Chris Collins has been appointed as Business Development and Marketing Manager of one of the country's biggest regeneration companies Frank Haslam Milan (FHM). As a key member of the management team, she will continuously review the business development strategy to assist in achieving the business plan targets.
Chris will use her 20 years experience in housing and regeneration to obtain new business, determine and deliver the marketing strategy, and build relationships with key partners.
She joins FHM from Synergy Housing Solutions Ltd (part of Chevin Housing Association) as the company looks to drastically increase the scale of its new build operations by delivering around £20 million in affordable homes this year across Yorkshire and the East Midlands.
The company is also looking to expand into the East of England, and has recently opened new offices in Norwich and Northampton.
Chris manages a team of seven people and is responsible for increasing FHM's client-base together with maintaining the good working relationships in place with housing associations, local authorities and Arms Length Management Organisations.
"I was attracted to working with FHM because I'm quite a gregarious person and will especially enjoy networking and the client liaison side of my job," said Chris
"I chose to work at FHM because I believe it is an excellent career development opportunity and it's a company who takes its corporate social responsibility seriously.
"To date my career has been predominantly in the public sector and I feel that my extensive knowledge of housing associations, local authorities and ALMOs is a useful asset within a contractor environment, understanding our customers is top priority for FHM."
She continued: "As a company, I've always admired FHM as they go that extra mile to delight the customer and are more diverse than many of their competitors. We have a varied portfolio of new build and refurbishment work including Decent Homes, Extra Care schemes and education. In addition we have a clear strategy in place to establish ourselves in the responsive maintenance market."
"I'm going to be involved in all of these areas. Having said that new build housing is a major passion of mine and I've been using my existing contacts in this area as well as securing new clients."
Chris's valuable experience includes managing a £90 million new build programme while working as Investment Manager for Synergy Housing Solutions.
She also worked as an SRB Programme Manager at Leeds City Council for five years and oversaw the management of a major housing led regeneration initiative in East Bank; a social, economic and physical regeneration scheme. The scheme provided Chris with an important insight into regeneration and sustainability as the East Bank scheme is still thriving to this day.
"I first came across FHM when I worked in Leeds in 1996 on the East Bank regeneration project when they were undertaking the refurbishment of Saxton Gardens flats on behalf of Leeds City Council." said Chris.
"I quickly recognised that FHM were a lot more diverse than their competitors. I am now looking forward to helping the company achieve its growth plans.
"I've already had a tough set of financial targets to reach at Synergy and East Bank and will work on increasing FHM's turnover in the coming year.
"I'd say the biggest challenge that anyone in the housing sector has to face at the moment is the credit crunch. It's becoming increasingly difficult for housing associations to deliver affordable housing projects as a result of reducing Housing Corporation grant rates and increasing standards. In relation to shared ownership properties this has been compounded by the impact of the credit crunch. It's our aim at FHM to assist housing providers in meeting the challenging affordable housing targets through innovative working."
