Simon Wake

Board Member & RECC* Member

In my professional career, I was a solicitor specialising in commercial property. This involved me in a significant amount of development work, some of which was for housebuilders, giving me an insight into the processes involved in procuring housing stock. I was also the Compliance Officer for Legal Practice at my firm for several years, an internal regulatory role required by the SRA (Solicitors Regulation Authority), which meant I was responsible for monitoring my firm’s internal compliance with its own procedures and the SRA's requirements. This also involved some auditing of our procedures to check whether we were compliant in the way we believed. I was a partner in the firm for more than 20 years, and Managing Partner for 6 of those, including through the period around 2008, giving me an understanding of how businesses need to operate to succeed in challenging times.

I grew up, lived and had my career in the Tees Valley, and it has given me a great deal over the past 60 years. It is a great place to live and work, but it is also an area with problems, not least in the housing sphere. I wanted to give something back to the area when I retired, and I felt that I had something to offer North Star. Everyone should have a decent place to live, as people’s health, educational achievement and lives are improved by it, and at North Star, we all believe that we can provide good housing for our customers.

I am a big fan of rugby (union) and was delighted to be able to travel with friends to the Rugby World Cup in France in the autumn of 2023 – it was a great experience, only marred by England failing to make it to the final!