Board members

The Solon Board is made up of a maximum of 12 volunteers. Below are our Board Member Profiles.

CHAIR Graham Oliver	Graham is a Chartered Accountant with over 20 years experience, initially working in practice for KPMG and PwC, and for the last 10 years in commercial roles. He brings experience from a number of different industries, and is currently Assistant Group Finance Director at the Aster Group. His particular interest is in how we can maximise the use of our finances and resources to obtain the best results for our customers. Graham joined the Board in 2011 and became Chair of the Audit and Finance Committee in 2012.
VICE CHAIR Myriam Kniveton	Myriam joined the Board in January 2013. Myriam has over 25 years experience in finance, operations and service development, working with a variety of housing, voluntary and privately owned organisations. She has also co-founded a charity for women and children suffering from domestic violence, chaired several management committees for small supported housing organisations and taken part in several national working groups including FLAP (Financial Legal Advisory Panel). Myriam is currently working as a consultant and chairs the highly successful South West National Housing Federation Supported Housing Regional Interest Group. Myriam is passionate about helping disadvantaged people and sits on Solon's Audit and Finance Committee.
VICE CHAIR Nikki Tillett
CHAIR OF AUDIT AND FINANCE COMMITTEE Judith Bavister	Judith is a graduate and member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. Now retired, she worked in the public sector all her life, ending as a Senior Manager in Social Service Finance. She has been a co-opted member of the Audit And Finance Committee for several years and a Board Member for two. In September 2015 she became Chair of the Audit and Finance Committee. She has a particular interest in social inclusion.
Chris Knight	Chris is the former Head of Housing Services at Merlin Housing Society, and has previously worked in senior positions responsible for housing management, repairs and improvements, and central support services. He is now a consultant specialising in performance improvement. Chris joined the Board in 2008 and became Chair in 2012.
Mike Smith; Resident Board Member and Vice Chair of the Customer Service Improvement Committee	Mike is now retired but still does some support work for a visually impaired person and also works with blind and visually impaired people to access computers. He is a volunteer gardener with St. Monica's Trust. Past work was in house renovation and maintenance. Mike is vice chair of the Customer Service Improvement Committee and is a Solon resident. Mike joined the Board in 2010.
Stephen Cook	Stephen is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Housing and since 2008 has been Chief Executive of Valleys to Coast, a stock-transfer housing association in South Wales. His housing career started in the early 1980s in local government working in Bristol, Sussex, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire before joining Fosseway Housing Association in 1997. Stephen also has a BA(Hons) degree in German (Warwick University) and a post graduate Diploma in Management Studies (University of the West of England). Born, bred and still living in Bristol Stephen hopes his skills and experience on the Solon board will help make a difference to local people’s lives. Married with an adult son, Stephen’s main interests are reading and listening to music. He also admits to being a season ticket holder at Bristol Rovers Football Club: a constant reminder that life is not all about enjoyment or success.
Adam Booth
Kay Dovey	Kay has worked at both senior management and Board level for over 20 years in the Housing arena and during this time has led on all key Human Resources & Organisational Development (HR/OD) activities from strategy development, through to reward, culture change, and Executive / Board recruitment and development. Kay now works as an independent consultant specialising in HR/OD projects and interim assignments. Kay rejoined the Solon Board in May 2016 as she wanted to continue to be involved with social housing and to play even a small part in ensuring people have the opportunity to acquire and live in good quality affordable homes.
Yvonne Ramsaran	Yvonne worked as a solicitor for over 15 years in the public, private and voluntary sectors. She worked with tenants in law centres and a housing charity and later worked for public sector landlords. She was Head of Litigation at Ealing Council before moving into HR work and taking on a number of interim roles, including Head of HR at Ealing Homes. Yvonne is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD and is currently working for a variety of employers as an independent HR Consultant specialising in employee relations matters. She hasprevious experience of committee work having spent a number of years as the independent Chair of the Standards Committee for Hounslow Council and as an Employment Tribunal Lay Member She became a Board Member after returning to live in Bristol. As she hasmaintained a particular interest in and commitment to social housing and wanted to become involved in a local organisation where she could put her skills and knowledge to use.
Gill Risdale	Gill joined the board in November 2015, wanting simply to help make a difference. She has worked in public services for over twenty five years, holding a variety of roles within several local authorities and is currently a project manager in Highways England. Her experiences include housing management, homelessness and special needs housing as well as HR, training and health and safety. Now that her children are grown up she wants to devote some time for the good of the community.
Richard Marshall	Richard is a solicitor with over 20 years property litigation experience who works for an international legal practice. He joined Solon's Board as he is committed to the provision of good quality affordable housing, and he wants to help Solon provide that for as many people as possible. Richard is married with two children.