Our Founder
Gemma Glass is the Founder and Director of The Social Impact Consultancy, bringing over 20 years of leadership experience across local authorities and housing associations. She specialises in helping organisations embed social value, inclusion, and ESG principles into core housing strategies, ensuring support services are recognised as fundamental to sustainable tenancies and business performance.
Previously Head of Financial and Digital Inclusion at Southern Housing, Gemma led multi-million-pound initiatives addressing welfare reform and the cost-of-living crisis, improving financial wellbeing for thousands of residents. A Trustee at the Centre for Responsible Credit and former Chair of the G15 Cost of Living Steering Group, she combines strategic insight with hands-on delivery to help organisations create measurable and lasting social impact.
About Why I Started The Social Impact Consultancy
I’ve always been drawn to work that makes a difference, particularly around financial and digital inclusion. Since leaving university in the mid-2000s, I’ve built a career focused on enabling access and opportunity, gaining a wealth of experience across Scotland and the South of England in both local authorities and housing associations.
What has always driven me, and given me the greatest satisfaction is seeing what can happen when organisations come together to create change. Rather than duplicating effort, I’ve seen firsthand how powerful it is when knowledge, resources, and purpose are shared.
In 2023, my former employer, Southern Housing, supported me to formalise my leadership journey through a qualification in Sustainability Leadership at the University of Cambridge. That experience inspired me to look deeper at the systemic mechanisms that drive or hinder progress and how leadership can be a catalyst for transformation.
When I relocated to the Netherlands , I saw an opportunity to take this passion further, to carve out a space where I could support others to affect change with clarity, collaboration, and compassion.
It’s important to me to maintain Chartered Institute of Housing status and stay professionally curious. The Social Impact Consultancy is a way for me to share my experience and act as a conduit for change and service improvement by offering a fresh, connected perspective on how we can move from intention to impact.