Julia Mixter
Executive Director – Business Services, Anchor
1 What do you do for fun?
Day to day, I love walking, lifting weights and meeting up with friends for coffee. I’m also partial to a good spa. Each year I like to try something different, like paragliding, a marathon, colour run or tough mudder. Something to push myself a little.
2 You have the power to change one thing about the social housing sector, what would it be?
I’d shift the focus more strongly from building homes to building communities – taking a whole life view connecting health, socio-economic realities and housing data to drive insights using retrieval-augmented generation (RAG).
3 What advice would you give to someone starting out in housing?
Read books like Show Me the Bodies by Peter Apps. Understand why regulations are there and keep asking questions. Don’t let anyone fob you off.
4 Who’s your favourite author, and why?
I don’t have a favourite, but I do like John Boyne, he writes some sweeping epics that you can get absorbed in. Other than that, genres like psychological thrillers and serial killers.
5 What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever experienced?
Nothing very strange, but my mum died last year and for the two days after she died the same car drove past me at the end of my road which had the same unusual three letters as my mum had at the end of her numberplate. I’d never seen it before nor since.
6 What are your three favourite albums?
I’m a bit of a musical nomad. I like anything from ‘90s house and trance to heavy metal, so again hard to pinpoint favourites. I’d probably pick Iron Maiden’s Number of the Beast and Billy Joel’s Piano Man due to childhood memories.
7 Proudest achievement?
Aside from my children, it’d be completing the marathon whilst working full time with two young kids and raising money for charity. Hats off to everyone who does it – it’s a true commitment.
8 A world without music or a world without literature?
That’s a tough one. Probably music because literature has given us so much of our language.
9 Favourite place in the world?
Sitting by my Mum’s aga on a little stool when I got back from university and chewing the fat over a glass of wine.
10 Favourite food?
Butter!
11 Most embarrassing moment?
When my dog was a puppy and decided to take off at speed, run through a park, knock over two small children and enter the café kitchen. We’ve never returned to that park.
12 You can resurrect anyone from history and talk to them for an hour: who, and why?
Probably a boring answer but I think Shakespeare. I studied philosophy at A-level and Carl Jung talked about the collective unconscious which contains universal archetypes. I think Shakespeare encapsulated almost all of them in his writing.
13 Favourite film?
Can I have a series? The BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. If not, then Big Hero 6!
14 If you didn’t work in housing, what would you do?
Set up a website to help give simple advice to each age group for how to get ahead in the next stage of their life. I own the URL ‘lifemadesimple.org.uk’ but need clever people to help me get set up!
15 What makes for a good life?
Health, friends, family, nature. Life is short but amazing. Burn bright then be gone!
