Margo MacDonald MSP

Margo has a political career spanning thirty years since her first senior political role as MP for Govan in 1973. A journalist and broadcaster, she had a long and active career with the SNP, including four years as Deputy Leader.

Margo remains at the forefront of Scottish politics and has assured her place as one of the most colourful characters in the business. This continues in her role as an Independent List MSP for Edinburgh and Lothian, a seat she won in the Scottish elections in May 2003 and to which she was re-elected in May 2007.

Sheenagh Adams
Keeper of the Registers of Scotland

Sheenagh took up the post of Keeper of the Registers of Scotland on 1 July 2009.

Sheenagh joined the organisation as Managing Director in April 2006. As part of this role, Sheenagh acted as RoS’s Accountable Officer, Departmental Security Officer and Senior Information Risk Owner.

Sheenagh joined the Civil Service in 1990 after 11 years in local government and the voluntary sector, working in housing and welfare rights. Her civil service career has included posts in housing, rural affairs, natural and the built heritage, and the third sector. Latterly, she was Director of Heritage Policy at Historic Scotland.

Sheenagh has an MA (Hons) in Mediaeval History from St Andrews University and a Diploma in Housing Studies from Glasgow University.

Colin Cumberland

Colin qualified as a chartered Quantity Surveyor in 1977 and worked for two years in Saudi Arabia on a project to provide water to the holy city of Mecca. On his return to the U.K., he set up, with a business partner, Applecross Properties, a development company which over the next thirty years transformed the face of many parts of Edinburgh with innovative and high quality developments.

Colin was a board member of Homes for Scotland, the housebuilding representative body, for six years, becoming Chairman in 2005/6.

His first love in house building is elegant, simple designs which drive the product to meet the customers’ needs, and perhaps even, aspirations. He is currently working on a new range of houses which will be rolled out in Scotland over the next couple of years.

David Dunbar BSc, B'Arch, LLM, MCIarb, RIBA and PRIAS

David is the current President of The Royal Incorporation of Architects (RIAS) in Scotland and the Managing Director of ADF Architects (Glasgow).

The RIAS is the professional body for all chartered architects in Scotland and is the foremost architectural professional institute in the country dealing with architecture and the built environment.

David’s professional career includes positions such as: the past President of the Glasgow Institute of Architects, the late Deacon of the Incorporation of Cordiners in Glasgow and the Deputy Convener of Court at the University of Strathclyde.

Alan Ferguson
Director of CIH

Alan has been the Director of the Chartered Institute of Housing in Scotland since 1993. For the past two years he has also been the Acting Director of the CIH in Northern Ireland. From 1990 to 1993 Alan was a lecturer on the housing courses at Stirling University from and prior to that he was Policy Officer again with the CIH in Scotland. Alan also worked with the Strathclyde Campaign for Investment in Council Housing and for seven years was a as a community development worker, working with a range of tenant / community groups and federations. A previous Committee Member of Link Group, Link Housing Association, Linkwide, Kintry Housing Partnership and Govanhill Community Development Trust, Alan is currently a Committee Member of Cube Housing Association.

Lorna Paterson
Chair of SFHA

Lorna joined the housing sector in 1994 and is chair of the Fife Housing Association. Lorna has been a Board member of the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) for 9 years. The SFHA is owned by its membership and exists to support the work of housing associations and co-operatives in Scotland by providing services, advice and good practice guidance. She served as Vice Chair from 2006 till 2009 when she then became Chair. Lorna also serves as Vice Chair of Tenant Participation Advisory Services (TPAS) and is an executive member of Employers in Voluntary Housing (EVH), all of which gives her an insight into the different components which make up the social housing world.

Robin Harper MSP

Robin was elected as the UKs first ever Green Parliamentarian in the Scottish Parliament elections, May 1999, representing the Lothians. In May 2007, he retained his seat for the third time. As well as being Co-Convenor of the Scottish Green Party, Robin also Convenor of the Scottish Parliament's Cross Party Group on Architecture and the Built Environment, Convenor of the Scottish Parliament Renewable Energy Group (SPREG) and Convenor of the Cross Party Group on Children and Young People. A former teacher, Robin was Rector of Edinburgh University from 2001-2003 and since July 2005 he has been Rector of the University of Aberdeen.

Graeme Hartley
Director of RICS Scotland

Graeme is the Director of RICS Scotland, a position he took up in 2004. Scotland has the second largest membership within the RICS world regional structure. He is a Director of the Scottish Building Contract Committee Ltd and a former Council member of the National Trust for Scotland.

He is a Scottish Board member of the Asset Skills Sector Skills Council.

Recently he was appointed to the Council of the Scottish National House-Building Council.

Rufus Logan
Director of BRE Scotland

Rufus is responsible for leading the growth of BRE’s business in Scotland. BRE Scotland has a long established record as the leading provider of technical and consultancy support for both the construction industry and the Scottish Government.

Since joining BRE in 2002, Rufus has taken a lead role in developing and securing a number of other strategic programmes, including BRE’s Innovation Park and Visitor Centre and the SmartLIFE project.

His work on BRE’s regional growth resulted in the creation of a new office in Inverness – BRE Highlands, and in 2005 BRE Wales, based at Port Talbot.

Previously, Rufus worked for Scottish Enterprise. He was based in Dumfries and Galloway and was responsible for supporting the growth of a number of the region’s businesses and key industry sectors, including tourism and the forest industries. Rufus was also part of the Scottish Enterprise Network national team that led the development and subsequent delivery of Scotland’s Forest Industry Cluster Strategy 1997 - 2001.

Derek Logie
Chief Executive of the Rural Housing Service

Derek is Chief Executive of the Rural Housing Service, a post he has held for the past 14 years; leading the organisation's growth from a unit within Rural Forum to an independent charity. The Rural Housing Service works to deliver affordable housing opportunities in rural communities, to help rural communities tackle local housing needs and to highlight the extent and nature of rural housing issues. Derek has worked with communities across Scotland to secure affordable housing for local people, facilitating developments in Gigha, Colonsay, Laggan and Whitsome amongst others. Derek has strong connections with rural communities from Fetlar in the North to Newcastleton in the South. He is a member of the Rural Development Council and the author of a number of reports on rural housing, including recent research on the use of croft land for affordable housing provision.

Dan Macdonald
Chief Executive of Macdonald Estates Group

Dan is Chief Executive of Macdonald Estates Group, formed in 1998 as specialists in retail and planning led property development. It is the leading company in its field in Scotland and is among the top 200 Scottish companies. Prior to 1998 Dan was Managing Director of Morrison Developments one of the most successful Scottish companies of the late 80’s and 90’s. During his 25 years with the Group he performed a key role in its transition from a Highland Building Company to an international civil engineering, construction and property development company. In 2006 Dan launched the ‘Scottish Property Development Forum’ a body to represent the voice of the real estate industry in Scotland amongst parliamentarians, the Scottish Executive and business in Scotland. Now redefined as the ‘Scottish Property Federation’ and incorporated within the British Property Federation it is widely recognised as being the voice of the property industry.

Malcom MacLeod
Director of NHBC Scotland

A Chartered Building Surveyor and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Building, Malcolm began his career in the construction industry almost 30 years ago. Initially working with a number of small house builders, in the 1980’s Malcolm’s involvement in the regeneration of Victorian tenement properties in Glasgow, led him to specialise in Building Surveying. In the latter part of the decade, Malcolm joined Scottish Homes, where he was responsible for managing their new build, refurbishment and maintenance works programmes. Whilst at Scottish Homes, Malcolm helped establish a new Housing Association to acquire housing stock in public ownership and was appointed its Director in 1999. In 2001, Malcolm joined NHBC as Director of NHBC in Scotland; he is immediate past Chair of the Scottish Branch of the Chartered Institute of Building. In 2006 he was co-opted onto BSAC (Building Standards Advisory Committee) and recently sat on the Expert Panel convened by the Scottish Government to develop a strategy for the introduction of low carbon Building Standards.

Kirsty McLuckie
Property Editor at The Scotsman

Kirsty has been the Property Editor at The Scotsman for the past four years. Kirsty started starting working life in an estate agents' in Glasgow during the property boom of the late 1980s before moving into selling overseas property with a two year stint living and working in Cyprus. Back in Scotland having completed an English and Media degree at Stirling University she began working for The Scotsman in 1997 as a news researcher. Since then Kirsty has covered news and features, commissioning, editing and writing. She is also heard frequently on Radio Scotland.

Ian Wright
Managing Director of Family

Ian is Managing Director of Family, a marketing and communications agency based in Edinburgh.

His background is client service, however his real passion is creativity and market changing ideas.

Ian has worked in Scotland since the early 90’s, and before that worked in London. During his time in Scotland he has been lucky enough to work on many famous brands in both the public and private sector, including the BBC, Standard Life, Kwik-Fit, Macallan, The Scottish Government and VisitScotland to name just a few.

He has chaired the Marketing Society Scotland conference twice, was appointed a fellow of the Marketing Society in 2004 and was twice voted Agency Managing Director of the Year in Scotland.

Ian always tries to go and watch his kids playing sport. He enjoys walking and climbing, cycling and skiing. He is a big fan of Dundee United.

Raymond Young CBE FRIAS

Raymond is the former chair of Architecture and Design Scotland, and a non-executive director of Historic Scotland.

He was one of the founder members of ASSIST - the community architecture practice in Glasgow that pioneered both tenement rehabilitation and community based housing associations. He was Director-Scotland for the Housing Corporation; Director North, with responsibility for rural housing policy, and Director Research and Innovation with Scottish Homes. He now runs a very part-time regeneration consultancy from a sustainable straw bale office in Perthshire. He is a Visiting Professor at Strathclyde University, and the Convener of the Rural Housing Service. He was a member of the UK Sustainable Development Commission 2000-2004