After a “rigorous search,” BC Housing has a new, permanent CEO.
Vincent Tong, who has been acting CEO since September 2022, was officially announced in his new role Thursday (April 27), according to a release from the provincial Ministry of Housing.
BC Housing’s board of commissioners selected Tong based on his “record of leading transformative change in complex organizations, as well as his high standards of integrity, commitment to advancing equity and reconciliation, and extensive experience leading complex residential development projects.”
Allan Seckel, BC Housing board chair, said that under Tong’s leadership, BC Housing has been “taking significant steps to strengthen our organizational structure and capacity, financial systems, governance practices, and policies related to oversight, transparency and conflict of interest.”
Tong came in as acting CEO after longtime CEO Shayne Ramsey announced his retirement in August, and after the the province fired the board of the housing agency, following an external review of it released in May. Conducted by Ernst and Young, the review included 44 recommendations and pointed out issues with unclear roles and responsibilities, underfunded technology and, in some cases, poor documentation.
Ramsey has been BC Housing’s CEO for 26 year.
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Tong was previously BC Housing’s vice-president development and asset strategies since July 2021. Before that, he was chief development officer for Toronto Community Housing, the largest provider of social housing in Canada.
Since coming into the role last fall, the ministry says Tong has led changes that include modernizing leadership structure to consolidate accountabilities; recruiting new in-house legal counsel to provide greater oversight on legal, regulatory and privacy issues; increasing board oversight of development projects; strengthening oversight of housing providers; creating new whistleblower protections; and developing more comprehensive standards of conduct policy.
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