David Neale New Chair of RICS Caribbean

RICS Americas, a division of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, the world’s leading membership organization for professionals in property, land, construction and related environmental issues, announced that David Neale FRICS, co-owner of Cane Associates Ltd., and Part Time Lecturer in hydrography and coastal zone metrics at St. Augustine Campus of the University of the West Indies, has been named Chairman of RICS Caribbean. Neale has more than 25 years of consulting and project management in hydrography, physical oceanography, dredging, offshore surveys, marine environmental assessment, coastal resource management and marine information. Since 1993, he has been active in RICS and became a Fellow in 2007. He is a current member of the RICS Americas Educational Board, a trained RICS APC Assessor, and is involved with the RICS Caribbean Board as an ad hoc member working on future planning for the organization. Neale’s goal is not limited to simply increasing membership or member benefits for RICS in the Caribbean. “My goal is to push members of RICS Caribbean to engage in more meaningful and wide-ranging discussion on issues relating to the built environment within the region,” he said. “As a previous ad hoc member of the Board, we started to examine the use of research projects based on the input of Caribbean surveyors as one possible mechanism of driving that kind of dialogue. Ultimately, RICS Caribbean must find ways of partnering with like minded associations, academic and professional institutions and, indeed, any other organizations as a means of pooling resources toward the larger public good.” First up on Neale’s agenda will be co-hosting the Caribbean Land Conference 2009 along with CASLE (Commonwealth Association of Surveyors and Land Economists), ISTT (Institute of Surveyors of Trinidad and Tobago) and the University of the West Indies. “We’ll be focusing on dispute resolution and land development issues as they have been affected by the global financial crisis,” he said. “This conference showcases RICS’ role in bringing many organizations and academics together to discuss property issues and provide guidance to the private sector and government.” According to Tom Justin, Chairman of RICS Americas, Neale is the right person to lead RICS’ effort in the Caribbean during this time of opportunity and change. “We welcome David to his new role and look forward to building RICS’ presence across the expanse of the Caribbean, both in membership and activity levels.” Matt Bruck, Managing Director of RICS Americas, noted that RICS has already benefited from Neale’s leadership and will continue to do so as he assumes this new role. “David has been a tireless advocate for RICS ever since he became a member. Whether he's teaching young geomatics students at UWI or representing RICS at conferences around the world, David tirelessly advocates the skills and values that are RICS at its best.” The latest example of Neale’s international work is his paper, “The urbanization of Caribbean coastlines: a case study of the Trinidad West Coast,” which was well received at the The Construction and Building Research Conference of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors held in Cape Town, South Africa, September 10 and 11. (Read the paper here: http://www.ricsamericas.org/files/editor/file/News/The%2 ....)


# # #

RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors), with headquarters in London, is the leading organization of its kind in the world for more than 100,000 professionals in property, land, construction and related environmental issues.

Name*:
E-mail*:
Captcha*:
Text*: