Judges

Colin became a member of the RICS in 1975 and following a couple of years abroad working as a Quantity Surveyor, returned in 1979 to co found the residential developer Applecross Properties.  During that time Applecross delivered many award-winning developments and was the first, and perhaps the only, house builder to introduce Lean Thinking and 5D design processes into their business.

Colin was Chairman of Homes for Scotland in 2006 and in 2012 formed Eskgrove Homes to design and build sustainable homes incorporating the very latest building techniques and materials to deliver zero carbon housing.

He is currently developing a low carbon bungalow model for the retirement homes market and continues to believe that constant innovation is the only way forward for the housebuilding industry.  

John is a property economist and chartered surveyor. He leads the Rettie & Co Research Team, which provides research and consultancy advice that informs clients on sales, lettings, investment and development opportunities as well as analysing where property markets are at and likely to be going. Over the last 20 years, he has built-up a wealth of experience from involvement at all stages of property projects, from small-scale developments through to major masterplans of new towns and suburbs. He has worked for all of the major house builders in Scotland, the Scottish Government, many local authorities and investors. He sits on Homes for Scotland’s Policy Advisory Group and is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and the Society of Property Researchers.

Faisal has been working for Savills since 2004 and is the head of residential research in Scotland.

He has a built a significant media profile and is often invited to speak at seminars and conferences. Housebuilders, developers and lenders regularly seek his advice due to his housing market knowledge and insight.

Faisal enjoys visiting towns and cities and studying local neighbourhoods and residential developments. His field-based research gives him an advantage when advising housebuilders on their future sites.

Lyle Chrystie is an architect and director of Reiach and Hall Architects - whose work has been widely recognised as delivering design excellence across a very diverse range of sectors.

With work in Education, Health, Sport, Offices, Civic, Masterplanning, Refurbishment, Arts and Residential sectors and ranging in scale from a Maggies centre to major urban interventions, Reiach and Hall has forged a reputation as one of the UK’s leading architects practices and the studio pursues an architecture that is useful, considered, sympathetic, intelligent and beautiful.

Key projects where Lyle has been design leader include St Vincent Place Edinburgh which has been cited as a placemaking exemplar in the Scottish Governments architecture policy, a masterplan for the redevelopment of Irvine Harbourside, A private house in Roslin (which won a saltire award) and numerous student housing projects including Port Dundas Road Glasgow and the City of Glasgow College Riverside Campus. Lyle was as a design leader for the City of Glasgow College City Campus (Stirling Prize Shortlist 2017, BCIA Award 2016), Riverside Campus (Stirling Prize Shortlist 2016, BCIA Award 2016), The Bridge for Scottish Water (BCIA Sustainability Award 2014, RIBA National Award) and Dundee House for Dundee City Council (BCIA Award 2012, RIBA National Award).

In addition to his work in practice, Lyle is an active speaker and has taught at the University of Strathclyde; as well as being a visiting examiner, critic and guest lecturer at numerous other schools of architecture. He has been a judge for the British Council for Offices Awards, the AJ Specification Awards and the British Construction Industry Awards and is a Fellow of the RIAS.

Andrew originally joined Ross & Liddell, as a Graduate Commercial Surveyor in 1996, having obtained a BSc in Land Economics from the University of Paisley in May 1995.

Following his qualification as a Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, in November 1997, his career led him to pastures new, where he gained extensive experience in all property sectors and disciplines, while working in various client side and private practice surveying roles, before setting up his own property consultancy business in 2003.

Having re-joined Ross & Liddell in June 2006, initially to expand the Commercial Management and Surveying Services offered by the firm, Andrew was appointed as a Director in 2008 and is now responsible for all of the company’s operational Residential and Commercial Management services,  provided through offices in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee.

Kieran has been the Editor of social housing publication Scottish Housing News for more than twelve years, providing a major daily resource for housing associations, local authorities and third sector organisations.

Since 2010, Kieran has also been the Editor of Scottish Construction Now, delivering comprehensive coverage of Scotland’s building sector.

He has recently taken on editorial responsibilities at Scottish Financial News.

Having joined a local news agency after graduating from the University of Dundee, Kieran has reported on stories for local and national press on a freelance basis, helped deliver corporate communications for a large Scottish housing association and covered Scottish and UK elections.

Elsewhere, Kieran volunteered for a Dundee children’s charity where he also worked to boost the organisation’s profile and helped establish its first fundraising committee.

Dr Stephen Garvin is the Scottish Government’s Head of Building Standards. He joined Scottish Government in 2018, where he is responsible for the development of the Building Standards system in Scotland, ensuring that standards and technical guidance are updated and applied consistently across the country.

In the post Grenfell fire era there is a substantial focus on building standards and ensuring that they secure the health, safety, welfare and convenience of persons in or about buildings. Compliance of construction work with Building Standards is a key driver of the Building Standards Division’s workload.

Prior to his current post he had a long career at the Building Research Establishment, where latterly he was responsible for BRE’s Centre for Resilience. He has led major national and international research projects, as well as undertaking substantial consultancy and expert witness work for a variety of public and private sector clients.

Since 2010 John has led the delivery of Winchburgh Core Development Area in West Lothian, initially as Development Director for fund managers Sigma Capital, and since 2014 as Chief Executive Officer of Winchburgh Developments Ltd.

In his early career he practiced as a surveyor on Glasgow's urban renewal programme and in the initial phases of the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre. He also gained extensive experience on the delivery of estates property for the Ministry of Defence and the oil industry.

He later spent a period of ten years with project management specialists MPM Adams on major mixed use residential, healthcare and retail developments throughout the UK. He subsequently worked for Miller Homes Scotland as Technical Director, initially in Edinburgh and latterly in the Glasgow Region.

He is a former chairman of the Scottish Property Federation and in 2015 was appointed by the Scottish Government as a member of the independent panel which was formed to report on recommendations to Ministers for the reform of the Scottish Planning system.

Donna has been with Hanover for over two year having started just before the Covid-19 pandemic. She currently has responsibility for the Finance, ICT and Procurement Functions. Prior to joining  Hanover she held management roles in two other RSL’s in Scotland accumulating in over 17 years of experience in the housing sector. Although her passion is for housing sector she also held roles within the NHS and the charity sector.

Donna is a qualified accountant and is currently a Board member for a SAY Women a charity which supports the sexually abused young women in Scotland.

Kirsty has been the Property Editor at The Scotsman for over ten years.

Kirsty started 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 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.
 

Ash has over 20 years of experience of working in the housing sector working with estate agencies and new homes.

Having completed his second Masters at the University of Heriot Watt, Ash began his career working in finance and then moved to Barratt Homes during the height of the downturn in 2008 where he has amassed great knowledge of the national new build housing market over 10 years. His current role as Sales & Marketing Director for Muir Homes has further added to his expertise as Ash has needed to provide research on what is appeals to purchasers in different economic areas of Scotland.

He has a passion for new homes and innovative design and takes a particular interest in current affairs and regulatory changes.

Dan is a Director of S1 Developments and the Teague Group. Formed in 2007 S1 have delivered a series of award-winning residential developments. With a design led focus S1 operates as both developer and contractor ensuring great quality. More recently S1 have delivered some large-scale student residential projects and are also focusing on the Build to rent sector. The Teague Group have a 30-year history of residential development in Edinburgh. Most recently under the direction of Dan and his brother Shane they have developed the highly successful Ropeworks development in Leith, the transformation of a 16-acre brownfield site into more than 800 new homes.

Graeme joined Bank of Scotland in 1987, and in a career spanning over 35 years he has been specialising in all areas of Real Estate & Housing finance and client relationships since 2005.

He is now the Lead Director for Bank of Scotland’s Corporate & Institutional Real Estate team, covering Private Group clients across Scotland in both large scale Commercial & Residential sectors, including Build to Sell, BTR & PBSA, overseeing a portfolio of clients and with responsibility for growing the Bank’s balance sheet. He also oversees client engagement across a number of core Bank affiliates, including Social Housing teams, the Housing Growth Partnership, Scottish Widows, Citra Living, Cazenove, Schroders Personal Wealth and Bank of Scotland Foundation.

Everything Bank of Scotland do is designed to allow us to help Britain prosper by being a safe, successful, sustainable business that is a key part of the UK economy. His & the Group vision for housing is to enable accessible, quality & sustainable housing that meets the UK’s long-term needs, whether homes are for sale or to rent, and enabling the UK to build, retrofit and regenerate at pace. In recent times, he has been involved in some of the most noteworthy developments with Private Developers across Scotland, delivering innovative funding structures to increase housing delivery.

Passionate about ESG and Purpose led financing, he is helping clients accelerate towards a more sustainable, net zero future, including leading delivery of NextGeneration Project initiative (an industry Sustainability benchmark in conjunction with the Bank, JLL and UKGBC) where he has overseen the accreditation of the first two Gold Standard level developments undertaken in Scotland.

He is an active Policy Committee member of the Scottish Property Federation, and has recently joined the UK Green Building Council, Scotland.

Mark Dawson is an associate director at Reiach and Hall Architects and is our sustainability leader. He is a certified Passive House designer and holds an MSc in Advanced Sustainable Design. He is design orientated, fusing creative solutions with sustainable strategies to enhance our portfolio and address global as well as local issues. As part of this role Mark reviews our current projects and advises our teams on how to interrogate site, programme and context in relation to the production of sustainable construction, engineering and architectural strategies.

Mark has worked across our portfolio and has delivered a number of our award winning projects, including the new Stobhill Hospital project for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, which went on to win the best small hospital in the world at the International Healthcare Awards; our housing at Waterfront Avenue for Places for People; and most recently the Falkirk Campus for Forth Valley College, which was a finalist in the 2022 RIBA Stirling Prize. 

Mairi is a licensed BREEAM Assessor and BREEAM Communities Assessor, with over 20 years’ experience in the industry in both technical and managerial positions. At BakerHicks, she takes a lead role in delivering the company sustainability strategy and in helping client’s meet and exceed their BREEAM targets, advising on project sustainability deliverables as well as longer term investment programmes.

Mairi has substantial experience in both sustainability strategies and BREEAM Assessor roles across various construction, in-use and refurbishment projects including research, development and manufacturing facilities, schools, leisure centres, offices, embassies, and multi residential buildings. She is also the past Chair of Women in Property, Central Scotland (2022/23).

Catriona is an architect and Director at CDA.  Founded in 1980, CDA has developed a reputation for innovative solutions for buildings, places and spaces. CDA provide an integrated service in architecture, masterplanning, urban design and interior projects.

With over 12 years of experience in the industry Catriona has principally been involved with urban re-development projects across the UK.  She co-leads the residential team and is responsible for the design of multiple award-winning residential projects over the past 10 years.  She remains closely involved with the projects throughout the design and delivery, ensuring a high level of quality is maintained throughout.