Housing Rights Board of Directors

Rose Crozier, Chair

Rose joined the Board of Housing Rights in March 2018. She has over 40 years’ experience in public sector including roles as diverse as Head of IT supporting digital infrastructure and systems development, and Director of Neighbourhood Services providing front line services to the citizens of Belfast. Rose led a significant change programme in Belfast City Council, transforming customer experience and service delivery. Rose was previously a Non-Executive Director and former President of Socitm, the Society of IT Management in the Public Sector. Rose became Chair of the Board of Housing Rights in January 2022

Fanchea Kelly, Vice Chair

Until recently Fanchea Kelly was CEO of Blackwood, a registered Housing and Care association which covers all of Scotland and provides accessible homes to help people live independently. Previously Fanchea was Director of Housing and Support at Glasgow Housing Association and has had previous senior posts in local government. Fanchea joined the Housing Rights Board in April 2015

Patrick Brannigan, Honorary Secretary

Patrick worked at Queens University Belfast for over 41 years in a range of sociology and educational computing roles including running a MSc in Computer Based Learning. He managed the IT Training and Assessment Unit, also the IELTS Test Centre, and was an Honorary Lecturer on the Masters in Clinical Education. He is an active member of several community choirs. For almost 30 years Paddy was on the board of Ulidia Housing Association then on the Board of Choice HA and acted as IT adviser to Choice. Since November 2017 Paddy has been on the Board of Housing Rights and is currently Honorary Secretary (since 2020

Jacqui Wilson, Honorary Treasurer

Jacqui is the Business Manager within City & Neighbourhood Services department in Belfast City Council which provides key front line services for the City. She leads the Finance and Human Resources team for the department and has experience delivering service improvements and working with partners to deliver physical programmes. Jacqui has almost 30 years public service in various roles and projects in BCC including Leisure Transformation Programme. Jacqui is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants

Charles O’Neill

Charles is Director of Product Development in Co-Ownership. His role focuses on making enhancements to the Co-Ownership products and the development of new products and services. A solicitor by profession, he has a keen interest in housing law and policy and has written textbooks on several aspects of property law. Charles joined the Housing Rights Board in January 2017

Denise McAnena

Denise is a Senior Policy and Public Affairs Manager for the Devolved Nations with the British Heart Foundation. Denise joined BHF in 2018 as policy and public affairs (PPA) manager for Northern Ireland and now manages the PPA team across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland working on campaigns to improve the lives of those impacted by heart and circulatory disease. Denise joined BHF from Northern Ireland’s leading public affairs consultancy and has experience in delivering successful outcomes for a variety of organisations from multiple sectors such as business, charity and health. Denise is a graduate of Queen’s University, Belfast where she studied Law with Politics and more recently graduated with a Masters in Communications, Public Relations and Political lobbying from Ulster University. In 2020/21 Denise took part in the Boardroom Apprentice programme where she spent a year as an apprentice board member with Tourism Northern Ireland

Lesley Baird

Lesley worked with TPAS for 25 years, she was CEO for 23 years. Scotland has a long and strong history of participation, Lesley and her team were instrumental in developing best practice across Scotland, in rural, urban, island settings and with people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities. Lesley stood down from TPAS in March 2022, she has her own small consultancy now, developing partnerships between landlords and tenants, ensuring tenants voices are strong, are heard and are taken into account in decisions. Lesley has a wide range of skills and experience including Independent Tenant Advisor, Training tenants & staff, Policy & strategy development. 

Supporting organisation to improve their participation, Developing information for tenants in plain language, and Speaking at conferences and other events

Liz Millen

Liz is a qualified social worker who has had an interest in housing since the late 70s when she joined the Board of a housing association. She was awarded an OBE in 2004 for services to social housing. Before retiring from the Belfast Trust in 2015, the majority of Liz’s career was spent working with children and families. Liz was one of the developers of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults course which is undertaken as post qualifying social work training and is approved by NI Social Care Council and the University of Ulster. Liz has also spent some years training and developing her knowledge of equality and human rights legislation. Liz joined the Housing Rights Board of Directors in March 2016

Grainne Walsh

Part of the Connect Group’s leadership team, Gráinne leads the team in Belfast as Director of Stratagem. Gráinne has spent over 20 years working with a range of organisations in shaping politics and public affairs in Northern Ireland. She has worked across all Executive departments, with every political party and has experience in working at Westminster, in Whitehall and with local government. Drawing on this experience, Gráinne provides strategic and insightful advice to leaders in the business, public and voluntary and community sectors. Adept at negotiating complex policies, she also helps organisations to build policy, public affairs, and communications capacity. Gráinne has recently supported organisations to navigate the UK’s exit from the EU, respond to the challenges of COVID-19 and the economic downturn as well as on sustainability, infrastructure and wellbeing. Gráinne is a member of the Institute of Directors’ Northern Ireland Committee, the Public Affairs Board of the PRCA and sits on the boards of Housing Rights and ARC Choice Housing.

Karly Greene

Karly Greene has been the Director of Strategic Development and Partnerships at the Arts Council of Northern Ireland since November 2020 and is responsible for strategy, equality, advocacy and business planning. Karly has over thirteen years of experience across the public, private and voluntary sectors in using research and data to inform strategy, policy and executive decision making, having previously worked as Head of Research & Equality Services in the NI Housing Executive and Research Director with Quadrangle. Karly joined Housing Rights Board in March 2021 Karly is passionate about using evidence to implement change and demonstrate impact with a focus on equality, social justice and involving customers and underrepresented people in the strategy design process. She is also a non Executive Director on the Board of Tourism NI and former chairperson of Nexus NI. 

Paula Quigley

Paula is the Managing Director and founder for Noviqa. She has 15 years of experience in senior leadership roles within the third sector and private sector. She has a proven track record of effectively leading, developing, inspiring, and supporting award-winning cross-functional, multi-disciplinary teams of over 150 people who have delivered on multi-million-pound Government, public and private contracts. She sits as a non-executive director and is the chair of a number of boards across the UK. 

Paula has extensive experience in Governance, organisational development, change management and community regeneration. She holds a BSc Hons in Housing Management, Diploma in Professional Practice, Postgraduate Diploma in Public Administration & a Postgraduate Diploma in Management

Patrick Morgan

Patrick is the Head of Risk Management at Choice Housing. He has over 30 years of experience and previously held senior leadership roles in finance and corporate services within both the third and private sectors. His experience also includes Consulting, advising a range of local SMEs and working on public sector assignments. Patrick has significant experience in Risk management, Finance, Organisational development, and business mergers. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland

Peter O’Callaghan

Peter is Project Manager of Smartmove Housing as part of First Housing Aid & Support Services. Peter is a member of Chartered Institute of Housing and over 13 years’ experience working within the housing and voluntary sector. Following the completion of the Boardroom Apprentice programme 2020, Peter was co-opted onto the Housing Rights Board of Directors in September 2021

Ursula O’Hare

Ursula is the Director of Law Centre NI. Ursula was Honorary Secretary of Housing Rights before becoming Vice-Chair in January 2020. Ursula’s skills, experience and interest include policy development; social welfare law; and management in the voluntary sector.

Rebecca Smyth. Boardroom Apprentice

In 2023, Rebecca was delighted to join Housing Rights as a Boardroom Apprentice, an initiative aimed at promoting diverse participation in the public and charity boardroom space. Rebecca joined the Northern Ireland Housing Executive as a graduate trainee in 2018, fuelled by a passion for providing person-centred solutions to housing concerns and homelessness. Her academic background includes an undergraduate degree in Politics and International Relations from the University of Exeter, followed by a Level 5 Diploma in Housing Management from the Chartered Institute of Housing in 2021