Riverside

About this year’s Stakeholder Strategy Day

Welcome to our 2025 Stakeholder Strategy Day. Our conference for Board and Committee members, engaged customers, and senior colleagues and it comes at an important time for Riverside.

We are near final delivery of ‘Forward Together’, our 2023-2026 Corporate Plan, and looking ahead to the next five years. It is a perfect opportunity to take stock, check how we are doing, start the conversation and plan for the future.

To help us navigate this landscape, I am delighted to confirm that our keynote speaker is Eamonn Boylan, Former Interim Chief Executive of Homes England.

Eamonn has been asked to focus on the expectations of Housing Associations from Government following the Spending Review.

Our very own Liz Fairburn, Chief Customer Officer, will chair the day.

We’ve chosen the People’s History Museum, Manchester, as our venue for this year. A unique northern heritage site in Manchester’s Spinningfields, where every event supports People’s History Museum’s mission to share the story of democracy: past, present and future. I am sure it will be conducive to our discussions.

This webpage tells you all you need to know about the day. It provides practical details about travel and timings, which we will update as we get closer to the day. You might want to bookmark this page. I would be grateful if you would confirm your attendance by completing the RSVP form below by 12 noon Friday 7 November.

I very much look forward to welcoming you on the day.

Terrie Alafat CBE

Guest speakers

Eamonn Boylan, Former Chief Executive Officer for Homes England

Eamonn Boylan was Homes England Interim Chief Executive from January to September 2025. Prior to this, he was Interim Chief Executive for Manchester City Council. He was also one of 10 housing and development experts serving on the Government’s New Towns Taskforce, though stepped down prior to joining Homes England.

Eamonn has more than 4 decades of experience in prestigious public sector roles with a focus on leading large organisations and delivering place-based regeneration. He has served as Chief Executive for Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Transport for Greater Manchester, and Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council. While at Stockport, Eamonn led the Council’s £1 billion programme of investment in infrastructure and town centre regeneration. He has also previously held the role of Deputy Chief Executive at the Homes and Communities Agency (Homes England’s predecessor).

As Deputy Chief Executive of Manchester City Council, Eamonn led the Regeneration Directorate encompassing housing and planning and led major place-based regeneration projects in Hulme and Ancoats.

Terrie Alafat, Group Chair

Terrie served as Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing from 2015 to 2019, and has a wealth of housing experience spanning over 23 years.

Her previous appointments include Director of Housing at the Department of Communities and Local Government where she was responsible for national housing polices including affordable housing, homelessness and supported housing.

Her wealth of knowledge of the housing sector and her work in shaping policy will be instrumental in continuing to take the Group forward as one of the country’s leading providers of housing and homelessness services.

Paul Dolan, Group Chief Executive

Paul Dolan took up his post as Group Chief Executive of Riverside in May 2024, following seven years as Chief Executive at Accent Group.

Paul has a successful track record in delivering transformational business and culture change. He is experienced in organisational turnarounds, taking businesses from positions of serious regulatory failure to full compliance.

Paul has led both not for profit and commercial businesses, and managed stakeholders through complex organisational change.

In 2019, he successfully led Accent to a record-breaking deal with the UK social housing sector’s lowest ever price on a long-dated public bond.

Paul created the #MorethanHomes campaign to raise £1m for the Trussell Trust. Backed by the National Housing Federation, Chartered Institute of Housing and the Northern Housing Consortium, More than Homes is an initiative established to build on the collective power of the housing sector, to respond to the economic crisis resulting from COVID-19.

Prior to his time with Accent, Paul was a former chief executive of Johnnie Johnson Housing Trust(JJHT) from February 2014 to April2017, where he steered the organisation to financial stability, regulatory compliance and through a comprehensive reform of governance. He delivered JJHT’s new vision and provided the organisation with a clear purpose and a national voice for retirement living.

From 2010 to 2014, Paul was the chief executive of Sadeh Lok Housing Group, leading the organisation through governance, organisational and cultural business transformation. This included reviewing the composition of this complex group, which included a national children’s charity and employment agency, establishing anew vision and business objectives which resulted in regulatory upgrades for viability and governance within 12 months. Paul went on to grow Sadeh Lok’s property portfolio by 7% within 18months and secure the Investors in People Gold Standard.

Paul previously chaired the National Housing Federation Yorkshire and Humberside Region CEO group and has been appointed by the regulator as a statutory appointee to a non-compliant lease-based provider.

Prior to a number of senior housing management roles from 2002 to 2010, Paul won a scholarship to work as a chef for Raymond Blanc in 2002 at 2 Michelin star restaurant
LeManoir aux Quat’Saisons.

Liz Fairburn, Chief Customer Officer

Liz joined The Riverside Group as Chief Customer Officer in April 2025. Within the executive role, Liz will focus on shaping and implementing our customer strategy, enhancing customer experience and ensuring the delivery of quality services.

She is set to achieve this through leading our Homes and Communities, Customer Contact and Resolution, Home Ownership and Riverside Scotland teams – which together oversee tenancy management, income collection, complaints handling, allocations, customer engagement and compliance with regulatory and housing standards.

Liz is a passionate, energetic and inspiring leader known for championing customer focussed change.

She has 25 years experience of leading operational and enabling teams across both public and private sector, with her most recent role being Director of Customer Experience at the Department for Work and Pensions. Prior to that, she was Head of Household Claims for Direct Line Group.

Her career, so far, spans a wide range of roles from Operations and Customer Experience to Learning and Development, with a proven track record for developing people. She spent several years in senior roles, working closely with teams from executive level to front line.

Liz believes in bringing people together, unlocking the potential of every individual. She views leadership as a privilege and helps others to cast their shadows in an engaging and authentic way.  Liz’s outcome focussed approach enables teams to navigate complex challenges, in an ever changing world.

Outside of work, Liz likes to raise money for causes close to her heart and recently raised £15k for The Alzheimer’s’ Society in memory of her mum.

We’ll also hear from our senior leadership team on the day.

About the venue

We’re delighted to say this year we will be heading to the People’s History Museum, Manchester.

Located just a short walk from Manchester Oxford Road and Piccadilly Stations.

You can find all of the accessibility details about the venue on their website.

Please let us know your requirements as early as possible on your RSVP form about any specific access requirements you have in advance, so we can help you on the day.

Getting there

People’s History Museum,
Left Bank,
Spinningfields,
Manchester, M3 3ER

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All central Manchester train stations and tram stations are within walking distance:

• 20 minute walk from Manchester Piccadilly Station
• 20 minute walk from Oxford Road Station
• 10 minute walk from St Peter’s Square Metrolink

Parking can be found locally at:

• Bridge Street, M3 5AH (1 min walk)
• Spinningfields NCP, M3 3BE (4 min walk)

If you do require help arranging travel, please contact your normal point of contact in Riverside.

Travel details can be found on the the People History Museum’s website.

We hope that most people will be able to travel to and from Manchester on the day. If you do require overnight accommodation in the city, please contact your normal point of contact in Riverside.