Our staff & trustees

Lesley has over 25 years executive and non-executive leadership and an endless passion for equity. She brings a mix of lived experience and professional delivery in corporate, social housing, charity and third sector.

She lived in social housing until she was 21 and understands inequity, first hand. She believes that your starting point in life should not determine your future. Lesley’s role is to create just the right strategic partnerships and environment for our team, programmes and communities to thrive. Being a positive, solutions focussed, leader – she believes we have a crucial role, weaving threads of hope, influence, connection and positive action across our communities.

“The earlier we start supporting people to value and influence their own lives, and the lives of those around them, the better!”

Chris brings over 15 years of experience from partnerships led roles, with almost 10 years’ experience within the not-for-profit sector.

Chris’s recent experience was in Australia leading fundraising and partnership efforts for some of Victoria’s major conservation organisations, including the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria and Zoos Victoria.

Chris’s role in Community Threads is strongly aligned to his personal values of wanting to contribute positively to local communities. Previous roles were linked to plant conservation and biodiversity in addition to animal welfare conservation. Chris is thrilled to have the opportunity in this role to support people and drive positive outcomes for children, young people and community champions.

Kathryn has the perfect mix of corporate and charitable experience to achieve success in her role at Community Threads.

With a background in operations, sales & marketing and a teaching qualification too, she is well placed to build strong relationships with partners, organisations and communities. She also previously worked at Positive Footprints, a fellow subsidiary at the Regenda Group and valued partner of Community Threads.

Her role spans partnership development, stakeholder engagement, and programme co-creation, management and delivery. She is passionate about bringing people together, aligning shared goals, and translating strategy into successful delivery.

With over 15 years in the charity sector, Claire is passionate about supporting others.

She’s worked for small- and large-scale charities, as well in the private sector, before returning to the charity sector and Community Threads. She has experience across a variety of areas, including fundraising, marketing, brand management, commercial partnerships and supporter communications.

Whilst at Community Threads, Claire has valued working with the team seeing the impact that their co-designed programmes now have on local communities. She looks forward to reaching more people and sharing the positive impact as the Charity grows.

David is a hugely experienced leader in both Executive and Non-Executive roles.

He has over 30 years’ experience in Chief Executive roles, most recently at the National Housing Federation, having previously been Chief Executive of the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations and of Newlon Housing Trust.

In Non-Executive roles, David is also Chair of the Canal and River Trust, Chair of Clarion Housing Association Board, Chair of ReSI Housing and ReSI Homes. He is a previous President of Housing Europe and previous Chair of Reall, an international housing development charity. David was co-Chair of #Housing 2030, a joint Housing Europe and UNECE study on affordable housing in the UNECE region and was a member of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Housing, Church and Community Commission. He has recently been Chair of Homes for All and was Chair of the Good Home Inquiry.

David is widely regarded as a compelling and inspiring public speaker focusing on the challenge of optimistic leadership and the critical importance of great governance. He has huge media experience, is a well-regarded commentator and blogger and has extensive expertise navigating the sometimes-opaque world of politics and government.

In June 2018 David was awarded a CBE, acknowledging his work and commitment to highlighting the positive role of housing associations within society.

David takes pride in being a part of Community Threads, to give people who do not often get to use their voice in public, the opportunity to be heard. He recognises, and values, the importance of inspiring a culture of problem-solving communities and making a real difference to people at a local level.

Michael Birkett has been the Group Chief Executive of the Regenda Group since 2014.

He has worked as a Board Member and Trustee in several organisations over the last 20 years. Before joining Regenda, Michael spent eight years as Chief Executive of The Calico Group and earlier in his career has held senior roles at The Aspire Group and Liverpool Housing Action Trust.

Throughout his work, Michael has been strongly committed to helping people develop their skills and confidence to influence how neighbourhoods, towns and cities should be managed and developed to support the aspirations of local communities. He sees Community Threads as a charity that can make a huge difference to this agenda.

A graduate of Liverpool University Neil has spent much of his career developing and operating Residential Training Venues across the UK and more latterly hotels as a Commercial Director and Consultant.

Neil continues to support the charity with its commercial activities and partnerships and is passionate about optimising the social impact it delivers. He is also a Non-Executive Director of Regenda.

Margaret Pierre has more than 25 years of experience in leadership, community engagement and organisational development.

She has held frontline, executive and board-level roles, giving her a strong understanding of how strategic decisions influence organisational performance and community impact.

Margaret is the founder of Pierre Consulting, where she supports organisations to strengthen leadership, governance and organisational effectiveness. Drawing on organisational psychology and systems thinking, she helps organisations navigate change, build stronger cultures and relationships, and improve performance to achieve lasting, meaningful impact. As with Community Threads, she is passionate about helping organisations thrive so they can better serve the communities they exist to support.

Poppy is Associate Director at the Carbon Trust, an international, mission-driven climate consultancy.

Poppy specialises in sustainability in the built environment. She is experienced in leading large government programmes accelerating the deployment of energy efficiency, renewable energy and low carbon technology in buildings.

Poppy has been involved with the charity since 2008, when she worked at Trafford Hall to develop environmental initiatives, to source renewable energy and to set up our Community Futures environmental training programme.

She joined the board in 2013, initiated our Good to Go youth programme with Willmott Dixon Interiors and ran her first marathon to raise money for our 25th anniversary. She is passionate about our sustainability skills and racial equity initiatives.

Catherine is the Chief Executive of PlaceShapers – a national network of social housing providers committed to supporting thriving communities.

Prior to joining PlaceShapers in 2023, Catherine was a Director of Policy and Research for the National Housing Federation, where she led on all aspects of policy development and research and set up the Together with Tenants project. She has also spent time working for a Local Enterprise Partnership and on the regulation of local government at the Audit Commission.

“Thriving communities don’t happen by accident, they happen because of brilliant organisations like Community Threads, building connections and resilience and supporting people to fulfil their potential.”