ABOUT US

Home 5 About Us

OUR VISION

To be the first-choice home away from home for students aiming to reach their potential both socially and academically.

WHO WE ARE

  • We create attractive, safe & memorable Homes for Students.
  • We think like a student.
  • To be trusted means the world to us.
  • Our success means success for our clients.

OUR MISSION

To continue to create memorable homes for students and be trusted to deliver the right accommodation experience by our partners as their success is our success.

 

OUR VALUES

Connect - Value v2_Blue

Developing durable relationships that meet the needs of our clients, customers and partners.

Working with accountability, integrity, honesty and professionalism in how we operate.

Force for good

Create and nurture an environment where colleagues and customers thrive, building our legacy for the future.

Support Each Other - Values v4

Working together to support the development and growth of Homes for Student

OUR EXECUTIVE LEADERS

Martin Corbett

Martin Corbett

Chief Executive Officer

Martin is an engineer by profession and has over 20 years’ experience in campus direct let markets. He has considerable knowledge of and experience within the student accommodation sector and has built strong relationships focusing on delivering results for investors and working closely with universities on long term partnerships.

Graham Rogers

Graham Rogers

Group Executive Director

Graham’s commercial and operational expertise is embedded into the student portfolio. Responsible for implementing and safeguarding best practice for all operational activity. This relates to contract management, mobilisation and ensuring that effective processes are put into place to achieve maximum productivity.

OUR EXECUTIVE TEAM

Our team is the same team that lead the expansion of Derwent, generating 18,000 beds within 4 years from a standing start in 2010 to 2014. This same team have moved over to Homes for Students to replicate this success. Any lessons learnt have been built into the setting up and operations of our systems and procedures.

Kate Forrester

Kate Forester

Managing Director

Kate is a driven leader with more than eighteen years’ experience in the student sector. Upholding strong values within her team she is focused on providing excellent student experience and maximising our clients’ net operating income. Kate focuses the team on Continuous Improvement and is relentless regarding achieving our Mission.

James Tucknott

James Tucknott

Group Finance Director

James is responsible for the financial management and control of Homes for Students. He is involved in setting up the account systems, procedures and controls, along with producing and analysing the monthly reports.

James oversees the production of company/site budgets and financial statement forecasting and field commercial audits, as well as student rent reporting to clients and the student arrears management process.

Simon West

Simon West

Group Compliance Director

Simon has a wealth of management and leadership experience within different organisational cultures and has worked in fast paced commercial environments where customer experience and operational efficiency through continuous improvement are key objectives, along with creating a culture of engaged, motivated and high performing teams who are clearly focused on their goals and objectives.

Simon is responsible for compliance across the business, including asset management, GDPR, accreditation & licencing, ESG and full compliance of all matters relating to Health & Safety and fire safety; and also leads our internal and specialist Project Management team who are available to support clients with property asset enhancement and compliance works or remediation, or just general consultancy on asset protection or improvement.

Scott Lewis

Scott Lewis

Chief Operating Officer

Scott’s wealth of experience is across a range of sectors including financial services, hospitality, property services, and IT.

Scott is the strategic lead on sales, marketing, operations, partnerships, systems, service, and student engagement across each of our brands, and drives positive outcomes by leading and developing high-performing teams in a collaborative, target-driven culture of continuous improvement.

Rebecca Williams

Rebecca Williams

Commercial Director

Rebecca has worked in Commercial and Marketing roles in the PBSA sector for over 11 years, taking the lead role in sourcing long-term partnerships and commercial agreements at both property and corporate level.

After holding a senior business development role at a UK and European PBSA operator, Rebecca’s role as Commercial Director at HFS is focussed on identifying opportunities to add value to our business and our clients, delivering efficiencies while enhancing our service offering.

OUR LEADERSHIP TEAM

The leadership team at Homes for Students are proud to share a dedication to excellence, years of experience in the property and related sectors and a drive to create a thriving environment, which stimulates growth and encourages constant development at any level of the company.

Jon Badge

Jon Badge

Operations Director

Jon has led the Operations Team for several years since joining Homes for Students from another national PBSA provider where he headed up their expansion into Europe.

With fantastic industry knowledge and experience, coupled with skills honed in previous roles in the hospitality sector, Jon really is all about the team and people and is a big believer in engagement, fun, energy and enthusiasm creating success.

Jon’s experience and leadership has been pivotal in guiding the Homes for Students Operations Team throughout its largest period of growth and his focus remains on maximising output in all key areas of the business, working with the various teams to build on the fantastic foundations for further growth.

Lee Rawlinson

Lee Rawlinson

Sales Director

Lee joined our Senior Leadership Team in 2021, bringing 25 years’ of residential sector experience to the business, notably his experience as Head of Accommodation at the University of Liverpool, where in 2012 he designed and developed the first residential early warning system used to reduce student self-harm and suicide risk, leading the way in what is now widely discussed as student wellbeing.

Lee is well known across the education sector, and is passionate about technology and a data-driven approach to complement team performance, and secure and enhance long term success in asset and financial performance.

David Chadderton, Marketing Director

David Chadderton

Marketing Director

Dave is a marketer with over 15 years’ experience in both in-house and digital agencies and has a unique understanding of the customer journey. He brings a data and insights-focussed approach to all areas of our Gen Z marketing strategy, as well as teamworking and excellence across all aspects of the business.

A Google Partner, Dave is also a member of the MarTech Advisory Board and is a judge at both the UK Social Media Awards and UK and Global Digital Agency Awards. Across 5+ years at Homes for Students, he has been instrumental in innovating and changing the way the company reaches customers and residents, supporting the wider business objectives and thrives on creating sector-leading solutions and outcomes.

Stephanie Wessel

Stephanie Wessel

People & Culture Director

Steph joined HFS in January 2021 and leads our People and Culture Team. Steph is a performance-driven HR Specialist with a range of experience spanning a variety of different sectors. Steph believes that our people are the key to a successful business and thrives on creating and implementing a People Strategy that ensures our colleagues are at the heart of everything we do.

Paul Marshall

Paul Marshall

Client Finance Director

Paul joined HFS in August 2023 and leads our Client Finance Team.  Paul brings over 20 years’ experience in Finance working across multiple industry sectors including Facilities Management, Telecommunications, Business Process Outsourcing and Private Health Insurance.

Paul’s extensive experience across different organisational structures ranging from family-owned businesses to blue chip corporates provides a broad financial knowledge base of best practice to benefit our clients as well as our internal processes.

Laura Carter

Laura Carter

Head of Communications & Engagement

Laura is a senior communications specialist with experience gained from the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors.

Experienced in building strong, positive relationships with a range of stakeholders, Laura has a wealth of experience managing a blend of digital and offline communications projects including change management, colleague engagement, reputation management and corporate social responsibility. Laura’s goal is to bring the brand to life; ensuring everyone understands key business information, that it’s delivered at the right time, via a channel that suits their needs, and ultimately empowers them to engage.

Stephanie Wessel

Nisha Parmar

Head of Business Development

Nisha joined Homes for Students in 2021 bringing over 15 years’ experience in the Purpose Built Student Accommodation sector and leads our Business Development team. Nisha has a deep understanding of the sector from her broad experience in operations, sales, and facilities management.

Nisha is very commercial in her approach, and this is echoed throughout her specialist team. Nisha’s ethos is to ensure long term partnerships are created by providing sound advice and guidance, and she is committed to working closely with clients, agents, and investors to ensure every opportunity is maximised.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Working closely with the team at Homes for Students brings a deep range of data and insight to support the thousands of students living with us each year. By fostering a better understanding of our students and their diverse needs, we are able to continually develop and enhance our offering to both them and our partner Universities across the UK each year.

Duncan Palmer

Director, Asset Management, Student Housing, Mapletree UK Management Limited

The HFS team mirror our aspiration to offer every student the perfect environment to live while they study. Working in partnership for over five years now, we have successfully delivered year on year across various cities, developed strong relationships with the local universities and positively impacted the local communities. HFS’s student-centric approach puts both employee & student wellbeing at the forefront.

Q Investment Partners

We have worked with HFS for a number of years across different cities. The teams are exceptionally professional with detailed market insights, and have delivered success each year as a result. Most importantly, they add value to the experience of our students during their stay with us. We would highly recommend HFS as they are clearly competent operators in the Purpose Built Student Accommodation sector.

Investra

The team are very proactive and furnish us with a suite of management monthly reports that are very informative and include an insight into the markets, as well as a full yearly strategy document. On one of our assets they have secured a nominations agreement with the university and have increased their rental income year on year by ensuring the best possible experience is delivered to our students by their management team. We would highly recommend Homes for Students if you are looking for an operating partner who deliver what they say they will.

90 North

Since appointing Homes for Students in January 2017, they have proved themselves to be a capable manager and important part of our team having secured 100% occupancy as well as ensuring all day to day operational matters are quickly addressed. As a consequence of their strong performance, they have now been appointed to operate our newest development in Southampton which opens in time for the 2018 academic year.

Jamie Snary MRICS

Director Asset Management, Apache Capital Partners

We have worked with Homes for Students since 2015 and would highly recommend them as a long term partner. They have a student-first approach and are aligned with Lothbury’s aims to enhance the reputation and value of our student accommodation properties from year to year.

Adam Smith

Director, Lothbury Investment Management Ltd.

We appointed HFS to take over the management of Agnes Jones House, a 370-bed scheme in Liverpool, in May 2016. We have been very pleased with their approach which is focused on delivering a first-class service to the students and has resulted in us achieving full occupancy and a high percentage of rebookers for next year.

Roger Phillips

Senior Director, VGA

Homes for Students delivered exactly what they said they would! My new development is 100% occupied, reports were delivered on time and to a high standard. The team really do go above and beyond to ensure they deliver.

John Tebbutt

Managing Director, Birmingham Properties Group

My past involvement with the team now at Homes for Students was developing large campus-based student accommodation schemes where they delivered an exceptional student experience.

The team are now supporting Varsity Projects’ development of over 3,000 direct-let beds and they are delivering an exceptional level of service to our schemes.

Jared Fox

Managing Director, Varsity Projects