RAYMOND YOUNG CBE FRIAS
Chair of the Scottish Home Awards Judging Panel

Raymond Young is the 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.

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.

Irene Devenny
Managing Director of Ross and Liddell

Irene Devenny is managing director of property specialist Ross and Liddell.

In a career spanning over 30 years, Irene has gained considerable expertise and experience in the management of all types of residential property, from tenements to luxury new builds.

She also has a thorough background in the administration of property management as well as building construction and property law.

The managing director is currently focused on implementing an ambitious growth strategy for Ross and Liddell, which now employs 82 people from offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow city centre, Glasgow west end, Paisley and Dundee.

Away from work, Irene has a passion for interior design and enjoys spending her weekends in Argyll and dining with friends and family.

Alan Ferguson
Director, Chartered Institute of Housing

Alan has been Director of CIH Scotland since 1993. He has been involved in a wide range of Government Advisory bodies including the Housing Policy Advisory Group, the Housing Bill Sounding Board, the Housing Improvement Task Force, New Housing Partnerships and Empty Homes Initiative.

Before life at CIH Alan was a lecturer on the housing courses at Stirling University, a Policy Officer again at CIH Scotland and a development worker with the Strathclyde Campaign for Investment in Council housing for a year. He started off work as a community worker in Glasgow, Cambuslang and Wishaw working for seven years with a range of tenant and community groups and federations.

Alan has been a Board member of Scottish Council for Single Homeless, the Link Group, Govanhill Community Development Trust and Cube Housing Association. He is currently a member of Southside Housing Association in Glasgow.

Gill Gray
Director, G2 Sales and Marketing Communication

Gill Gray has been actively involved in the property industry all of her career to date. Initially specialising in new home sales, Gill then developed her interest in marketing and public relations and was a board director with a leading Scottish housebuilder until three years ago.

She has been responsible for many successful, high profile, sales and marketing campaigns throughout Scotland. In 2008, Gill established her own consultancy, G2 Sales Marketing Communications, which she still runs in addition to working in property management and leadership development with The Leadership Trust.

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.

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 has been the Property Editor at The Scotsman for the past four years and is also heard frequently on Radio Scotland including co-presenting the Fred MacAuley show as a guest host for a week during last summer.

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.

Along with her husband Kirsty has recently built a house in Argyll committing herself to “one of Scotland's longest, if most beautiful, commutes.”

Hugh Stewart
Managing Director of Recycling & Dry Waste Recovery , The William Tracey Group

Hugh Stewart is Managing Director of William Tracey Limited’s Recycling & Dry Waste Recovery activities in Scotland.

Hugh joined the William Tracey Group in 2010 from Biffa where he spent the last 15 years in senior management positions in each of the Municipal and Industrial/Commercial Divisions, but most latterly as part of the Divisional Management team which delivered consistent earnings growth in the Landfill and Resource Recovery sector.

With a wealth of waste and recycling industry experience, an MBA from the University of Strathclyde and an Advanced Diploma in Sustainability from the University of Cambridge, Hugh is tasked with growing the core recycling and recovery business across the William Tracey Group’s traditional central Scotland markets as well as shaping the strategic direction of the company going forward.

Hugh said on joining the William Tracey Group:

“The William Tracey Group as it is a business I have admired from afar for several years. I’m very excited about the potential for growth in this business which is a vibrant blend of innovation in recycling and recovery technology underpinned by a real culture of service excellence”.

The William Tracey Group has completed 5 acquisitions over the past 3 years as well as signing partnerships on a range of projects with high profile companies including Scottish and Southern Energy and Shasun Pharmaceuticals Limited. The company currently works with a number of home builders to help achieve their corporate environmental targets through source segregation and resource efficiency improvements.