Magenta hires Marriott-Lavery

The Wirral-based housing association has appointed a former group director at Places for People as its new chief executive.

Magenta Living’s previous chief executive Brian Simpson left his post In January after 17 years with the housing association.

Debi Marriott-Lavery was most recently group executive director and chief executive of Preston-based housing specialist Places for People, where she worked since 2014 initially as managing director of individual support.

Prior to that, she was managing director of community care services at charity Care UK, and before that chief operating officer of the Anchor Trust, a not-for-profit housing association dedicated to over-55s.

Ged Lucas, chair of Magenta Living, said: “The board and I are really pleased to welcome Debi to Magenta Living.

“It is undoubtedly a challenging time for the housing sector but I’m confident that Debi, working with the board, the executive leadership team, and colleagues, can make a real impact and deliver our future ambitious plans while ensuring our customers remain our top priority.”

Marriott-Lavery added: “I’m really looking forward to joining the organisation at this exciting time as Magenta continues to deliver its transformation programme ‘The Magenta Way’, with the focus very much on continuing to provide excellent services to customers.”

She is due to join the organisation in mid-November.

Magenta is a not-for-profit that owns and manages around 13,000 properties and has around 600 staff, according to its website.

In March, it secured a £137m funding package from NatWest, with which it aims to build more than 1,000 homes over the next five years.