Ian Matthews, Chief Executive

Ian was appointed in October 2006  to oversee the Transfer of South Gloucestershire’s housing stock to Merlin. He previously held the joint posts of  Regional Director (West) with the  Guinness Trust and Chief Executive of Parchment Housing Group, which was part of the Guinness Partnership.

Ian has almost 40 years’ experience in social housing with both local authorities and housing associations. Having worked for Portsmouth City Council and the London Borough of Southwark  he joined Havant Borough Council where he  led the transfer of the Council’s housing stock to Hermitage Housing. He was appointed as Hermitage’s first Chief Executive in 1994 and oversaw its growth and transformation into the Parchment Housing Group with the development of new homes, the acquisition of a private sheltered housing, residential care and nursing complex, the creation of a separate arms length repair and maintenance contractor and the establishment of a separate care and support arm. In 2001 he worked closely with the Board of Parchment to select a partner and led on Parchment becoming a member of the Guinness Partnership a large, national, group of housing associations.

Ian is a former member of the National Housing Federations Council a member of its Executive Committee and a member of the South West Regional Committee He was a statutory appointee on the Board of an Isle of Wight housing association, playing a leading role in its partnership with a larger organisation where he became, for a while, a member of the Group Board. He subsequently undertook a seconded role of Interim Chief Executive at a Dorset transfer association that was subject to regulatory intervention. Ian is currently a Board member at Charter Housing, based in Newport, Wales which is part of the successful Seren Group.