Chair and Members Appointed to the Scottish Housing Regulator Board

Chair and Members Appointed to the Scottish Housing Regulator Board

The Minister for Local Government and Housingtoday announced the appointment of George Walker as Chair and Siobhan White, Robert Gil and Andrew Watson as Members of the Scottish Housing Regulator Board.

CHAIR

George Walkeris an experienced Chair, Non-Executive Director and Corporate Executive. He graduated from the University of Glasgow, and has an MBA from the University of Edinburgh.Over his corporate career George has worked in the pharmaceutical industry and latterly the fund management business. George has worked in the U.K. and extensively overseas, living and working in New York for 7 years prior to returning to Edinburgh.George served three terms as Non-Executive Director of NHS Lothian. George Chaired the Finance and Resources Committee overseeing the governance of capital projects such as the new Royal Hospital for Children and Young People and an annual budget of some £1.5 billion. George was a member of the Remuneration and Acute Hospitals Committees. He Chaired the Integration Joint Board, leading on health and social care integration in Edinburgh, in its set up phase.George has long supported Charitable organisations in the UK and overseas. He was formerly a Trustee and Chair of the Finance & Investment Committee of the Edinburgh & Lothian’s Health foundationand is currently a Trustee and Treasurer of Waverley Care, Scotland's HIV and Hep C charity.

MEMBERS

Siobhan Whiteis a Senior Lecturer within the Department of Law, Economics, Accountancy & Risk at Glasgow Caledonian University and has teaching interests and expertise in a variety of under-graduate, post-graduate and professional programmes. Siobhan specialises in the subject areas of public sector accounting and internal/external auditing, and public sector financial management, having previous work experience as a government auditor.Siobhan is actively involved in researching all of the above topics and has presented and published a range of papers in these areas, both in the UK and overseas. Siobhan is also a Chartered Public Finance Accountant, a previous Non-Executive Director of West of Scotland Housing Association/Chair of their Audit Committee, the previous Chair of the Audit & Governance Panel at South Ayrshire Council, a past national examiner for CIPFA/ACCA, and sits in an advisory capacity on governance and scrutiny to many public sector organisations.Siobhan has taught, and continues to teach, on a variety of courses and consultancy projects for professional accountancy institutes and bodies, and for overseas Governments.

Robert Gil is a qualified public sector (IPFA) accountant with over 25 years’ experience in the public sector. Robert has experience of senior management positions in Local Government, in both finance and property and project management. Robert has spent eight years on the board of management of Forth Valley College, including six years as chair of the Audit Committee. Robert currently works part time for a regenerations charity that focuses on employability and skills training.

Andrew Watson has worked in finance for more than 35 years and is a senior adviser at QMPE LLP, an Edinburgh based advisory business with considerable experience of advising on investment in social infrastructure. Andrew is also Convener of Berwickshire Housing Association, having previously served as chair of its finance committee. Andrew will bring his experience in finance, knowledge of the affordable housing sector and awareness of good governance to the Board. Before taking up his appointment with the Scottish Housing Regulator, he will step down as Chair of Berwickshire Housing Association.

APPOINTMENT

These appointments will be for four years and will run from 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2021.

Theseappointment are regulated by the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland.

REMUNERATION

Theseappointment are part-time and for Chair position attract a remuneration of £200 per day for a time commitment of 8 days per month. The Member positions attract remuneration of £167 per day for a time commitment of 52 days a year.

OTHER MINISTERIAL APPOINTMENTS

George Walker, Siobhan White, Robert Giland Andrew Watson do not hold any other public appointments.

POLITICAL ACTIVITY

All appointments are made on merit and political activity plays no part in the selection process. However, in accordance with the original Nolan recommendations, there is a requirement for appointees’ political activity within the last five years (if there is any to be declared) to be made public.

George Walker, Siobhan White, Robert Gil and Andrew Watson did not uphold any political activity in the last five years.

BACKGROUND

The Scottish Housing Regulator is the independent regulator of registered social landlords and local authority housing services in Scotland. It was established on 1 April 2011 under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2010.