Members of the Board
|
Position
|
Date of Joining
|
Bio
|
|
Karen McMillan
|
Chair |
September 2009 |
Karen became the Chairperson of PHA in April 2023. Karen has been involved in housing most of her adult life, both professionally and voluntarily. Having worked in all sections from housing management, to maintenance, finance and development, to helping establish a community based Housing Association in Glasgow which she led. Following on from this, Karen led and helped develop a greenspace charity across Glasgow and the Clyde Valley, protecting and developing our community greenspaces to allow green lungs in our towns and cities. Karen strongly believes that allowing the community to be part of the decisions that affect them, makes the community stronger, healthier and more sustainable. It means local decisions get made quicker, by the people they affect. Now retrained as a muscle therapist, she appreciates even more the connection between good, safe, affordable housing and good health, access to education and mental wellbeing. The mum of four continues to want to help the Association achieve this and feels that she can still offer relevant skills to the Board.” |
|
Ian Johnstone
|
Board Member |
April 2014 |
Ian joined our Board in 2014 and served as PHA’s Chairperson between September 2018 and April 2023. Ian has always been keenly involved with local community work and services and gets lots of satisfaction when there are good results. Ian enjoys being part of our Board as he believes we are a forward looking Association who are interested in providing the best service for our tenants. Ian says the Board is very knowledgeable and he is proud to be a part of it. |
|
Michelle Hart
|
Board Member |
July 2019 |
Michelle is ACCA qualified accountant. Her interest in housing developed when she previously worked in Scottish Homes/ Communities Scotland / Scottish Government. Michelle has been a Board member since 2019 and wishes to use her skills to benefit the community. |
|
Sandra Loney
|
Board Member |
April 2002 |
Sandra joined our Board 2002. As a former tenant herself, she wants the best for our tenants. As a Board member she has seen lots of improvements to our services over the years. Sandra enjoys being on the Board and is a mentor to new members. Sandra is also on the Board for Community Links. |
|
Mairi Maclean
|
Board Member |
August 2013 |
Mairi has been on our Board since 2013. She enjoys being part of the community and likes that she is a Board member with Paisley Housing. Mairi has gained lots of knowledge about what each department does although still feels she learns something new at the meetings. Mairi says staff are all so professional and she feels privileged to be on the Board. |
|
Emmanuel Dufegha
|
Board Member |
April 2022 |
Emmanuel possesses valuable knowledge, experience and skills acquired through academic, managerial positions, training and service to people. He also enjoys learning through taking on new challenges to contribute positively towards the achievements of the core values of any organisation, hence his acceptance to serve on the board of Paisley Housing Association.
|
|
Tina Russell
|
Board Member |
May 2022 |
Tina has 3 children and is a happily married stay at home mum. On occasions she volunteers in the Salvation Army charity shop in Paisley which she finds fun. She has been a tenant of PHA for just over 3 years and joined the board to have a better understanding on how the association works and to be able to give her views on how she sees a community can and could be managed. She likes to be able give her views no matter how big or small and hopes in the future to meet amazing people along her new journey and become friends with all the members of the board.
|
|
Elaine Templeton
|
Board Member |
September 2022 |
Elaine has over 25 years experience in hospitality and human resources management working with companies such as Travelodge, Whitbread, Accor Hotels and is now the joint owner of TasteBuds Paisley, the award winning cafe and catering business on Lawn Street in the town centre.
Elaine is very passionate about improving Paisley and making the town the very best it can possibly be. She is very involved as a board member of Paisley First, the town centre business improvement district, and has been for the last 4 years. She is very keen to use her skills and knowledge and to learn more about the social housing sector to benefit the whole of the town.
She has an BA (Hons) Hospitality Management from Robert Gordon University and post graduate CIPD in Human Resource Management.
|
|
Clare Hayes
|
Board Member |
January 2025 |
Clare Hayes has recently joined the board and hopes that her skills and experience will compliment the diverse and varied range of expertise offered by the current board members. Clare has a background in Finance and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA).
Clare joined the Civil Service in early 2024 following 12 years working in Finance and Business Support related roles with a national children's charity.
Clare lives in Paisley with her Husband and two sons and has a keen interest in everything related to her home town.
|
|
Colin Pyke
|
Board Member |
June 2025 |
Colin joined our board in June 2025. Colin has over 35 years experience in the construction industry and has been on the Board of Directors with Ashleigh Scotland since 2017. He possesses a wealth of experience in leading project management teams and delivering high quality housing projects. Having lived in Paisley all his life, Colin is keen to share his knowledge by joining the board to support the Associations valuable work and benefit the lives of tenants within the local community.
|
|
Damian Dempsey
|
Board Member |
April 2025 |
Damian joined our Board in April 2025. Following over a decade of work in the community and charitable sectors as a community development worker and volunteer manager, Damian transitioned into a career within local government in 2018 as a Housing Strategy and Policy Officer. This role is focused on strategic planning in relation to housing development, regeneration and the delivery of housing services with experience in both local authorities that manage their own Council housing stock and post stock transfer authorities. Damian has successfully been involved in the preparation and development of Housing Need and Demand Assessments (HNDAs), Local Housing Strategies (LHS), Housing Contribution Statements and Strategic Housing Investment Plans (SHIPs) whilst working in Housing Strategy. This role has provided Damian extensive experience in policy development, data analysis, governance in Local Government and strategic decision making.
In addition to strategic planning, Damian has led service evaluations for sheltered housing complexes, developed autism-friendly housing policies, and contributed to multi-tenure regeneration strategies. Damian is currently strengthening his research expertise as a PhD candidate in housing policy at the University of the West of Scotland, based in Paisley. He looks forward to bringing this experience to support Paisley Housing Association in navigating the evolving policy landscape and delivering quality housing options for the people of Paisley. When not working on housing related matters, Damian can be found practicing jazz and metal guitar which, although has been frustratingly stuck at intermediate level for several years, continues to aspire to bring those skills to the world following completion of his PhD.
|
