Aster Group appoints new Director of Procurement

Housing association Aster Group has appointed Rachel Willacy as its new Director of Procurement.  

Rachel brings with her over 15 years of experience leading and implementing major procurement projects and has previously held roles within both national and regional housing providers.

Reporting to Chief Strategy Officer Dawn Fowler-Stevens, Rachel’s role will see her work to evolve Aster’s procurement strategy and cultivate relationships with contractors, suppliers and professional bodies across London and the south of England.

Dawn Fowler-Stevens, Chief Strategy Officer at Aster, said: “As our sector continues to face a challenging political, economic and environmental climate, we need an informed procurement strategy and robust supply chain. These will play an increasingly critical role in giving us the ability to deliver on our strategic objectives.

“Rachel brings experience in abundance. She’ll be able to apply lessons learned from her work on a regional and national scale to help not only drive our commercial direction but ultimately achieve our vision that ‘everyone has a home’. To deliver on this critical social impact, we need to balance catering to our customer base, deliver value for money while also meeting our ESG objectives.”

Rachel Willacy, Director of Procurement at Aster, added: “There are a wealth of forward-thinking contractors, builders and key housing industry stakeholders across the south of England who share our ambitions to solve the housing crisis.

“Building more and stronger relationships with these like-minded organisations and collaborating with them effectively will be essential to continuing to deliver for our existing and new customers. I’m joining an ambitious housing association that is determined to have a big societal impact on its communities - I look forward to working with the team to help them achieve this.”

Alongside Rachel’s appointment, Aster has launched an opportunity to engage in a Property Investment and Planned Maintenance Market Engagement Event to connect with existing and potential contractors to inform the Group’s future procurement activities.  

Rachel added: “The event will give us a fantastic opportunity to meaningfully engage with existing and potential contractors to gather insight and create solutions to meet our business objectives into the future.”

The event will take place in London on 13 July, with interested companies invited to submit an Expression of Interest in attending by Friday 30 June.