Chief Executive Greg is proud of his '˜humble beginnings'

Greg, 53, worked as a Director of Finance and Resources for a number of years.

He said: “I’ve worked at director level for too many years to remember but have always been second in command. During that time I’ve learnt an awful lot from all of my previous managing directors or chief executives and feel that the time is right for me.

“When it came to finding a Chief Executive role Acis was a ‘no-brainer. Like all housing providers, we are not without our challenges particularly in respect of our desire to continue to grow while holding onto our social vision amidst an ever changing political environment. We’re committed to delivering value for money for our existing and potential customers. I see these as exciting times for the housing sector.

“In my first few months in the role I’ve been out and about with some of our staff to see what their normal job entails.

“A lot of it is about working in people’s homes and what’s impressed me is the care and pride that many of our customers have for their homes and also the professional attitude of our people in dealing with our customers.

From a career perspective Greg has got 35 years’ work experience within the UK energy, hospitality and retail sectors, being responsible for finance, IT, corporate services and HR.

He said: “I’m not convinced the housing sector is any different to the other sectors that I’ve worked in so from a rewards perspective it always has to be the people you work with.”

Greg says he is proud of what he has achieved from what he describes as ‘fairly humble beginnings’.

He said: “My parents were working class and I was the youngest of three siblings who grew up in a two bedroom house; in today’s housing world we would call that over-crowding.

“I left school at 16 with some pretty mediocre exam results and wasn’t blessed with a university education. Just two months after my 16th birthday, I started working as a Clerk under Training for British Gas when it was still part of local government.

“As someone who had a passion for learning, I progressed through a number of roles developing a variety of skills in data processing, customer accounts, arrears management and even including converting the manual prepayment slot meter data from card to computer; I then moved into a technical sales role designing and arranging the installation of industrial and commercial heating and eventually ran a team of nineteen gas engineers for a while.

“I’ve always embraced change as being very positive but it wasn’t until I left British Gas that I decided that I would become a qualified accountant.

“I studied, at home and without support, for a good few years until I became a fully qualified accountant and picked up my first finance director’s job.

“A couple of roles later I was working in the housing sector as finance director and now I am chief executive at Acis.

“What I hope it shows is that ordinary people really can achieve extraordinary things by working hard and having that commitment to improve their own lives and, hopefully, the lives of others along the way.

“Most importantly of all, I believe that there is still more to come yet.

“For me personally I want to live a long and happy life, enjoy my family and get to see places around the world that I have not yet seen

“The truth is that there never seems to be enough time outside of work to do much and weekends seem to come and go very quickly, especially when they include trips to see my family.

“I enjoy gardening, although if you saw my garden you wouldn’t necessarily believe it and I also like to do a bit of DIY.”