G15 landlord names former banker and Foxtons executive as new boss

News05 Oct 2022James Wilmore

Notting Hill Genesis (NHG) has appointed a former banker and senior executive at estate agency Foxtons as its new boss.

Patrick Franco will begin his role as chief executive in January

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G15 landlord Notting Hill Genesis has appointed a former senior executive at estate agency Foxtons as its new boss #UKhousing

Patrick Franco will take the reins at the 66,500-home group in January as a replacement for the long-serving Kate Davies.

Ms Davies announced in June that she planned to step down after 18 years in charge at NHG.

She became the latest G15 chief deciding to exit in recent years, following Elaine Bailey leaving Hyde, David Montague quitting L&Q, and Brendan Sarsfield stepping down at Peabody. Southern’s long-serving chief executive Alan Townshend is also leaving once its merger with Optivo completes, it was announced this week.

NHG’s new boss Mr Franco spent just over seven years at Foxtons as its chief operating officer before leaving in April this year. Prior to that, he spent around a decade in various roles at global investment bank Credit Suisse.

Mr Franco will be the third former banker to take up the top job at a major UK housing association in the past year or so. Places for People appointed former Bank of America executive Greg Reed as its new chief executive last November, and Hyde named one-time Lloyds Banking Group executive Andy Hulme as its new chief.

Mr Hulme was a permanent replacement for Peter Denton, who is also a former investment banker. Mr Denton left last year to head up Homes England.

At NHG Mr Franco will join a relatively new chief financial officer. Former Network Rail director Yomi Okunola took over the top finance job from Paul Phillips last year, who had spent 17 years at NHG.

Mr Franco, who will oversee a 2,000-strong workforce, said: “Now is clearly a challenging time for many, and the need for safe, comfortable and affordable homes in and around London is as important as ever. That demands increasingly urgent, innovative and adaptive approaches to meet the challenge across the public and private sector.”

Last week NHG announced that it had been forced to delay publication of its audited annual results due to “circumstances outside of its control”. It currently has a G1/V2 rating with the English regulator.

In June NHG published a full-year trading update that did not include an overall surplus figure. Its half-year results to the end of September 2021 revealed a 38 per cent drop in surplus to £54.9m off a decreased turnover of £419m.

NHG is one of London’s biggest housing associations and was formed in 2018 from the merger of Notting Hill Housing and Genesis Housing Association.