A man who spent almost 20 years working for two of the world’s biggest professional services companies has taken on a new role with a North Yorkshire-based housing association.
David Smith is the new Resources Director at Broadacres.
The 44-year-old was appointed following a rigorous recruitment and selection process for the newly created role.
He joined from Ernst & Young and previously worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers, and before that was a Civil Servant.
In both roles he provided specialist technical accounting advice to government and housing associations so comes to Broadacres with a good knowledge of the social housing sector.
Tasked with supporting Broadacres vision of becoming the best rural housing association in the country, David leads a team of 37, consisting of finance, facilities, procurement and legal.
He said: “I wasn’t actively seeking to move employment and always thought when I did it would be because of THE job and not just a job, and that’s what the role Broadacres has afforded me.
“There’s a great team ethos and after so many years in professional service where you are often detached from everything, having met customers and viewed our homes, you can see what we do really makes a difference.”
Gail Teasdale, Chief Executive of Broadacres Housing Association, said: “David comes to us with a fantastic track record in finance and wider commercialisation, including supporting some of the UK’s biggest housing associations.
“His knowledge and expertise will support our mission of Great people providing Great Homes and Great Customer experience across our rural communities and ultimately help us achieve our vision of becoming the best rural housing association in the country.”
David holds three different accounting qualifications, making him a Certified Accountant, Chartered Accountant and Public Finance Accountant.
Married with two teenage children, he has lived in Stockton for 17 years and in his spare time enjoys playing golf and is currently Treasurer of Romanby Golf Club, near Northallerton.
Having gone to school in rural Wales he could once speak Welsh.
He added: “I qualified as an Accountant with the Civil Service having always wanted to work understanding the costs of social needs. My language skills in Welsh could only take me one place which scuppered my chances with the Diplomatic Service overseas! The rest, however, is a very pleasant history and I’m delighted to be working close to where I now call home”.