Gurpreet Dehal, Chair of the Board

Gurpreet was appointed as Chair of the Housing 21 Board in February 2024. He was drawn to the organisation through a strong affiliation with Housing 21’s social purpose in providing quality homes for older people of modest means. This focus on social purpose really matters to Gurpreet, and is a core driver behind his also being Chair at the University of Derby.

Gurpreet's executive experience was in in financial risk management and investment banking global operations, with senior leadership positions at Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse from 2006 to 2014. From here, he pursued a portfolio career with non-executive roles in higher education, multi-academy trusts, financial services, including advising the Government on access to dormant assets, infrastructure and an NHS commissioning group. This has also included non-executive roles within Defence for nearly nine years and, in January 2024, he took on the role of Independent Member of the RICS Governing Council

Gurpreet obtained a Bachelor's Degree in Physics from the University of Oxford and subsequently a Master's Degree in Applied Statistics and Operational Research at Birbeck, University of London. More recently, in 2016, he achieved a Master's Degree in Higher Education: Research, Evaluation and Enhancement at Lancaster University.