Executive leadership
Carol Carter - Group Chief Executive Officer
Carol Carter joined Origin as Chief Executive in April 2017. She has over 40 years' experience in a wide range of roles and organisations across the housing sector with experience in driving organisational change and delivering high-quality services to residents; effective and efficient housing and property management and community investment; ensuring value for money and building strong external partnerships.
Prior to joining Origin, Carol was Group Director of Housing for six years at Hyde with responsibility for managing 50,000 homes. Previously she worked for a range of housing associations, inner London and rural local authorities, as well as a three year period in consultancy, including experience at Savills.
Carol chaired the National Housing Federation’s executive advisory group - the London Leaders Forum – from 2017 to 2022 and a Placeshapers Board Member from 2017- 2025.
She holds a degree in Social Science and the Professional Qualification of the Institute of Housing.
Declared interests: Carol is a trustee and Vice Chair of P3, a national housing-related support services charity and of the Euston Town Business improvement District Board
Committee membership: None
Mark Farrar - Director of Finance, Technology, Data and Change
Mark Farrar joined Origin in July 2023. He is a Qualified Accountant with wide ranging finance, strategic and operational experience over 25 years across both the public and private sector.
Prior to joining Origin, Mark was Executive Director of Resources at Thrive Homes (5,500 homes primarily in Hertfordshire) for 3 years with the responsibility for Finance, Treasury, Income Collection and Procurement. He helped to shape Thrive's corporate and treasury strategy whilst building the organisation's financial resilience through the recent period of uncertainty and challenge.
Previously he worked in Finance for bpha after 15 years working at Tesco; providing financial support and insight to many areas of the business.
Declared interests: None
Committee membership: None
Mark Thomson - Director of Assets and Compliance
Mark joined Origin in March 2023 as Head of Assets and Sustainability. With 18 years’ experience in the sector, Mark previously worked as Director of Assets & Compliance at St Mungo’s Housing and prior to this in various roles at Notting Hill Housing.
Before working in Assets and Compliance, Mark spent some years in Housing Management developing a keen focus on delivering customer centric services which he continues to champion in the way we provide our property services. Mark is delighted to be joining the executive team to help support the organisation, our residents and our colleagues through this exciting period of change and opportunity.
Declared interests: None
Committee membership: None
Gareth Jones - Director of Development, BSc (Hons) Surv, BA (Hons), MCIH
Gareth is a qualified Building Surveyor with over 25 years’ experience in residential development work. He previously worked for PCHA in a range of development roles including Regional Development Manager and Head of Land & New Business, and at Genesis Housing Association, where he held the post of Assistant Director of Development before joining Origin as Development Director in early 2006.
Declared interests: Gareth is a member of the Asset Management and Development Committee for Waltham Forest Housing Association.
Pam Bhamra – Director of Resident Services
Pam joined Origin in January 2022 and brings a considerable track record in delivering housing and resident services at Director level. Pam was most recently Operations Director at THCH and prior to that led sizable teams at Catalyst Housing as the London Area Director and Southern Housing Group as Director of Housing and Resident Services.
She is a champion of providing excellent customer focused services and resident engagement. Pam is a member of the Chartered Institute of Housing, the National Housing Federations Customer Experience & Housing Management National Group and holds an ILM certificate in coaching and mentoring.
Declared Interests:
Chair of Populo Homes. Populo Homes is a registered social housing provider and part of the Populo Living Group.