SFHA Annual Conference 2025: Meet the speakers

SFHA Annual Conference | 10 and 11 June | Radisson Blu | Glasgow
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John Swinney

John Swinney was appointed First Minister in May 2024. Born in 1964, he joined the Scottish National Party in 1979 and went on to graduate from Edinburgh University with an MA (Hons) in Politics. He has worked for the Scottish Coal Project, Development Options and Scottish Amicable.
Prior to his election as Westminster MP for North Tayside in 1997, he held a number of posts in the SNP at local and national level. 

In 2016 he was appointed Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills. In 2021 he was appointed Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Covid Recovery.

Kirsty Wark

Kirsty Wark is one of the UK’s trailblazing female news journalists. 
She presented BBC’s Newsnight for 30 years, stepping down after the 2024 General Election. Her long career on Newsnight has seen her holding politicians and public figures to account with her formidable interviewing skills. She made her reputation as a journalist and producer on BBC Scotland, memorably 
reporting from the scene of the Lockerbie bombing, before joining BBC 2’s arts strand The Late Show as a presenter, moving on to Newsnight in 1993.

Kirsty has won several major awards for her work including BAFTA Awards for Outstanding Contribution to Broadcasting, Journalist of the Year and Best Television Presenter. In 2024 she was honoured with a lifetime achievement award at the RTS Journalism Awards.

Kwajo Tweneboa

Kwajo Tweneboa is a British social issues campaigner dedicated to exposing unsafe housing conditions and holding landlords accountable. After experiencing severe neglect in his own home, he took to social media, forcing action and gaining national attention. His activism has influenced policy discussions, earned him The Big Issue’s Top 100 spot. In 2022, he presented the Channel 4 documentary Help! 
My Home Is Disgusting, and in 2024, he published Our Country in Crisis, a manifesto on tackling the UK’s housing emergency. Tweneboa has engaged with key political figures, including former Secretary of State for Housing Michael Gove, current Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and London Mayor Sadiq Khan, to advocate for policy reforms.  

Professor Sir John Curtice

Professor Sir John Curtice is Professor of Politics at Strathclyde University, and Senior Research Fellow, National/Scottish Centre for Social Research and the ESRC’s ‘The UK in a Changing Europe’ initiative. He has written extensively about voting behaviour in elections and referendums in the UK, as well as on Scottish and British political and social attitudes. He has been a co-editor of the National Centre’s annual British Social Attitudes reports series for forty years, a co-director of the Scottish Social Attitudes series since 1999, and is a regular contributor to Scottish, British and international media coverage of politics in the UK. 

Kelly Henderson

Kelly has a wide range of housing experience including as Director of Housing (interim) at a London-based housing organisation, as well as roles in asylum, managing a local authority Supporting People Programme and roles in policy and research. 

She has a Masters degree in Housing Policy and Management and a PhD from Durham University on ‘The role of housing in a co-ordinated community response to domestic abuse’. Kelly co-founded a national housing and domestic abuse partnership carrying out accreditation of housing provider responses to domestic abuse and has extensive experience supporting housing providers to improve their response to domestic abuse.

Kelly co-founded a national housing and domestic abuse partnership carrying out accreditation of housing provider responses to domestic abuse and has extensive experience supporting housing providers to improve their response to domestic abuse. 

Colin Stewart

Colin became involved in the Social Housing Sector in 2012 when he moved back to Aberdeen after living in London for 26 years. Since returning to Aberdeen he has been involved with several tenant groups including being Chair of CaRTO (Castlehill’s Registered Tenants Organisation), a member of NETRALT (North East Tenants, Residents and Landlords Together) and Chair & Secretary of Tenants Together (Scotland). Previously he was on the Board of Directors for Castlehill Housing Association, standing on their Housing & Property Services and Finance & Development sub-committees. Colin is on the Board of the Scottish Housing Regulator, since 2019. 

Tickets and special offers

Tickets start from:

• £348 for members
• £534 for non members

Day only deal: Book two places and bring a colleague for free! *     

We’re offering a group discount: buy two day ticket places and another colleague can attend for free.