Des Ryan
Des Ryan has been working in charities tackling homelessness for the past 35 years; the last 22 as CEO of Edinburgh Cyrenians. He has a passion for enabling people who had been deeply excluded to turn their lives around and to fulfil their potential as contributing members of society and for developing entrepreneurial solutions to market failure.

Under his leadership the charity has grown ten fold and gained recognition as one of the top in its field in the UK. In their review of homelessness in the UK in 2008, independent analysts New Philanthropy Capital identified Edinburgh Cyrenians as in the top 10 in the UK to be recommended to social investors. 'Edinburgh Cyrenians is a uniformly strong organisation with a comprehensive and high-quality portfolio of services for homeless people.'

The charity has won several awards and Des himself received the Seiff Award in 2007 from HRH Prince Charles. The award is given to the company director who best recognises that corporate social responsibility is an essential part of business success and was given by Scottish Business in the Community to Des 'for his business acumen and drive in working with the private sector to deliver training and employment programmes to help the city's homeless.'

Des is regularly invited by The Scottish Government and various civic bodies to contribute to major policy discussions and formulation of strategy and has made particular contributions in matters such as homelessness legislation, strategy for reducing youth exclusion and national food policy with regard to excluded groups.

Des believes that the voluntary sector needs to be critical, independent and pioneering in finding solutions to contemporary problems. In addition to being CEO for Cyrenians, Des helps a number of other charities and community projects on a voluntary basis, especially where he feels he can imbue grass root action with some strategic vision and acumen, so that it can make a bigger difference.

Des lives in the shadow of Arthurs Seat with his wife and four children and the remaining leisure hours are spent writing, swimming and cooking - but never at the same time.