We are delighted to announce the appointment of Professor Guy Daly as the new Chair of our Housing and Communities Leadership Board. Guy succeeds Dr Halima Sacranie who has been appointed as the Centre’s Director of Housing Research and had held the role of Chair since the Board’s inception in 2021.
Professor Daly is a well respected and proven senior leader of higher education, with significant experience as a non-executive director in social housing, the NHS, further and primary education, and previously as an elected local councillor within the West Midlands. At the end of August 2024, Guy moved back to the UK following a two and a half years as Provost and Senior Vice-President of the British University in Egypt, to take up a number of non-executive roles including that of Chair of the Housing and Communities Leadership Board at the Centre for the New Midlands. Guy is an experienced researcher in his own right, having overseen projects valued at c£10 million, whilst also producing 4 books and over 100 papers and reports throughout his career. Guy’s appointment further reinforces the desire of the Centre to further develop its strategic links with the Higher Education sector for the public benefit and his experience across both housing and healthcare is significant given the intrinsic link between the two key areas of public policy.
Halima welcomed Guy’s appointment by adding,
“I am delighted to be welcoming Guy to the Centre to help us further enhance our work across Housing and Communities. It has been a pleasure to lead the Centre’s Housing and Communities Leadership Board since its inception and I look forward to continuing to work with both Guy and the fantastic team as we work to grow our evidence based research within this key area of social policy. I have no doubt that Guy’s experience and passion for the region and subject area will prove to be of enormous value to the Centre and we are delighted to be welcoming Guy on board.”
Guy commented,
“Although I have been out of the country for the past couple of years, I have been able to see how the Centre for the New Midlands has developed since the pandemic and wanted to get involved to share my experience and skillset to give something back to the West Midlands region – a geography that I have such a passion for. Thanks to Halima and the team’s dedication over the past three years, the Centre is really growing its reputation as the only independent think tank solely focussed on the West Midlands region and I look forward to working with the Chairs of the other workstreams (People and Skills, Digital, Infrastructure) to find the areas of commonality for our research.”