Executive team
Meet our executive management team
Rob Boughton
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Rob’s passion for placemaking has driven a career in property and housebuilding that spans almost 30 years. He founded the company in 2003, and his focus on innovation, infrastructure, community and collaboration has positioned Thakeham as an industry leader.
Rob is a champion for meaningful change within the sector. He is a founding member of the HBF’s Future Homes Taskforce and Thakeham was the first housebuilder in the UK to sign the SME Climate Commitment, part of the UN’s Race To Zero Campaign.
As CEO and part-owner, Rob’s role is to set the company aims and mission. To provide unified leadership, setting and shaping the strategic goals, objectives and delivery for the short and long term. He is also responsible for promoting the business externally and overseeing growth plans.
Julian Rooney
Chief Sales Officer
Julian has over three decades of experience in the property and housebuilding industry. A part-owner of Thakeham, he first joined the business in 2010 and moved into his current role in 2020. Over the course of that period, Thakeham has become one of the leading strategic land promoters and housebuilders in the south of England, and a Sunday Times 100 Best Places to Work employer.
Julian is responsible for the overall strategy of where and what we build. His role is to create and drive a sales and marketing strategy across all developments and deliver sales results and revenue. He forensically manages the sales revenue stream and highlights and manages any opportunities, risks, and challenges.
Alastair Skinner
Chief Operating Officer
As Chief Operating Officer, Alastair leads the day-to-day operations of the business in accordance with the strategic plan and operating and capital budgets. His role is to bring CEO’s vision to life and ensure implementation of company strategies into daily operations.
Alastair brings 30 years property experience focussed on asset management and funding. Prior to joining Thakeham in March 2024, Alastair served as Managing Director of Hargreaves Group for eight years, overseeing its transition from founder run to executive management. He was the first non-family member to hold the position of Managing Director. Alastair is MRICS – Chartered Surveyor.
Calum Semark
Chief Production Officer
As Chief Production Officer, Calum is responsible for the performance, delivery and customer satisfaction of all developments to ensure we deliver a high-quality product, safely. He also delivers change to revolutionise the way we build.
Calum has 17 years’ experience within the construction industry, starting out as a carpenter before a change of direction in 2008 took him into site management with the Berkeley Group. He joined Thakeham in 2017, project-managing a large exemplar development. Since then, Calum has taken increasing responsibility for sites in production during a period of business growth.
Claire MacAleese
Chief Communications Officer
Claire is responsible for positioning Thakeham favourably amongst house-buyers, key stakeholders, local and national government and the housebuilding and construction industry.
Claire has two decades of experience in communications, corporate affairs and public affairs and is a former UK government special advisor to two Secretaries of State for Transport. With extensive experience managing large teams in the engineering and transport sectors, Claire is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and a trustee of the Air League, the largest charity provider of aviation bursaries in the UK. She is Chair of the Communications Group of the Future Homes Hub.
Jeremy Chapman
Chief Development Officer
Jeremy brings over 30 years of housebuilding sector experience, including over 13 years in senior management roles within the Berkeley Group, focused on infrastructure led developments. He was appointed to the executive team in September 2023 having joined Thakeham as Managing Director – Engineering, Technical & Commercial in May 2022.
Jeremy manages the pre-development activities – from identification of land through to planning permission – including the cost plan, development programme and viability to ensure delivery of the business plan and financial year targets. He supports the sustainability team in determining our corporate and project objectives.
Steve Tuhey
Group Business Development Director
Steve is a serving Board Member, and a valuable part of the company since 2007. As Managing Director of Thakeham Partnerships, he is responsible for business development and the efficacy of our bidding process.
Steve has spent over 30 years within the construction industry, working for several major players such as Cala Homes, Linden Homes, Regalian, BMP and has contract-managed many major projects ranging from residential housing, commercial, social, and retail schemes.
Barbara Henwood
Non-Executive Director
Barbara is a serving Board Member, and a valuable part of the company since 2018. As Non-Executive Director at Thakeham, she is responsible as part of the board for the success of the company.
Barbara is a retired senior HR Executive who spent 23 years with Warner Bros, global media and entertainment company. As Senior Vice President of International HR she had responsibility for all aspects of Human Resources and organisational development for all businesses in all territories worldwide, with the exception of North America, reporting to the Executive Vice President of Worldwide HR based in Burbank California. She also managed all people aspects of numerous Mergers and Acquisitions, both global and local.
Peter Andrew MBE
Non-Executive Director
Peter joined the Board as a Non-Executive Director in 2024. In this role he will provide commercial advice and oversight on corporate decision-making.
During his distinguished 40-year career in construction and housebuilding, Peter has held senior roles at several leading developers, including the board of Taylor Wimpey. He also held the post of deputy chairman of the Home Building Federation and was one of four practitioners tasked with writing the National Planning Policy Framework for England.
He currently serves as Chairman at Burrington Estates Ltd, The Corserv Group of Companies, Dorchester Group and Twindig, and is a non-executive director at Fibre Ltd. As a mark of the influence Peter has had on housebuilding, development and regeneration, he was awarded an MBE for ‘Services to Construction’ in the 2018 New Year Honours list.
