It is made up of between seven and 15 members, with three places reserved for Horizon tenants.
The Board is supported by an Audit sub-committee which normally meets 4 times per annum
Our Board members have a diverse range of skills and experience and are elected each year at the Annual General Meeting. To become a Board Member you must be a member of Horizon.
Bob became Chair of Horizon Board on 10 October 2019. Bob has worked in Social Housing for 40 years, with his experience covering Local Authorities (both urban and rural), New Towns, and Housing Associations. Bob has been a member of Horizon's Board since March 2015.
Jill Pritchard is Vice Chair of Horizon Housing Association. She is an Occupational Therapist specialising in Housing issues & also a Workplace Change Consultant supporting the transition to Smarter Hybrid Working. After over 30 years in local government, she moved to the Joint Improvement Team in Scottish Government & subsequently continued supporting Health, Housing & Social Care partnerships via the iHub within Healthcare Improvement Scotland.
She now works independently, supporting improvements in the delivery of adaptations, housing solutions & place based interventions at operational & strategic levels within local partnerships, promoting best use of Occupational Therapy & wider staffing resources to produce better outcomes for people. She was on the steering group for the revised ‘Adaptations without Delay’ guidance, and is passionate about mainstreaming inclusive design and inclusive living.
She is currently the Scotland rep for the RCOT Specialist Section in Housing and also the Housing LIN Scotland Coordinator. Jill joined Horizon in 2010.
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Frances Wood
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Frances' early career was as a housing professional, holding senior roles in housing associations and local government. Later she joined the Scottish Government where she led policy and programmes in community care, health improvement, community safety, housing and regeneration, social inclusion, and welfare reform.
She retired from her role of Deputy Director, Employability and Tackling Poverty in 2012. Frances now spends her time on voluntary and paid work in sport and fitness, and on wider public service. She was a Board member of sportscotland, the national agency for sport, from 2013 – 2022. She is a member of the First Tier Tribunal for Scotland Housing and Property Chamber. She enjoys running and coaching athletics, and is Head Coach and a Trustee of her local athletics club. She has been a member of Horizon Housing Association since 1993.
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Beverley Graham
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Beverley comes to Horizon with a wealth of industry knowledge and experience gained through a 30-year housing career with Fife Housing Group (FHG). Starting as an admin officer in 1991 she progressed to role of Housing Officer before moving into management in 2012, firstly as Housing Support Manager then as Housing Manager from 2016,and more recently, in August 2021, was promoted to Director of Housing. Beverley joined Horizon Board in 2017.
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Chris Baird
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Chris, a disability activist from East Renfrewshire, joined Horizon's Board in September 2013. He is also a Board member of Glasgow Centre for Inclusive Living (GCIL).
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Douglas Taylor
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Douglas has been a Board member with Horizon since September 2014 and brings with him vast experience of disability rights.
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Jean Hamilton
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Jean joined the Board in 2017 and has a keen interest in affordable housing. She is an economist with over 30 years of economic development and regeneration, providing advice to the public and third sector in the development of strategies, feasibilities, business cases and economic evaluations. She is also a private investor and has worked directly with start up businesses in life science, medical devices, property and software.
She brings a wide range of experience working at a Board level in both the private and public/third sector. Jean was appointed Convener of Audit Sub-Committee on 10 October 2019.
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Dr Rachael Docking
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Rachael started her career as a research fellow with interests in attitudes to ageing, disabling pain in older adults and how to assess pain in people with dementia. Later she joined the Centre for Ageing Better as Senior Programme Manager, an independent charitable foundation working to help everybody enjoy a good later life, leading on their programme on ‘Safe and Accessible Homes’.
Rachael is now Programme Manager at the Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership where she leads on two programmes of work in the newly formed Transformation team, to support a rethink of how health and social care is delivered across the city. Rachael is passionate about ageing, housing and health and ensuring that more people lead longer and healthier lives, in the homes and communities they choose.
Rachael joined the Board in December 2020.
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Ian Harrington
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Ian joined the Board in February 2022. He is a qualified accountant with over 30 years post-qualifying experience working at a senior finance director level across a number of 3rd sector and not for profit organisations delivering strategic solutions and helping these organisations deliver their strategic priorities and plans.
Most recently, he was the Director of Finance at a major Scottish children’s charity for four years and is now enjoying his retirement and spending more time in the garden.
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Dianne Theakstone
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Dr Dianne-Dominique Theakstone is a research fellow on the Intersectional Stigma and Place-based Aging (ISPA) project. She is based at the University of Stirling in the department of Social Sciences. Dianne qualified as a social worker in 2022, before which her background in social care and housing research focused upon coproduction methods involving disabled people. For example, her work on My Support My Choice: Peoples Experiences of Self-directed Support and Social Care in Scotland (2020) helped inform the development of new social work practice standards by Social Work Scotland around self-directed support.
Dianne’s lived experience of disablement drives her passion for enabling others to access independent living, particularly through her role as trustee with Sight Scotland and Sight Scotland Veterans, as well as the Community Brokerage Network.
Dianne has been a member of Horizon since 2013 and re-joined our Board in 2022.
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Rowena Statt
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Rowena Statt is Anderson Bell + Christie’s Research and Development Director.
She is an award-winning architect who has worked in places as diverse as the Isles of Gigha and Colonsay, Craigmillar in Edinburgh and Possilpark in Glasgow.
As a consultant, she has worked for the Scottish Government, housing associations, development trusts and local authorities on housing and street design policy projects. She has a particular interest in designing accessible housing for people with physical and perceptual disabilities, and in the community-led development of inclusive intergenerational neighbourhoods. She aims to amplify the message that the ‘place’ is as important as the ‘home’ for all successful communities. She is an enthusiastic communicator of architectural and urban design issues and ideas using skills learned through working with local communities, developers, housing associations and local authorities. Rowena became a member of Horizon and joined our Board in 2023.
