Introducing our new Chair

We are delighted to announce that Andrew Hassard has become the new Chair of EastSide Partnership.

Andrew takes on the role following the resignation of Mervyn Gibson who served as Chair for five years. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Mervyn for his committment to the Partnership in the role of Chair. We are pleased that Mervyn will remain on the board as a community representative.

Andrew was previously Director of Parks and Leisure for Belfast City Council from 2007 until his retirement in March 2015.

He has extensive experience in strategy development and implementation, on leading on capital development and on implementing significant business improvement. He established and chaired the interagency oversight board for the Connswater Community Greenway programme. Throughout his career he has demonstrated the importance of working with local communities as well as with statutory, voluntary sector and private sector partners on regeneration and on community development.

He has extensive experience of governance in the voluntary sector. He is a former Chair of Belfast Healthy Cities and Housing Rights. He is still a member of the Board of Housing Rights were he is currently the Vice Chair. He was also an advisor to the Board of Groundwork NI and he developed and chaired the intersectoral Active Belfast Partnership up until his retirement in 2015. He currently serves on the Hunterhouse College and Cranmore Integrated Primary School boards of governors.

Prior to becoming the Director of Parks and Leisure Andrew was the Council’s Head of Environmental Health for 13 years.

He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health and was awarded the MBE in the Queens New Years Honours in 2015.