Board of Trustees at Railway Housing Association

Yvonne Castle (Chair)

Appointed to the board: September 2024
Yvonne is former chief executive of Johnnie Johnson Housing Limited and was previously a board member with the Northern Housing Consortium, and chair of their audit & risk committee. Yvonne's career has spanned housing and local & national government and she has experience in governance, regulation, finance, organisational development and strategic people leadership.
Yvonne was appointed by the board as chair designate from September 2024 and will took up the role of chair of the board in January 2025.

Carl Makin (Vice-Chair)

Appointed to the Board: July 2018
Carl is a PhD researcher at the University of York researching housing law and regulation. He previously worked for Railway Housing Association during his undergraduate studies, establishing the association’s asset and liabilities register.
Carl is a member of the Remuneration & Governance Committee.

Philip Dunn (Chair of the Audit Committee)

Appointed to the Board: August 2020
Philip currently works as an Executive Director at one of the UK's biggest charities and has spent his entire career working in finance.

Anthony Bell (Chair of Remuneration & Governance Committee)

Appointed to the Board: November 2020
Anthony is an Assistant Director of Assets & Regeneration at a housing association. A qualified surveyor, he has worked in the private and public sector for his entire career, specialising in commercial and residential work.

Richard Wilkinson (Chair of Resident Committee)

Appointed to the Board: January 2025
Richard has previously held a number of non-exec and trustee roles and has been a social housing resident for more than 30 years and was on the board of his own housing provider for six years. Richard has a 36-year career in education, including as a deputy head teacher, and has been a governor of a high school and sat on the board of Leeds Trinity University, was a trustee and deputy chair of a charity and sat on the board of Bradford NHS.

Mark Grandfield

Appointed to the Board: August 2022
Mark is chief executive of a local housing association. A qualified building surveyor Mark has held previous strategic roles in asset management, regeneration and investment with local authorities and housing associations.
Mark is a member of our Audit Committee.

Matt Lewer

Appointed to the Board: May 2023
Matt has a wealth of experience in the housing sector, and is currently the Service Transformation Lead at the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust (JRHT), ensuring the residents' voices are heard.
Matt is a member of our Remuneration & Governance Committee.

Sharon Thomas

Appointed to the Board: January 2023
Sharon spent seven years working as Director of Development and Regeneration at Middlesbrough Borough Council before moving to Thirteen Group in 2017 where she is now Director of Strategic Partnerships.
Sharon is a member of our Remuneration & Governance Committee.

Sonija Savage

Appointed to the Board: January 2025
Sonija has over 20 years of experience in business transformation, change management and operating model design across a range of sectors and is passionate about driving effective and sustainable business change outcomes, in response to changing customer needs.
Sonija is a member of our Resident Committee

Faye Gordon

Appointed to the Board: January 2025
Faye is a qualified chartered accountant with over 23 years’ experience of working at a senior management level within the professional services and social housing sector and is currently Executive Director of Finance and Investment at Believe Housing.
Faye is member of our Audit committee.

Katherine Hernandez

Appointed to the Board: January 2025
Katherine is currently a regional director at national housing association Home Group and has more than 20 years’ experience working in the housing and public sector, including specialising in homelessness and supported accommodation.
Katherine is a member of our Resident Committee.

Meet the Board