Mr Bryson, who joined the board at last year’s AGM, is a qualified actuary with a wealth of expertise from a career in senior roles, latterly as finance director of a mutual insurance company.

He also has extensive board level experience ranging from being a member of St. Andrews University Court and the boards of Scottish Widows and the Investors Trust for the Church of Scotland, to acting as an external member of one of the three Bank of England Committees. Most recently, Norval served as Chair of St. Columba’s Hospice Board.

Mr Bryson said: “The Housing Association movement does wonderful work for many people, including my own mother many years ago. It is, therefore, both an honour and pleasure for me to chair Trust as it continues its work generally, and in particular, implements its Time is Now strategy.”

Mr Bryson replaces John Burke who joined the board in 2012 and helped lead the transformation and growth of the business over the last ten years.

Mr Burke, who has over 40 years’ experience in many aspects of property investment management and development throughout the UK, stepped up to chair in 2020 and steered the organisation through the pandemic - he chaired his first in-person board meeting in July this year - and the launch and early implementation of Trust’s current business strategy.

Mr Burke said: “In my time on the board I have seen Trust grow in both size and ambition – offering more and better services to customers and protecting our precious culture. I am confident that a great future awaits.”

In addition to Mr Burke, two other board members stepped down in September after nine years of service respectively, Wendy Wilkinson and Sister Jenny Lindsay.

Three new board members were appointed at the AGM:

• Steve McGowan - Mr McGowan recently retired after a long and successful career with Glasgow City Council, spanning a number of roles across housing management, development, strategy and policy.
• Ian Mitchelmore - Mr Mitchelmore has enjoyed a successful career in finance and has been involved in economic development through roles at the Scottish Investment Bank and more recently the British Business Bank.
• Mary Niven - Ms Niven is a current Trust tenant and a former employee. She started her career working in Leverndale Hospital and first worked for Trust in 1995 at Trust’s Pollok development before moving on to become the sheltered housing co-ordinator at the Caldercruix development. More recently, Ms Niven has been the chair of the association’s customer panel.

The AGM also confirmed the re-election of Gordon Laurie (vice chair), Ali Ross, David Knight, Ian Gunning, Karen Cawte, Kyle Ruparelia, Nicky McLaughlin and Paul McFarlane.

Trust’s CEO, Rhona McLeod, welcomed the new appointees and thanked John, Wendy and Sister Jenny for their great contributions: “We are immensely grateful to all of our Trust board members for the skills, experience and passion for our purpose that they bring to Trust.

“It is sad to have said farewell to John, Wendy and Sister Jenny, all of whom will be sorely missed. We are however privileged to welcome Dr Norval Bryson to the role of Chair and also to have recruited such a strong team of new board members who join us this year.”