Valerie Owen OBE – The BBA announces new Chair of BBA’s Governing Board

Story

Valerie Owen was appointed Chair of the BBA’s Governing Board in February 2016. On her appointment, Valerie said: ‘I am delighted to take on this worthwhile position. As the UK’s leading Certification body for innovative building materials and construction installation techniques, the BBA has a key role to play in helping drive forward the construction sector, which is such an important contributor to our economy.’

Valerie is a multi-disciplinary property professional – she is a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI), the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb), the Royal Society of the Arts (RSA) and the Chartered Society of Environmentalists (CEnv).

An expert in economic and sustainable development, Valerie is a co-founding director of Le Vaillant Owen Consultancy, an innovative company specialising in sustainable development and community regeneration. The business was established in 2004, with offices in London and Kent. In her earlier executive career, Valerie was a Director of international real estate Consultants Jones Lang LaSalle, after which she worked as Managing Director at London First, where she delivered economic development programmes in sustainable development, housing, regeneration and health in collaboration with local, national and regional Governments.

Valerie operates at the highest levels, and now has a portfolio career comprising a number of nonexecutive Directorships and Ministerial appointments. Valerie is Chair of Swan Housing Group which is currently regenerating 1,600 homes on the Blackwall Reach estate in Tower Hamlets, London; she is also Chair of Lantra, the Sector Skills Council for land-based and environmental industries.

In 2001 Valerie was made an OBE for service to ‘architecture, and the community in East London’. In December 2009 she was made a Cabinet Office Ambassador to champion equality and diversity in Ministerial/Public Appointments, and in 2015, she won the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award in the National Women in Construction Awards.

Valerie is married to Bob Le Vaillant and has three daughters.

View BBA's profile: