{"id":503,"date":"2025-05-09T12:29:46","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T12:29:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.firstport.co.uk\/?page_id=503"},"modified":"2025-08-04T14:39:32","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T13:39:32","slug":"leadership-team","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.firstport.co.uk\/about-us\/leadership-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Leadership team"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Meet the team<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Martin King (VR, MBA)<\/h3>\n

Managing Director<\/p> <\/div>\n\n

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My role is to ensure the business continues to adapt to the requirements of an evolving sector. Alongside my senior leadership team, I am focused on ensuring we deliver a consistent, quality service to our customers and that The FirstPort Group is at the forefront of positive change in our industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is vital that we have a skilled, knowledgeable, and accredited workforce to navigate our increasingly complex industry, and I enjoy leading people and enabling teams to maximise their full potential.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The strategies we have put in place will help us to deliver the best possible service to our customers and meet the needs of our clients, underpinned by our key principles: collaboration, simplicity, clarity and consistency.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n

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Will Ahern (MBA)<\/h3>\n

Finance Director <\/p> <\/div>\n\n

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As Finance Director, I oversee The FirstPort Group\u2019s financial operations. In my role, I work closely with the leadership team to drive performance, make commercial decisions, manage risk, and ensure continued growth and stability so that we can continue to deliver high quality services for our residents and clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The finance team works across the rest of FirstPort to support on monthly results, budgeting and driving our strategy through daily decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I most enjoy about my role\u2026<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The variety of people I get to engage with every day, and the fast pace of what we do as a business to realise the ambitions we have as a company and ensure we\u2019re delivering the very best for our customers and clients.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n

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Victoria Peake (MTPI)<\/h3>\n

Operations Director – London<\/p> <\/div>\n\n

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I lead our dedicated London property management team, making sure we provide a tailored service to our customers and clients. I have extensive experience in the unique complexities of the London real estate market, with a keen interest in new build and regeneration projects, as well as preserving the Capital\u2019s historical mansion block stock. I work with RMCs and Developers to ensure the buildings we look after remain safe and compliant, whilst also ensuring they are well cared for and happy places for our residents to live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

London is one of the most dynamic cities in the world, and we aim to provide a service that matches pace, responding to the changing requirements of customers and clients, whilst still providing the high standard of core services our customers expect from us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I most enjoy about my role\u2026<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

No two days are the same; from helping Resident Directors to successfully navigate their responsibilities, and supporting our London team to manage complex developments requiring expert care, to meeting residents at the wide variety of properties we manage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jonny Holmes (MTPI, BSc Hons, VIS CMgr MCMI)<\/h3>\n

Operations Director – South West<\/p> <\/div>\n\n

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My role is to lead our service delivery in the South West, heading up the property management teams and business functions that serve our customers and clients across the region. Having lived and worked in the South West for over 20 years, I am passionate about providing a service that supports our local communities.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have extensive experience of the different kinds of homes we manage across the region, from historic sites to those with protected species, habits or sensitive ecological areas. Each property we manage is special and unique, and I want to make sure our team\u2019s service reflects that.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I most enjoy about my role\u2026<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I enjoy making a positive impact on the communities we support. I also have a keen interest in sustainability, and enjoy looking for new ways to minimise our environmental impact across the communities we work in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jamie Turnbull (BA, MARLA)<\/h3>\n

Operations Director – South East<\/p> <\/div>\n\n

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My role is to lead the teams that serve our clients and customers across the South East, applying local knowledge and experience across the region, to deliver high standards of service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout my 30 years in the property industry, I have led teams in asset, lettings, block and estate management across the UK, including extensive work across the South East, building a strong understanding of the broad variety of building types and diverse range of locations across the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I enjoy most about my role\u2026<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I enjoy building relationships with different stakeholders, particularly developer clients and Resident Management Companies to make sure our teams are delivering exactly what they, and our customers, need.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n

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Gareth Cayford (ATPI)<\/h3>\n

Operations Director – Later Living and Rest of UK<\/p> <\/div>\n\n

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My role is to ensure the successful delivery of professional, customer-focused property management across a diverse regional portfolio and for our specialist Later Living division. With 10 years\u2019 industry experience, I work closely with our teams to continually enhance the service we provide our customers and improve the way we deliver services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m focused on building strong regional teams to deliver consistent, transparent service and good value for the communities we support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I enjoy about my role\u2026<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The opportunity to work across a wide range of stakeholders to shape and improve the property management services we deliver is really rewarding, as well as supporting my teams to enhance our customers\u2019 experiences living in well-run developments and strong communities.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n

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Paul Atkinson (MTPI, AssocRICS)<\/h3>\n

Director of Portfolio and Growth<\/p> <\/div>\n\n

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I am responsible for building and maintaining strong relationships with our clients, working with developers, resident directors, freeholders and investors to ensure the successful management of their properties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the context of regulatory change, my team and I are helping our clients to navigate some of the more complex and challenging areas of our industry, working in partnership to support and deliver in the areas that are important to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I most enjoy about my role\u2026<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Working closely with my colleagues to help develop our team and the people within it, ensuring they have the skills and knowledge to deliver in an evolving industry landscape.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n

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Emma Melhuish (MSc, FCIPD)<\/h3>\n

HR Director<\/p> <\/div>\n\n

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I\u2019m responsible for leading the HR, Recruitment and Learning & Development teams that support FirstPort and its most important asset \u2013 our people. We aim to deliver an effective employee journey from recruitment through to retirement, ensuring our teams have the right skilled and professional people in place to deliver the best possible service for our customers and clients, whilst supporting our employees to achieve the training and qualifications needed to work in this dynamic industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m also spearheading our property management training programme, enabling our employees to achieve a TPI level 2 qualification as a minimum. We expect all our operational staff to be qualified to at least this level by Autumn 2025, and it is a pleasure to be supporting many colleagues already qualified at this level as they continue in their studies to achieve TPI level 3 and 4 qualifications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I most enjoy about my role\u2026<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I love the diverse nature of our business and the variety of roles and people I get to work with. No two days are ever the same, which keeps things fresh and engaging. I\u2019m passionate about working alongside the business to help our employees to be the best version of themselves, so they can thrive, develop and deliver an exceptional customer experience.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n

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Cathy Reid<\/h3>\n

Director of Customer Operations<\/p> <\/div>\n\n

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I oversee several departments directly related to our customer service functions. We aim to provide clear, transparent communication, to ensure customers receive the information and support they need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am currently working with my teams to implement a series of short and longer-term changes to enhance the customer experience, utilising technology and people to improve the efficiency of our service through faster responses from highly trained specialists, with local knowledge of the areas our customers live in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I most enjoy about my role\u2026<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The interaction with people and striving to prioritise our customers\u2019 needs. I love the dynamic nature of our business and workforce, as well as the opportunity to successfully serve our customers. As a certified Change Management Practitioner, with a Mini MBA in Customer Centricity, I have a strong passion for improving processes and the customer journey, to identify areas for enhancement that ultimately benefit our customers.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n

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Meet the team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":202,"menu_order":35,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-503","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstport.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstport.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstport.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstport.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstport.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstport.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3568,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstport.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/503\/revisions\/3568"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstport.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstport.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}