Bjorn Howard

Executive director, Group CEO

Bjorn became Aster’s Group CEO in 2009 having previously been the chief executive of a smaller housing association and worked in several other senior roles. Since then, Aster’s housing business has doubled to nearly 38,000 homes and has expanded its geographical footprint across southern England and London.

He has worked in the independent housing, care and support sectors for more than 35 years and has extensive board-level experience in both executive and non-executive roles. He has served as a non-executive director for an NHS Trust, educational organisations, regeneration boards and as a government appointee to a housing association.  Bjorn is a passionate advocate for Customer Voice, inclusive organisational cultures and the not-for-dividend business model.

Bjorn holds a Master’s degree in management and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Housing and Chartered Management Institute. He is also a member of the Institute of Directors.

Committee Membership:

Customer Voice Committee

Chris Benn

Chief Financial Officer

Chris joined Aster in 2014, bringing with him extensive experience from the commercial sector.

Chris has executive responsibility for Finance, Treasury, Finance and Business Planning, the Group’s Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and the Group’s insurance and pension arrangements.

Before Aster, Chris held senior finance positions at Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC and Regus PLC. At Euromoney he ensured the finance team were able to support the five-fold profit increase of the Group from both organic growth, and through acquisitions, including the acquisition of a fellow FTSE-250 listed Group. At Regus Chris was involved in the IPO and floatation of Regus’ shares on both the FTSE and NASDAQ indices.

Chris qualified as a chartered accountant at Coopers & Lybrand (now PwC) in 1994.

Amanda Williams

Chief Investment Officer

Amanda has over 30 years’ experience in development, marketing and asset management for registered social landlords, joining Aster Group in 2012. She was previously director of business development at Synergy, prior to the merger with Aster and drove the strategic direction of the association’s new-build development activity, including becoming an independent preferred investment partner.

Before Aster, Amanda was head of development for Sanctuary Housing Group for London and the South East, and an associate director of Adams Integra, a consultancy specialising in housing development and planning. She was also director of development services for Apex Housing (now A2Dominion) for nine years where she was responsible for growing a mixed development programme from scratch to over 1,000 units per year.

Amanda is the executive lead for Development, Asset Management, Property Investment and Delivery. Aster’s Development programme delivers homes for social rent, affordable rent, and shared ownership. The Group plans to invest £1.6 billion to achieve its long-term target of delivering 7,000 homes over the next seven years.

Rachel Credidio

Chief Innovation Officer / Enham Lead

Rachel drives innovation and cultural transformation across Aster Group, shaping how the business engages with its people to foster creativity, collaboration, and productivity.

She leads key areas including sustainability and stewardship, HR and talent management, communications, workspaces, and the Group’s charitable initiatives. Her focus is on creating an inclusive, purpose-driven culture where colleagues thrive and deliver meaningful impact for customers and communities.

Rachel also has executive responsibility for Enham, championing priorities such as supported employment, sustainability, inclusive spaces, and independence. She works to amplify social impact through Enham Trust.

With a background in psychology and qualifications in change management, HR, and restorative practice, Rachel brings deep insight into unlocking potential and driving positive change.

Dawn Fowler-Stevens

Chief of Staff

Dawn supports Aster’s Group CEO with alignment across the business, focusing on high level decision making. As Chief of Staff, she works closely with the rest of the Executive Board to drive organisational clarity and ensure Aster delivers its strategic priorities. Her remit spans the core systems that safeguard and strengthen the organisation - from governance, risk and assurance to data, insight and business intelligence - enabling Aster to make informed, future focused decisions. She oversees the organisation’s integrity and performance frameworks, aligning assurance, safety and operational support to create a disciplined, well governed and high functioning organisation. Alongside this, Dawn leads Aster’s growth agenda, particularly through mergers and acquisitions, ensuring the organisation remains well governed, insight driven and strategically positioned for long term sustainability.

She joined Aster in 2012 following five years at Savills, where she was an associate director supporting housing associations and local authorities on governance, organisational change, strategic partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, as well as project management consultancy.

With a career spanning 30 years across the public and private sectors, Dawn’s expertise includes creating value through stock transfers, establishing group structures and delivering corporate structure consolidation. Dawn also holds non executive roles as a board director for the largest theatre on the south coast and for a London based for profit registered provider, serving on the Audit and Risk Committees for both organisations.

Dawn is a member of the Chartered Management Institute, the Institute of Business Administrators and the Chartered Governance Institute.

Emma O'Shea

Chief Operating and Technology Officer

Emma joined Aster in April 2020 from Peabody Group and has 20 years’ experience in operational and strategic leadership.

With experience across multiple organisations both as an operational executive and as a senior business Management Consultant, Emma has led a number of large scale transformation programmes across social housing providers creating long-term business sustainability. Emma has a wealth of experience in leading complex large scale Customer Services Operations and Asset Management teams.  

As executive lead for the Customer Services directorate and the Transformation portfolio, Emma is responsible for driving improvement and modernising the way customers’ homes are managed and maintained. Emma is passionate about driving an excellent customer culture and offering a range of different ways to engage with customers. As part of this, Emma has responsibility for ensuring Aster delivers against and is compliant with the Regulator for Social Housing’s Consumer Standards.

Emma has a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from Henley Business School and is a fellow of the Chartered Management Institute.