Board of Directors

The Federation’s Board of Directors has two broad roles.  The first is to provide leadership, on behalf of members, in the Federation’s work to represent the interests of the sector and to pursue its development.  The second is to be responsible for corporate governance matters for all aspects of the Federation’s activities.

Directors are elected from candidates nominated by full members of the Federation. They are elected for a two year term, with have elected each alternate year.  The current Board members were elected at the NSW Federation of Housing Associations AGM's of November 2007 and 2008. 

See Board Meeting Minutes

Bobbie Townsend President

BA Community Management, Grad. Cert. Housing Management &Policy, MAHI.

Bobbie has worked in community housing for over 23 years, and is currently the CEO of Women's Housing Company. She has been a member of the Federation Board on a number of different ocassions, most recently as Vice-President, until the November 2009 election at which time she was elected President.

Bobbie has experienced many changes in community housing with the majority during the past 12 years.  The strength of the community housing sector is its ability to be flexible and adapt to change. This will be critical in the next few years as the housing sector will be involved in a range of new partnerships, establishing new structures and increasing the supply of new housing. The role the Federation will play in leading and supporting members will  be fundamental.

John Nicolades Vice President

John Nicolades stood for the position of director as he believes that a strong industry peak is critical for the development of a diverse and sustainable community housing sector; to provide leadership on the challenges and opportunities provided by State and federal government housing initiatives and effectively advocate for the sector with our key stakeholder.

John has worked in the housing and community services sector for the past 20 years and has extensive experience in policy and service delivery. Currently he is Executive Officer of Bridge Housing Ltd. Prior to joining SWISH (now Bridge) in 2005, John undertook consultancy work on affordable housing for the NSW Department of Planning and NSW local governments and completed a Graduate Diploma of Applied Finance with the Financial Services Institute of Australia.

John was inaugural Director of Affordable Housing Service in the NSW Dept of Planning in 1999 and then Director of the Centre for Affordable Housing in the Department of Housing. He also held management and policy positions in the non government sector including Community Services Manager with the Uniting Church Board for Social Responsibility, housing policy coordinator with Australian Council of Social Service and Housing Policy Officer with Shelter NSW . John has also beeen a member a number of federal and state government committees on housing policy.

Karen Andrew Treasurer

Karen Andrew is the Executive Officer of Central Tablelands Housing Association (CTHA).  She previously served on the Federation Board both as an ordinary member from 2002-2004 and Vice President 2004-2006.

Karen commenced work formally in community housing in 1986 progressing from tenant to voluntary tenant participation worker with the local Community Tenancy Scheme to Housing Manager and eventually Executive Office.  Having worked in the industry for so many years she has represented the sector on many focus groups including regulation, stock transfer, accreditation and the common access strategy to name a few.

As the sector is in a period of such rapid change with new partnerships, amalgamations and the emergence of new business products we have no choice but to acknowledge the end of community housing as we have know it in the past. Karen is interested in once again serving on the Federation Board to ensure that the interests of all housing providers;  large, small, regional, growth and non growth are equally represented. She believes her experience as EO in a multi office Regional Housing Association in a supposed non growth area, but an area with significant challenges that we have needed to manage will benefit the Federation Board.

Nick Sabel Secretary

Nick is the Executive Officer of Wentworth Community Housing, a large multi-site housing association in greater western Sydney. He has held this position for over 8 years, during which he has seen the association through 2 rounds of accreditation and registration. WACH carries out much of its work through partnerships, and is currently working in this way with approximately 28 other organisations. Nick was co-opted to fill a casual vacancy in June 2003, and then elected to (State Council, now Board) in November 2003.  Nick stood as President of NSWFHA from November 2005 until November 2009, at which time he was elected Secretary.

Nazha Saad Director

Nazha is currently the Cheif Executive Officer of St George Community Housing, and has had a diverse career working in private, budget dependent and commercial organisations in planning, implementing and evaluating organisation-wide and whole-of-government reforms. With over eleven (11) years of experience as a Senior Executive, she has developed expertise in strategy development, relationship management and building of organisational capability.

Earlier in her career she trained and worked as an occupational Therapist before moving into corporate management and business development. She has an MBA from the AGSM UNSW and won the Premier’s Department scholarship for change management in 1995.

Although Nazha is new to the Community Housing sector; she has had experience in community health, asset and property management from her roles at the Department of Public Works and Services and from the Department of Ageing Disability and Home Care. Nazha was elected to the board in November 2007.

Toni Comber Director

Toni Comber is a Housing Manager for Homes North Community Housing Co in Gunnedah.  She has been working for them for over 2 years, but in her current role as Manager for 6 months.
Toni is the Vice President of Red Chief Local Aboriginal Lands Council, and has been on the board for 12 months.
Toni believes her current role as both a Community Housing Manager and Vice President of the Lands Council makes her an ideal candidate for involvement on the Board of the NSW Federation of Housing Associations.
Toni feels her participation in specific work projects that have been undertaken in Gunnedah over the last 12 months, including the Housing NSW Stock Transfer Program to Community Housing Organisations, can assist and be valuable for future directions and guidance for the Federation.

John McKenna Director

Bachelor of Arts in Administration
John is a Member of the Australian Housing Institute and an Associated Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management He is also a member of the Richmond Valley Council Affordable Housing Committee, The Northern Rivers Housing Forum Executive and the Ballina Shire Affordable Housing Working Group John is also on the committee of the Northern Rivers Homelessness Research Project.

John has a number of years experience in the senior management of a number of organisations across a diverse industry mix. John has managed commercial laundry facilities, maintenance and service companies and before relocating to the Northern Rivers Region was Contract Manager for the Spotless organisation on the ACT Housing Total Facilities Management contract.

This involved the ongoing planning and delivery of full facility management services to the ACT Housing portfolio of 11,500 properties, with an annual spend of over $30 million.

John is currently General Manager of North Coast Community Housing Company located in the Northern Rivers region of NSW. NCCHC currently manage over 800 Community Housing properties in a region from Tweed Heads in the North to Wooli in the south. John has been in his current position since July 2009.

Chris Bratchford Director

Chris has held the roles of CEO and Company Secretary of Argyle Community Housing Limited since his appointment in November 2010 and is currently leading the transformation of Argyle’s strategy, organisation and governance structure, culture and operations. Argyle manages over 2,200 social and affordable housing dwellings in NSW and the ACT and is on a journey to become a leading Class 1 provider.

Chris has over 20 years extensive Australian and international experience at both Board and senior executive levels that is directly relevant to the Federation Board. Specifically has demonstrated strategic thought leadership and incisive commercial and financial acumen in my capacity as:

• Non –Executive Director of Professional Insurance Australia Pty Ltd, an APRA regulated insurer.
• COO and CFO of Avant an APRA regulated insurer, where I developed and implemented robust capital and risk management frameworks to underpin sustainability.
• CEO of Ample, a UK based AMP subsidiary online direct to consumer financial services business, where I turned around its economics and moved it to profitability.
• Strategy Manager for AMP’S Australian operations
• A commercial, property and tax lawyer.

Chris holds a range of relevant qualifications including GAICD, MBA and a Bachelor of Laws. Chris was elected to the board in November 2011.

Dr Judy Banko Director

PhD (Theology), Grad Cert Social Science (Housing Management and Policy), BA (Women’s Studies), Ass Dip (Adult Education)
Judy has worked in the government housing and community housing sectors in both QLD and NSW for 23 years. Recently Judy spent 5 months in the Office of the Registrar of Community Housing as a senior analyst to develop a deep understanding of the Registration process.

While working in QLD Judy participated as part of a planning team working on Community Renewal in Eagleby which received three Certificates of Merit from RAPI now PIA.

Judy’s strengths are in change management and high level project management within the community sector. She holds certification from QLD Department of Justice and Dispute Resolution in Mediation and Facilitation and Human Services Management from University of QLD.

Judy was recently appointed as CEO of Ecclesia Housing Ltd and brings extensive and varied experience to the position. She has held various Board positions throughout her career including QLD State President for Women’s Health, Director for a major Sydney charity feeding the homeless and Director for a community playhouse in Far North QLD which she travels to fulfilling this role three times yearly. Judy was elected to the board in November 2011.

Minutes of Board meetings:

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