The Board

Pauline Davis

Independent Chair

Pauline was appointed as Independent Chair in June 2021, bringing over 30 years’ experience in Housing, health, regeneration and education to the role, as well as genuine passion for place shaping and regeneration and understanding of Efficiency North’s values and vision.  She retired from her role as Deputy Chief Executive and Corporate Director of Regeneration at Hull City Council in 2014, having previously worked in Nottingham and Liverpool for the NHS and Local Government. 

She has led multi-million-pound regeneration projects and programmes such as Housing Market Renewal, Building Schools for the Future and Economic Development.  Pauline is currently Vice Chair of The Riverside Housing Group and is Chair of the Riverside London Development Committee which oversees the regeneration of existing estates in London.

 Pauline also holds the position of Chair of DHU NHS 111 Ltd who provide NHS 111 services across the East Midlands and Milton Keynes.Pauline holds a master’s degree, in Public Health and is an Honorary Member of the Faculty of Public Health.

Mark Jones

Vice Chair

Mark joined Acis Group in December 2019 as Executive Director of Property Services.

He has worked in social housing for over 32 years and has a wealth of leadership and operational experience, with extensive senior leadership knowledge. 

Mark previously held an executive role for Lincolnshire Housing Partnership, Group Director role for Circle Housing Group and a position as Managing Director of Wherry Housing Association in Norfolk.

He has significant experience of transformation and service improvement, working closely with the boards of previous organisations. Mark also has non-executive experience and is currently a member of the international advisory board for the School of Business and Economics at Leicester University, and a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Housing.

Lee Parkinson

Chief Executive

Lee has over 30 years of experience in the construction and housing sector, having begun his career as a Youth Training Scheme Apprentice Construction Technician with a major contractor. He has held group wide procurement and supply chain management leadership roles in some of the largest family-owned and PLC major contractors, managing the procurement of multi-million £ contracts on a wide range of construction projects, including major international contracts in the UK and the Far East.

Lee joined Efficiency North in 2007 to lead the development of its procurement offer. In 2010 Lee was appointed as the Director responsible for the consortium’s development as an incorporated entity and in 2013 was appointed Chief Executive of Efficiency North Limited. In 2017 Lee spearheaded the corporate re-structure of Efficiency North to form Efficiency North Holdings Limited and its operating entities EN:Procure Limited, EN:Able Futures CIC, EN:Able Build Limited and our charity EN:Able Communities CIO.

With the support of a dedicated team, Lee has led the company’s strong growth which positions Efficiency North as one of the UK’s largest procurement consortiums and apprenticeship and training providers.

Lee champions intelligent procurement approaches including early contractor involvement, efficient supply chain management solutions through technology and social value delivery. He is a passionate advocate for the construction sector is a regular speaker at sectoral events and features frequently in industry journals.

As a responsible business leader, Lee is an advocate for social mobility and seeks ways to create hope and opportunity within the communities and sectoral areas that the company serves through employment opportunities, community support and funding.

Elaine Armitage MCIOB

Elaine is a construction professional with over 35 years’ experience including senior roles in property and investment in the social housing sector. With responsibility for both Fire, and Health and Safety, across the Together Housing Group, She leads a large team, including the appointment of apprentices and fire safety specialists, to ensure homes meet the requirements of the Building Safety Act, and could be used for long term investment planning.

She is committed to encouraging more women into the sector and driving higher standards for safety in construction for customers, stakeholders and contractors.

Elaine formerly served as Chair of the Chartered Institute of Building for Leeds and West Yorkshire and was a governor of Leeds College of Building.

Harjinder Sandhu

Harjinder has over 20 years’ experience in senior finance positions in both the commercial and not-for-profit sector. After initially starting his career in Accountancy practice he was recruited by one of his clients, a shipping and logistic business, as the Financial controller, who he went on to help grow the business over an 8 year period from £3m to £35m turnover.

Following this role Harjinder went on to become Finance Director at Groundwork North, East & West Yorkshire for 9 years, during which he led on the nationally recognised regeneration project at Wakefield Kirkgate Station. He joined LJHA in 2017 as the Finance & Resources Director and is currently actively involved in delivering the Association’s single largest £15m housing project, developing 81 new affordable homes.

  Having worked mainly within SME’s has enabled Harjinder to gain a broad experience in a variety of business areas in addition to finance, including HR, Health & Safety, ITC and various commercial legal areas including contract, property and employment.

Richard Holmes

Contracts Lawyer at Wakefield and District Housing

Richard joined WDH in 2018 as their Contracts Lawyer advising on company, commercial and construction matters.

Prior to joining WDH Richard spent more than 20 years employed as an in-house lawyer for a number of local authorities, including Leeds City Council and Manchester City Council, and also in private practice working for Irwin Mitchell, Walker Morris and Nabarro/CMS. During this time he advised both public and private sector clients on the commercial legal issues relating to PFI, PPP and major public sector projects particularly in the waste, education and housing sectors as well as on public procurement, joint ventures, strategic partnerships and outsourcing.

Richard was seconded to the Department for Education as a Commercial Manager delivering the Government’s Building Schools for the Future Programme.

Lee Winterbottom

Member Director

Lee joined Berneslai Homes as Managing Director of Construction Services in October 2018. He has responsibility for the operational and financial performance of Construction Services which is the in-house workforce. He is also part of Berneslai Homes executive team.

He has worked in construction all his working life, and in the property social housing sector for the last 22 years where he has held a number of roles. While these have all been property focused they have included lead roles in repairs service delivery, sustainability, new business and PFI and competitive procurement. The latter seeing success in the award of the PFI contract in Salford for the housing and public realm regeneration. 

Lee is a member of the Chartered Institute of Building and is also actively involved in many networks and working groups that focus on improving the efficiency of  in-house workforces and the retrofit agenda.

Nigel Leighton

Independent Director

Nigel was previously Director of Environment and Neighbourhood Services at East Riding of Yorkshire Council, with responsibility for the council’s procurement.  He brings a raft of strategic and commercial experience from 35 years in the public sector, covering not only building services but also civil engineering, housing, leisure and environmental services. He was instrumental in introducing modern procurement methods and forms of contract to the council.

Nigel was also previously Chair of the YORhub construction frameworks board.  Under his leadership the five local authorities that manage YORhub collaborated to develop the original concept of a regional construction framework into the three successful frameworks available today, delivering £1bn of construction projects in the Yorkshire and Humber region.

Richard Hinchliffe

Independent Director

Richard has over 30 years’ experience in training and development, latterly as Chief Executive and Director of City Training Services (subsidiary company of Bradford College). In this role Richard was responsible for the delivery of a £5million annual government contract for training delivery across the Yorkshire and Humber region, supporting over 3,000 apprentices across 28 occupational areas through City Training Services. Other roles include Director of Employee Engagement at Bradford College, Head of Professional Development at Remarc Technologies, Senior Training Manager at Bradford and Bingley Plc and Training Manager at Allied Colliods (BASF).

Richard is co-founder and non-executive Director of the West Yorkshire Learning Partnership (WYLP) group which serves a consortium of work-based training companies and now has a £3.5 million Government contract for training delivery.

Chris Banks

Independent Director

Chris is currently CEO of the Tower Hamlets GP Care Group CIC and SRO for the Tower Hamlets MCP Vanguard – Tower Hamlets Together. He's a former CEO of Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, CEO of Cambridgeshire PCT, and joint managing director of East Coast Community Health Services.  He led a project to build a new hospital in Peterborough, and has led two successful turnarounds. He has also worked as a freelance consultant on health projects in the UK and overseas. 

Chris's voluntary work includes Chair of Health Inclusion Matters CIC, a specialist primary care service for homeless people, and he has Non-executive directorships of Gateway Primary Care CIC and PHASE (Young People Support) CIC.  He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, and holds an MSc in Business Process Management and a Post Graduate Diploma in Project Leadership.