Kim Ryley - Panel Chair

Kim has 35 years experience in local public services,14 of these as a Chief Executive in several upper tier local authorities in England and Wales. He has a successful track record in transforming and improving councils in difficulty and is strongly committed to an approach based on Collaborative and Distributed Leadership.
As a widely regarded Thought Leader in his field,Kim is a frequent keynote speaker in the UK and overseas on Change Management and has worked extensively with Private and Third Sector providers. He is an experienced Coach/Mentor for senior managers.
Kim is a Trustee of the Leadership Centre and Vice-Chair of the International Committee of the USA-based International City Managers Association. He is also the Founder Director of Torque Leadership Associates Ltd and is currently working in a freelance capacity on the role of Place Shaping in creating a vibrant UK economy that shares wealth more equitably.

Claire Sockett, South Yorkshire Housing Association

Claire is the Head of IT at South Yorkshire Housing Association, new to this exciting role Claire has held a number of roles within South Yorkshire Housing Association.  In a previous role as Implementation Manager Claire was responsible for the procurement of new software solutions, which included Civica Cx and Keystone. Subsequent to the procurement Claire setup a Digital Implementations Team and is the Project Manager for this.  Previously from Cumbria Claire moved to Sheffield almost 16 years ago and has a passion for social housing.

Paul Rowley, Havebury Housing Partnership

Paul currently works at Havebury Housing Partnership as Head of Information Services. He is an experienced IT professional with wide management and technical expertise over 25 years. This has been gained in banking, trading floor, commercial property and social housing sectors in a mix of regulatory environments including ISO9001 and Sarbanes-Oxley. A Fellow of the British Computer Society, the Chartered Institute for IT, Paul has written numerous articles in international publications on information governance and data protection and presented seminars on both subjects

Brendan Fowler, Prospect Community Housing

Brendan graduated with a degree in Politics and Social Policy from the University of Edinburgh in 1994.  He then proceeded to do a Postgraduate Diploma in Housing at Heriot Watt University, which he completed in 1996.  He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Housing.
Brendan has worked for Prospect Community Housing since 2004, initially as their Housing Manager and since 2014 as their Director.  He strongly advocates using Information Technology to improve services and has led Prospect through a significant period of change in this area.