Our senior management team runs the business on behalf of our Board.

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Alister Steele - Managing Director
Sandy Welsh - Head of Housing Services
Donald McAndie - Head of Resources
Heather Macnaughton - Head of Neighbourhood Regeneration
Chris Thomson - Head of Property Services

Alister Steele, Managing Director

Alister was appointed Managing Director of Castle Rock in 2001. He has worked with the organisation since 1990 originally as Development Manager, then Development Director and Deputy Managing Director. He has been the Managing Director of Castle Rock Edinvar since 2005.

He holds an MA (Honours) in Geography from The Edinburgh University and a Postgraduate Diploma in Housing from Heriot Watt University/Edinburgh College of Art. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Housing.

He is a Trustee of Kintry Environmental Trust, a Board member of the Queens Hall, Edinburgh and is an external examiner at Heriot Watt University School of Built Environment.

Sandy Welsh, Head of Housing Services

Sandy became Head of Housing with Castle Rock in 1999. From 1990 to 1999 he was Housing Manager with Loreburn Housing Association. Prior to 1990 Sandy has worked in various areas of housing management with Annandale & Eskdale Council, Edinburgh District Council and Viewpoint Housing Association and a stint in support work with Edinburgh Council for Single Homeless.

Sandy holds an MA (Honours) in Geography from The University of Edinburgh and a Postgraduate Diploma in Housing Studies from Glasgow University. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Housing.

Donald McAndie, Head of Resources

Donald holds a BSc in Economics for Heriot Watt University and qualified as a Chartered Accountant with the Scottish Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland. He joined Ernst and Young in London before working for them in Bahrain.

He then joined a subsidiary of Banque Nationale de Paris initially in Bahrain before transferring to work in banking in London. He returned to Scotland and joined Castle Rock Housing Association in June 1993 as Financial Controller. He has been a member of the Senior Management Team since then and is responsible for finance, human resources and health and safety.

Heather Macnaughton, Head of Neighbourhood Regeneration

Heather moved to Castle Rock Edinvar as Head of Neighbourhood Regeneration in September 2007 and has responsibility for neighbourhood planning, financial inclusion and our commercial property portfolio. Heather is actively engaged in communities where we have significant stock concentrating on working with groups and local organisations to help to create and sustain successful places where people would choose to live and work.
 
Previously Heather worked in senior management teams at Children in Scotland and Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce having successfully completing an MBA at Heriot Watt University.

Heather is a Board member of North Edinburgh Childcare, Chair of the East Craigs Wider Action Group and until recently has been an assessor for the European Social Fund and Children in Need.

Chris Thomson, Head of Property Services

Chris was appointed as Head of Property Services in January 2009. Chris is responsible for the upkeep of our properties. This includes responsive repairs, planned improvements, aids and adaptations and our in house contractor, Home Repairs. In addition Chris also manages our Facilities team which provides services to owners as well as managing the mid-market and market rent pproperties.

Chris has worked within the social housing sector for 18 years. Before joining Castle Rock Edinvar, Chris was Operations Director at Margaret Blackwood Housing Association heading the maintenance, housing, customer services and direct works teams.

His broad experience in the housing sector has been gained through time in development, housing and maintenance. He spent 3 years as Depute Chief Executive at Horizon Housing Association. During his career he has developed the creation of small works teams within 3 different organisations as well as assisted in the creation of care and repair services in West Lothian.

Chris has an BSc (Honours) in Building Engineering Management.