EFL Board & Honorary Chairman
Dr. Hans-Michael Brey
Chairman of the board of EFL and CEO van de Stiftung Berliner Leben
Ben Pluijmers
Honorary Chairman of the board of EFL and member of the board of Lhedco/Polylogis
Michaela Lüdtke
Manager – Berliner Bau- und Wohnungsgen. von 1892 eG
John McLean
CEO of Radius
Rob Lane
Group Commercial Director, Clarion Housing Group
Ben Pluijmers
After his masters degree in Engineering at the University of Technology Delft (NL), Ben complemented his education with business studies at the Nyenrode Business University (NL) and the University of Michigan Business School (USA). He worked in business for about 20 years, of which almost 12 years as managing partner at Twynstra Gudde Management Consultants, one of the major Consultancy Firms in The Netherlands. In 2007 Ben started working for housing association Com•wonen, and later Havensteder as Director of Real Estate/Vice-President. After 2014, he focused on advisory and interim board member/ceo positions. Since 2014, Ben has been a member of the board of Lhedco, a holding company of the housing association Polylogis in the Paris area. Furthermore, he is a member of several other supervisory and advisory boards. Ben joined EFL in 2007 and was elected an EFL board member in 2010 and in 2013 as chairman of the board.
Dr. Hans-Michael Brey
Hans-Michael Brey has been working in the social housing and real estate sector and in location development for 30 years. He has become familiar with the sector from various perspectives: in the environment of the Federal Ministry of Economics in an advisory capacity at state, federal and European Union level, as Secretary General of the German Association for Housing, Urban Development and Regional Planning, as Managing Director of the BBA – Academy of the Real Estate Industry in association with companies, the Chamber of Industry and Commerce and universities in Germany and abroad, and as Chairman of the Board of the Berliner Leben Foundation – a foundation of Gewobag AG, which is committed to urban and neighbourhood development. He studied political science, modern history and sociology at the University of Bonn and modern history at the University of Southampton. This was followed by a postgraduate course in urban planning and settlement management. He completed a degree in business administration (IWW) at the University of Hagen. At Steinbeis University Berlin, he studied business psychology (WPS).
John McLean
John is CEO of housing association Radius, located in the city of Belfast, Northern Ireland. He has worked in Social Housing since 2005, when he was appointed CEO of Fold Housing, a 4,000 unit association based in Northern Ireland with a turnover of €13m. At the same time, he was appointed CEO of Fold Ireland, a small association based in Dublin in the Republic of Ireland. Through growth and mergers, Fold expanded to 13,000 units, and reached a turnover of €95m. Rebranded in 2017 as Radius Housing, Fold now provides housing, care and support to 33,000 households. Since Radius joined EFL in 2019, John has been a very active and committed EFL member.
Rob Lane
Rob joined Clarion in November 2016, at the time of its creation through a merger, as Commercial Finance Director. A qualified accountant, Rob’s career has included appointments in senior finance and director roles in Domino’s Pizza Group and Network Rail Property. Rob is responsible for Clarion’s subsidiary organisations – Clarion Response, Grange and House Exchange – as well as leading Clarion’s PRS & Commercial Asset portfolios. Rob also leads on strategic asset management, including regeneration & disposal, and heads up the Group’s approach to future mergers and acquisitions.
Michaela Lüdtke
After completing a traineeship at the Berliner Bau- und Wohnungsgenossenschaft von 1892 eG (German Cooperative), Michaela worked as an Assistant to the Board. At the same time she also completed part time her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Real Estate and Facility Management at the Fachhochschule Gelsenkirchen (University of Applied Sciences). After that she took over the management of the departments Service Charge Budgeting, Rental Accounting, Members Administration and Savings Bank – a sector special financing model in the housing sector. Since 2012, Michaela also has the power of attorney for the company. She became a member of the EFL Board in 2014. of the European Federation for Living, a federation for the exchange of knowledge between housing companies, their partners and universities across Europe.