47,000-home provider believes having board members with ‘lived experience’ as Orbit residents will help it improve services

Orbit Group has announced the appointment of two of its residents to its board as part of a governance shake-up aimed at improving “customer experience”.

Doku and Ogundayo

Maxwell Doku (left) and Sayo Ogundayo have been appointed to Orbit’s group 

The 47,000-home provider has today confirmed the appointment of Maxwell Doku and Sayo Ogundayo to its group board. The Midlands-based housing association believes having board members with ‘lived experience’ as Orbit residents will help it improve services to residents.

Doku is finance business partner at healthcare regulator the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

Prior to that he held finance roles at the Hospital of St John and Elizabeth, London, and agricultural business Olam International. He was also previously a resident board member at Barnet Homes.

Ogundayo has experience in technology, sales, and client relationship management with organisations such as Amazon Web Services, Atos IT Services and Worldline. He is also a school governor and a founding coach at technology recruitment sector start-up Tangent.

Stephen Jack, the newly appointed chair of Orbit Group, said: “Maxwell and Sayo are both passionate about the housing sector and their lived experience as an Orbit customer, alongside their professional expertise, will enhance our capability to improve our customer experience and support the delivery of our 2030 Strategy.”

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>>See also: Orbit appoints new chair as it aims for ‘best customer experience’ in housing association sector

Orbit is currently going through a process of making extensive changes to its governance structure to help it deliver on its ambition to “provide among the best customer experience of any housing association in the country”.

In addition to the appointment of Doku and Ogundayo, it is combining the boards of its housing association subsidiary with the overall Orbit Group board to create one board to oversee all aspects of its operational and strategic direction.

It will also put in place a new committee structure, including the creation of a new Customer and Service Delivery Committee, to support group board decision-making.

In October it hired former Asda customer insight lead Nick Lygo-Baker as its new director of customer experience.