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.

Ian joined the Riverside Group in May 2014. He is responsible for all of the Group’s homes and buildings, ensuring that they are all safe and well maintained. Ian is also responsible for the Group’s wholly owned subsidiary contractor, Evolve.

He is the nominated Health and Safety Lead for the Group. He leads the Group Procurement Function and is the responsible officer for Business Continuity.

Ian is the Executive Lead for Riverside at the Greater Manchester Housing Partnership and leads for GMHP on Homelessness and Housing Access.

After initially beginning his career as a student surveyor with Manchester City Council, Ian has subsequently worked for Midland Heart, Parkway Green, Regenda Group, Guinness Northern Counties and Harvest Housing Group.

Patrick New joined Riverside as Executive Director of Customer Service in February 2019.

Patrick has 30 years’ experience working in regulated service industries and over 15 years’ experience at Director/Executive level. Patrick has a track record of success in multi-site customer service leadership, nationwide operations management and various commercial directorate roles at British Gas, Dyno Rod and Royal Bank of Scotland, and as Managing Director and Board Director at Ecotricity, a renewable energy company. He has also been a Non-Executive Director of Smart Energy GB.

Patrick brings with him a wealth of experience. He has a passion for leading and developing people and providing great customer service.

At Riverside, Patrick is responsible for ensuring compliance with the Regulator of Social Housing’s Consumer Standards and also sits on the Evolve Board and the Riverside Scotland Board.

Sara joined the Riverside Group as Director of Governance and General Counsel in 2019, with responsibility for Legal, Governance, HSE and Data Protection. Following the merger in 2021 with One Housing Group, Sara took responsibility for the integrated functions, and created a new Compliance and Assurance team for the Group. In 2024, Sara became Executive Director of Corporate Services and General Counsel and took responsibility for Strategy & Planning and Internal Audit.

Before joining the organisation, Sara gained her legal and corporate governance experience having trained at qualified as a Solicitor at Weightmans, working at the Crown Law Office of the Ministry of the Attorney General in Ontario, Canada and more recently as General Counsel of The Manchester Metropolitan University.