Ross Davidson
Lessons to be learned from current housing development structures beyond Northern Ireland

Ross Davidson is a Partner with Arthur Cox, having joined the firm in 2006. He previously worked for leading City of London practice Ashurst for six years. Ross has experience of all areas of the commercial property market with a particular focus on development and regeneration projects. During his time in practice in London, Ross advised on mixed-use developments such as Canary Wharf, Paddington Basin and White City in west London.

Janet Hunter
Key housing issues for hard-to-reach groups

Janet Hunter is the Director of Housing Rights Service, the leading specialist provider of independent housing advice in Northern Ireland. She previously worked as Assistant Director of Housing with a Scottish local authority. Janet has been involved, in a voluntary capacity, with Citizens Advice for over 25 years and is a long term member, and former Chair of Law Centre NI.

Tom Hackett
Supporting investment in the housing sector

Tom Hackett is Director-General for lending in Europe with the European Investment Bank (EIB), a role he has held since 2005. The EIB is planning to invest £30 million towards a number of social housing projects across Northern Ireland. Tom has worked with the EIB since 1981 and has held a number of roles, including Director of the Baltic Sea Department and Director of the Department responsible for the EIB’s lending operations in Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Malta.

Simon Hamilton, MLA
The role of the Northern Ireland Assembly Social Development Committee in housing

Simon Hamilton, MLA, is Chair of the Northern Ireland Assembly’s Social Development Committee. He is DUP MLA for Strangford, elected to the Assembly in 2007. He is also a member of the Finance and Personnel Committee and the Assembly and Executive Review Committee and is Vice-Chair of the All Party Assembly Group on Energy. He is the DUP’s social development spokesperson and was formerly a press officer with the party.

Professor Greg Lloyd
The future of Northern Ireland’s housing system

Professor Greg Lloyd is one of the independent experts on the Commission on the Future for Housing in Northern Ireland which began work in 2009 to set out a long-term vision for the future role of the housing system in contributing positively to Northern Ireland’s future. Greg took up his position as Professor of Urban Planning and Head of the School of the Built Environment at the University of Ulster in July 2008. He is also Ministerial Adviser to the Northern Ireland Assembly on its reform of land use planning.

Grainia Long
Housing strategy: What could it deliver for communities?

Grainia Long is Director of Chartered Institute of Housing in Northern Ireland, and Principal Adviser to the Commission on the Future for Housing in Northern Ireland. She previously held the post of Director of Policy at the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland and before that worked in Scotland for the housing and homelessness charity, Shelter. She is a member of the Institute of Directors, and a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce.

Hugh McCaughey
Impact of housing quality on health

Hugh McCaughey became Chief Executive of the South Eastern Health and Soci al Care Trust, the second largest health trust in the region, on 1 June 2009. He was previously Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Executive of the Belfast Trust. Hugh has worked within the NHS since 1985 and has a wealth of experience and skills in the health and social care sector. He has particular interest in leading service change, performance systems and improving health and social care services.

Paddy McIntyre
Making best use of the public housing asset

Paddy McIntyre was appointed Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, Northern Ireland’s regional housing authority, in July 1999. He had been Director of Client Services since April 1995. He has been involved in housing management since joining the Housing Executive in 1971, and has held a number of senior posts across the organisation since then, including as District Manager in Londonderry and as Senior Principal Officer in the Housing Centre, Belfast.

Duncan Morrow
The role of housing in creating a shared future

Duncan Morrow is Chief Executive of the Community Relations Council. The Council has responsibility for supporting and developing inter-community and intercultural engagement in Northern Ireland and also supports work in the rest of Ireland in conjunction with Border Action, the European Union and the International Fund for Ireland. Since 2002 the Community Relations Council has also taken a lead role to support victims and survivors of violence of the troubles. Duncan was previously a lecturer in Politics at the University of Ulster, a Director of the Future Ways Programme and a Sentence Review Commissioner.

Margaret Ritchie MLA
Meeting the challenges of delivering housing in the economic downturn

Margaret Ritchie MLA is Minister for Social Development, appointed on 8 May 2007. Her portfolio includes responsibility for housing, which the Minister has identified as her top priority. Minister Ritchie was one of the SDLP’s two representatives on the Assembly’s Programme for Government Committee and also served on the Economic Challenges subgroup. She was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in November 2003 and was appointed as Deputy Chair of the SDLP Parliamentary Assembly Group. She has also served as the party’s spokesperson on Regional Development.

Michael Smyth
Addressing the economic downturn: The case for increased investment in social housing

Michael Smyth is Head of the School of Economics at the University of Ulster. He is also a member of the European Economic and Social Committee. He is one of Northern Ireland’s foremost economic commentators and specializes in economic development and European-related issues. Previously he was a member of the central monitoring committee which had responsibility for the high-level management of EU Structural Funds spending in Northern Ireland.

Valerie Watts
The role of community planning in building local communities

Valerie Watts is Town Clerk and Chief Executive of Derry City Council, having taken up her role in 2008. She returned to Northern Ireland from Scotland, where she had worked in East Dunbartonshire Council since the mid- 1990s, in a number of roles including Assistant Chief Executive and Director of Corporate Services. As Director, she was one of three Strategic Directors, who had responsibility for five heads of service and worked within an overall budget of £240 million.

Rowan White
Chairman

Rowan White is a solicitor with more than 30 years’ experience of the local property market and heads the Property Group in Arthur Cox’s Belfast office. He has a broad-based commercial practice, spanning both public and private sector work and including development, regeneration and investment projects. He is a past chairman of both the Belfast Solicitors’ Association and the Northern Ireland Commercial Property Lawyers’ Association.

Chris Williamson
Creating balanced communities: Key planning issues for housing

Chris Williamson was appointed Director of the Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Associations in 2000, having worked for the organisation since 1990. Chris has spent more than thirty years in the Housing Association movement. His career started with the Grove Housing Association (1977-1981) working mainly to regenerate the community within that part of North Belfast. He has also worked for the Cotman Housing Group in Norwich from 1981-1990.