He takes up the post from Eddie Booth, who completed his three year term this month. IHBC is the UK's professional body for conservation specialists.
“It is a great privilege to be elected as president of the IHBC,” said Mr Thorpe. “At a time when the heritage sector faces difficult times, I am especially keen to build on the strategic relationships we have with professional bodies and specialist interest groups across the construction industry. Given the uncertain state of public finances for conservation, and the cutbacks in local authority conservation services, I’m sure improving these partnerships can only help us all do better jobs.
Before his retirement this year, Mr Thorpe was chief architect at Cadw. Prior to this, he was senior architect responsible at various times for conservation and development projects of monuments in state care and also for advice relating to historic building grant and control casework. Before joining Cadw 23 years ago, he was a local planning authority conservation architect in Carmarthen, where he still lives.
IHBC chair Jo Evans said: “It is great to have someone so capable, and so well connected as Trefor as our new IHBC president. His breadth of experience from architecture, training, central government, and professional bodies - including the IHBC's own work - means that he's supremely well-placed to help us move forward. Trefor also is the IHBC’s first Welsh president, so he will be able to help us shape our support for government across the UK.”
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