Housing provider Bield has strengthened its management team with the appointment of two new voluntary board members.
The appointment of Beth McNeil and David Fisher will help shape Bield Housing and Care’s drive to position the organisation as Scotland’s leading provider of housing, care and support for older people.
Development and regeneration professional Beth McNeil has years of experience and operational leadership of large-scale regeneration and new build projects with a keen interest in how housing can be adapted to provide homes fit for a changing world.
Currently working with Westminster City Council with responsibility for delivering capital works projects, having in her previous role led the team which secured the housing element of Glasgow’s £250 million Sighthill Transformational Regeneration Area, the largest scheme of its kind outside of London.
Beth McNeil said: “I hope to support Bield in its ambition to improve the quality of life of older people by offering a diverse range of housing, care and other services. I will use my experience of development and regeneration to support Bield’s vision of being part of a Scotland where people of all ages are respected, can make their own choices, and are able to lead independent and fulfilling lives.”
The second new board member is housing expert David Fisher, who started his housing career in the 1980s with the Scottish Special Housing Association, later graduating in Housing and Urban Studies from Glasgow University. David provides expert advice on strategic asset management, growth and customer service.
David has expertise in large national organisations, as MD at Home Group and Chief Executive Officer of Equity Housing Group, one of the UK’s largest shared ownership providers, David has a track record in customer service, organisational change and growth and governance.
He is currently CEO of Housing Plus, operating across regional New South Wales, Australia, delivering the largest regional social house building programme and a range of innovative community services to support domestic family violence victims and homelessness clients. David supports the Homelessness sector in NSW as Chair of its representative organisation, Homelessness NSW.
David Fisher said: “I am passionate about customer service and tackling social injustice and I’m looking forward to supporting Bield and its ambitions to build on an excellent 50-year track record of delivering fit-for-purpose housing and social services for a changing aging population.”
With more than 5,400 properties in Scotland, Bield is one of the largest providers of housing and support services for older people, with services including amenity housing, retirement housing, and a small number of day care centres.
Bield Chair, Professor Lesley Holdsworth, said: “Both Beth and David’s passion and commitment to housing and social care issues and their combined experience of delivering housing projects to meet specific and diverse challenges will be a tremendous asset to our board.
“We welcome these appointments and look forward to benefiting from their contributions over the coming years.”
