Sage Homes appoints Elizabeth Froude as CEO

Sage Homes, England’s largest provider of newly built affordable housing for the last four years, has announced the appointment of Elizabeth Froude as its new CEO. This follows the news in January 2025 that Mark Sater would be stepping down as Sage Homes’ CEO after five years in the role. 

Elizabeth brings a wealth of experience as a Senior Executive, having spent 20 years in the housing sector. Elizabeth currently serves as Group Chief Executive of one of the UK’s largest social landlords, Platform Housing Group, where she has overseen the management of 50,000 homes and has been the driving force in shaping them as an ambitious and strong organisation with a committed focus on putting their customers at the forefront of service design. Platform is committed to delivering much-needed new homes while maintaining financial strength and efficiency. Elizabeth has shown strong leadership in driving innovation and has contributed to key sector initiatives, including the Linq plc funding vehicle at Genesis with M&G. Platform has also been an early adopter of sustainability funding, launched a £2Bn EMTN programme, and continues to hold top ratings (G1/V1) from the IDA and A+ ratings from agencies.

Mark Sater is remaining in the business to ensure a smooth transition. Under his leadership, Sage Homes has grown to become the largest provider of newly built affordable housing in England for four consecutive years and delivered its 20,000th home in July 2025. Mark’s tenure saw the sale of a portfolio of shared ownership homes to the UK’s largest pension fund, USS, bringing much-needed new capital into the sector and creating a new RP, Sparrow Shared Ownership. He also led the organisation through its first IDA, achieving a G1/V2 rating.

Elizabeth Froude said: “Sage has delivered more affordable homes than any other RP in the last four years, while developing a powerful service platform for customers. To deliver the quality, affordable housing the UK needs, we need to challenge our own thinking as a sector and work with and learn from the best of both the For Profit and Not for Profit organisations. This has to be done by being willing to innovate without compromising on customer outcome. I believe that Sage has this ambition, and I look forward to working closely with the Board, and the wider team, to combine both their learnings and my own experiences to optimise Sage as a standout landlord for the future.”

Sage Chair, Alison Thain, OBE, added: “I am delighted to welcome Elizabeth as our new CEO. We are impressed by Elizabeth’s vision to take Sage into its next chapter – underpinned by her extensive background in social housing and trusted voice on the future of UK housing policy. I would like to extend the Board’s thanks to Mark for his achievements in building such a strong company and talented team.”

Gemma Kataky, Sage Board NED and Blackstone Managing Director said: “Elizabeth is well-placed to lead Sage into the future with more than 20 years’ experience in the affordable housing sector. I would like to thank Mark for his outstanding leadership of Sage Homes, building an exceptional platform to grow from, and his continued dedication to ensure a smooth transition.”