Farewell and thank you to Lesley Johnson

We are very sorry to be saying farewell to our Director of Property and New Business Lesley Johnson who is retiring at the end of this week after seven years at Phoenix.

Lesley has overseen our work to maintain our existing homes and our development of new homes. Her work has focused on residents’ priorities for warm, safe and dry homes, with improved energy efficiency for future generations. This includes building a number of national award-winning schemes, based on a ‘building together’ approach to ensure that the location and design of new homes are fully informed by existing residents in the community.

Lesley said: “I joined Phoenix because of its values and commitment which live in everyone involved. I have so many great memories of my time here – because of our resident-led model and community focus you can really see the influence that residents have on plans and services, and that’s what makes the work worthwhile to me.

“I will greatly miss the residents, my hardworking colleagues and partners across Lewisham and beyond. I Iook forward to seeing Phoenix go from strength to strength.”

Shaun Carr has joined Phoenix as interim director ahead of permanent recruitment to the role. Shaun was most recently Group Facilities Director at Cygnet Health Care, with previous roles including Director of Property at Anchor Group and Executive Director of Property at Curo.

Phoenix’s Chief Executive Denise Fowler said: “Lesley has played an invaluable role during a very challenging period for the sector. She has been absolutely committed to working with residents to maintain and develop homes that meet their needs and that people are proud to live in. I’d like to thank Lesley personally for all the advice and guidance she has provided to me in my first two years at Phoenix. I will really miss her, and I know that sentiment is shared by all of our involved residents and staff across the organisation.”

“At the same time, we’re delighted to welcome Shaun Carr to Phoenix. Shaun has an excellent track record of leading property services and I’m very much looking forward to working with him over the coming months.”