Social housing has a rich and strong history throughout Europe.  Some countries have hundreds of years of experience and have produced amazing leaders who changed their communities and countries for the better.  The same holds true now and there are countless people in the social housing industry in Europe leading the way.  While it is important to look at our current leaders, we must also keep an eye to the future.  Taking time to appreciate those who are slowly moving into leadership roles is an important thing to do.  If you know of any emerging leaders who should be highlighted, please email us at info@housing-futures.org.   With that said, lets take a spin and learn about the leaders of tomorrow.

1. Ashley Campbell-Chartered Institute of Housing Scotland:  Ashley is currently the Policy and Practice Manager at the CIH in Scotland.  She came to CIH with experience already working in the housing field for a local authority, firstly as a customer advisor in a local housing office before moving into housing policy and strategy. Her current work allows her to influence housing policy at a national level, help CIH members throughout Scotland to understand the implications of changes in policy and legislation and promote good practice in housing.  She graduated from the University of Stirling with a degree in Criminology and Sociology. It will be interesting to continue following Ashley’s career. 
2. Edit Lakatos: Housing Europe: This is another policy wonk that has an impressive educational background including a BA from one of the oldest Universities in Hungary, University of Debrecen.  She also holds holds a degree in economics and business development.  With multiple languages under her  control, Edit is currently a Policy Officer with Housing Europe.  Within this role, she handles everything from impact analysis to advising members of Housing Europe on EU funding opportunities and ideas. Before joining Housing Europe, she gained experience on regional and urban policies at the European Commission Regional Policy Directorate and at different Regional Agencies in France and in Hungary analyzing market development.  You can read some of her writing here.                         
3. Steve Ellard: Yorkshire Homes: Steven is not only a dedicated housing employee under 35 but has already won a national leadership competition.  At the time of winning the 24housing Young Leaders Award, Steve was an asset manager.  Currently he is in charge of innovation at Yorkshire Homes. In his current role, he is responsible for creating an organisational culture where staff feel comfortable influencing positive change.   His educational background includes housing studies.

4. Jeroen Lebbink: Netherlands:  Jeroen currently works for the third largest social housing organization in the Netherlands called de Alliantie.  The organization owns and operates an astounding 60.000 dwellings in Amsterdam and cities east of Amsterdam. Jeroen works at the strategy department and is the sustainability program manager.   Including more youth into the social housing industry is also a passion of Jeroen who is the chairman of Jong Aedes. Jong Aedes is the network for young professionals working in Dutch social housing organizations. They organize events aimed at visiting projects, discussing current affairs, networking and sharing knowledge. Of the 24.000 people working in Dutch social housing 13% are below the age of 36. This number is getting lower and lower, it was 20% in 2011! Jeroen believes that more youth is needed in the sector and tries to encourage more to work in the sector.  He works in social housing because he believes mixed cities are the foundation for a healthy society.  The passion to have strong starting points for all people drives him to continue working on in the social housing sector.

5. Karl Törnmarck -SABO-Swedish Association of Public Housing Authorities: At the moment Karl works as a climate and energy advisor for the Oslo region European office and deals mostly with housing from the climate perspective.  He will start working as head of international affairs at SABO (Swedish Associations of Public Housing Companies) in December.  Karl has  bachelor in political science and economics with a masters degree in Sustainable development.  Karl finds social housing and housing policy in general very interesting simply because how fundamental it is for the everyday life. He goes on to explain that social housing is important for everyone and will always remain an extremely relevant political priority.

6. Piotr Pałka: Legal advisor of the Auditing Union of Housing Cooperatives in Poland:  Piotr is a legal advisor to the Auditing Union of Housing Cooperatives in Poland (Związek Rewizyjny Spółdzielni Mieszkaniowych RP). He is also a Certified Chief Compliance Officer and co – owner of a law firm Derc Pałka Legal Advisors: http://www.dercpalka.pl  He specializes in international law and international cooperative principles when it comes to draft bills on polish housing cooperatives. He cooperates with international cooperative organizations and several European union’s institutions.  He is 30 years old.

Conclusion: Do you know of any up and coming emerging leaders?  Please feel free to email us at info@housing-futures.org.