Emery
Rob has worked in social housing for over forty years.
He has recently retired from the role as Strategic Manager for Housing Management at the City Council and has held senior management roles at Housing Associations and Councils around the country.
Rob is our Board Member Responsible for Complaints (MRC). He takes lead responsibility for complaints at EPIC, to support a positive complaint handling culture, receiving regular information on complaints to provide insight to the wider Board on EPIC’s complaint handling performance. Full details of the role profile for the Member Responsible for Complaints can be found here.
Amandeep Jhawar
Nicholas is the Rector of a group of churches near Banbury and has now been in Holy Orders for 20 years. During his time in Coventry, he developed a number of community support projects from his church, including foodbank, job club and winter night shelter for the homeless.
He has served on several boards over the last 20 years and has also chaired a number of audit, finance, remuneration and nominations committees. His Board work has covered three sectors: health, housing and education. He is also a senior chaplain for the Army Cadet Force.
Rev. Nicholas Leggett
Nicholas is the Rector of a group of churches near Banbury and has been in Holy Orders for 20 years. He has served on several Boards over the last 20 years and has also chaired a number of audit, finance, remuneration and nominations committees. His Board work has covered three sectors: health, housing and education. He is also a Chaplain for the Army Cadet Force.
Jonathan Moore
Jonathan brings over 30 years of experience in the financial services sector, including a recent tenure as Chief Executive of Stockport Credit Union, where he led a successful modernisation programme.
Jonathan has extensive board-level experience. Prior to becoming CEO, he held a non-executive director role at another credit union within the northwest. Today, he is Board Chair for a charity that provides counselling and family therapy. He is a non-executive director and committee chair at a charity that campaigns on matters relating to financial inclusion and that owns a company which provides affordable credit to people on low to moderate incomes. He is also a trustee at a building society charitable foundation.
In his spare time, he chairs a large community organisation, which he set up and has led since its inception. Building on this experience, in 2024 he was elected a councillor for his local council.
Jonathan is a strong advocate for communities working together to create new opportunities to improve life for the people they serve.
Robert Morton
Rob joined the Board in February 2024 and brings over 20 years of experience in commercial and financial leadership roles across the private, social housing, and charity sectors.
Rob is Chief Finance Officer at Caudwell Children, a charity established for the public benefit of children in the community, delivered through equipment, treatment, therapies and support of disabled children and young people.
He has over 20 years’ experience in commercial and financial roles and is responsible for Finance, IT, HR and Facilities Management. He is a fellow member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.
Dave Newmarch
Dave has been leading and delivering housing services and related support for over 30 years. He is committed to delivering services which meet the needs of the most vulnerable members of society. He is currently the Corporate Services Director at Framework Housing.
His skills and expertise are in housing and property management. His responsibilities include property maintenance, compliance, investment, and development along with housing management, HR, and IT.
He has over 14 years’ Board experience.
Board and committee members make declarations of interest annually, and these are collated and reported to the Board. This information is available on request from our Director of Resources/Company Secretary, Sharon Shaw (s.shaw@epichousing.co.uk).