Steve Veevers – Chief Executive Officer
Steve manages the leadership team at Hft. He’s responsible for overseeing the whole organisation. He has over twenty-five years of social care and health experience.
Steve has worked as a senior leader in national and regional non-profit care providers and local Government. He’s also done consultancy work within social care.
Before joining Hft, Steve was the Managing Director of a large, community-based care provider in the South West of England. He was also Senior Executive of a national learning disability charity.
Steve is committed to working with local communities, non-profit providers and public bodies to help people live their best lives.
Mel Shad – Interim Chief Operating Officer
Mel has worked in the social care and criminal justice voluntary and statutory sectors for thirty-five years. She’s worked at a senior and executive level for 25 years.
Mel’s career began in homelessness support. She then transitioned into probation and prison work, then into housing. Mel then spent 15 years in various roles in a mental health supported housing charity. After that, she was a freelance consultant, working with organisations across the sector to develop business and growth teams.
She finally took a role with Choice Support as COO which lasted for 10 years. This is where she developed her love of learning disability and autism services and her skills in this field.
Mel is passionate about people, a skilled relationship builder and negotiator. She is driven by strong personal values that align with Hft’s. She’s collaborative, kind, empathetic, honest, supportive, open and generous.
Kate Jenkins – Chief People and Culture Officer
Kate oversees the work of our People and Organisational Development teams.
She’s an experienced People and Culture Director. She has lots of experience across private, public and non-profit sectors.
Kate is well-versed in taking on Director roles within charitable organisations such as:
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Interim Director of People and Culture at Ambitious about Autism
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Interim Director of People and Organisational Development at Crisis
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Interim Director of People and Culture at Prostate Cancer UK.
John Dickinson-Lilley – Executive Director of Voice, Vision and Impact
John has a background in communications and public affairs strategy and campaigns. He’s worked across the public, private, and charity sectors. His approach is rooted in active listening, compassion, and determination. He makes sure strategies are not only effective, but are tailored to an organisation’s values.
John has a strong track record of creating clear strategy, messaging frameworks, and action plans. He delivers high-value, impactful campaigns that engage audiences. These include influential journalists, decision-makers and policy influencers, regulators, and political groups.
He has a wealth of skills and experiences across various sectors, disciplines and businesses. He’s held senior communications and advisory roles at many UK organisations over the last 20 years.
John has served as the Director of Communications at The British Museum and Goldsmiths, University of London, Prostate Cancer UK, and CITB. He has also held political advisory roles across large public bodies and local authorities. This includes as Director of External Relations at the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman and Head of Public Affairs at Sport England.
John has sat on a host of charity boards and served for 10 years as a global ambassador for Athlete Ally. He had a successful career as a Great British Blind para-ski racer. He retired as European Champion, Double British Champion, and in the World Top Ten. He was made a Freeman of the City of London due to his communications work.
Karina Hourd – Executive Director of Growth, Giving and Living
Karina has a passion for making a positive difference for learning disabled people. Her speciality is developing new services and growing and diversifying the income of purpose-led organisations.
Karina has worked in the non-profit sector for over 20 years. She’s spent more than 10 years in organisations supporting learning disabled people. Her previous role was as Chief Growth and Development Officer with a leading learning disability charity based in the South East. She has also led Business Development and Income Generation teams in learning disability and mental health organisations.
Her role at Hft combines a varied but connected portfolio of Housing and Assets, Fundraising and Business Development. She leads on ensuring the people we support have safe and comfortable homes. She also helps us to offer more and varied services to learning disabled people.
Karina is also a Trustee with Solent Mind in Hampshire and chairs their Income Generation Committee. She comes from a neurodivergent family. As such, she’s an advocate for greater accommodation and openness about neurodivergence and mental health, including at work.
She’s married with three children and a dog, and lives in North Wiltshire. She’s a keen runner and walker, particularly across the trails and hills in Wiltshire.
Michelle Caine – Director of Quality, Practice and Safety
Michelle is a senior operational leader. She has over 22 years’ experience delivering high-quality housing, care and support services. She’s worked across community care, extra care housing, re-ablement and regulated social care.
Michelle has experience managing large organisations that exist across many sites. She’s overseen teams of more than 350 colleagues and services supporting hundreds of people. She also has wide-spread expertise in CQC-regulated environments as both a Registered Manager and Responsible Individual.
More recently, Michelle broadened her expertise by leading customer support and safeguarding services for a national organisation supporting neurodivergent people and those experiencing mental illness.
Michelle has a collaborative leadership style, commercial awareness and commitment to on-going improvement. She’s passionate about creating compassionate, high-performing services where customers, colleagues and communities can thrive. And to deliver strong operational performance, governance and lasting social impact.
Vicky Reynolds – Interim Chief Financial Officer
Vicky brings more than 30 years of leadership experience across the charity sector. She’s worked with a wide range of national charities, leading finance, governance and operational teams. Her work has involved helping organisations navigate change, strengthen performance and improve the way they work.
Most recently, Vicky was Interim Finance Director and Interim Change Lead at Surfers Against Sewage. She helped shape the charity’s new strategy, established a change programme, strengthened risk management, improved budgeting and supported the move to a more ethical banking provider.
Throughout her career, Vicky has combined financial expertise with a passion for organisational transformation. She’s led major change programmes, digital system implementations and governance improvements.
Vicky is known for being collaborative, down to earth and fair. She has a focus on making organisations work better for the people in them. Vicky also believes work should be enjoyable and is a big advocate for bringing humour into the workplace while helping colleagues solve problems and achieve great results.