Gera Patel

Gera has worked in the social housing sector for more than 15 years. She was a freelance consultant for over 4 years and during that period specialised in community/resident engagement, social research and strategy/policy development. Her clients included amongst others Centrepoint, Crisis, the Home Office, People for Action and a wide range of voluntary organisations, housing associations and local authorities. Examples of her work include:

• Successful engagement with residents across 2,000 homes to deliver the masterplan at one of London's largest New Deal for Communities projects;
• Conducting a variety of quantitative/qualitative research that led to tangible outputs such as the registration of a specialist housing association for refugees, ESF funding for a large scale IT and new skills programme for hard to reach communities and funding for a HIV support worker;
• Development of inclusion and diversity strategies for a range of clients.

She is an experienced project manager, and has delivered a wide range of complex and large scale projects including frameworks for performance management, customer care and resident feedback. She is an experienced writer, having published widely and is an expert in the production of corporate written communication, having managed PR and communications services for many years. Gera also has extensive experience in housing regulation and governance.

Gera was until recently the Executive Director for People & Performance at the AmicusHorizon Group. She was one of six Executive Directors responsible for the strategic direction and operational delivery of the Group, which has 28,000 homes across London and the South East. At AmicusHorizon, Gera was responsible across the Group for Communications, Quality and Improvement, HR and Change Management.

Since joining Campbell Tickell in summer 2008 she has worked on a number of assignments, including the development of the National Housing Federation's new Code of Accountability and Service Delivery, setting standards for resident involvement in housing associations. She is currently project managing a major study on the feasibility of establishing a national mobility scheme for social housing tenants.

Gera was the Vice Chair of a specialist BME supported housing association for over four years. She joined the Board of ARHAG Housing Association in April 2007.