BRE appoints non-executive chairman

With a distinguished corporate career in the telecoms industry, Mr Earnshaw primarily worked at BT where one of his principal achievements was leading on the 10-year, £28bn transformation of the UK telecoms network from analogue to digital.

As well leading the BRE board, Mr Earnshaw will use his commercial and management expertise to drive the digital transformation of BRE's products, services and operations.

"Chris has a great appreciation of where BRE fits in the world and where its ambitions lie," said BRE chief executive Peter Bonfield. "He will bring a fresh perspective to the group's strategic direction, specifically with regard to digital, which is driving significant changes in the way we design, construct, operate and deconstruct buildings over their lifetime.

"New processes like Building Information Modeling (BIM) will transform everything we do - BRE will be taking advantage of Chris's knowledge and expertise as we get ready for this new age of construction."

Mr Earnshaw also has significant experience of the fast-moving global technology arena. In his earlier career he was founding CEO of a US-based joint venture company that built and operated a global telecoms network, serving many of the Fortune 500 global companies. On his return to the UK he introduced new technologies and network services to BT, that paved the way for today's broadband and internet services.

He is no stranger to issues around sustainability in the built environment. In the late 1990s he was a member of the Prince of Wales' Business in the Community Environment Leadership Team, and he was also responsible for leading on BT's environmental impact programme at a time when these issues were still emerging on the corporate agenda.

"BRE is about building a better world through its significant programme of multidisciplinary research underpinned by engineering knowledge and know-how," said Mr Earnshaw.

"From that it develops products, tools and standards that help the built environment sector to successfully tackle the many challenges it faces with climate change and adaption, resource depletion and mass migration to cities to name but a few. Having been involved with BRE as a non-executive director for the past four years, I'm pleased to take up this role at such a highly respected organisation at a time when its expertise is needed more than ever."