A not-for-profit business-thinking group has appointed a new chairman.

Agile Business Consortium has given the role to Geof Ellingham, a former head of IT at Your Homes Newcastle, which manages council homes for Newcastle City Council.

He takes over from former software engineer Steve Messenger, who had held the role for nine years and has been involved with Agile since its inception in the mid 1990s.

The Ashford-based membership organisation aims to help companies change the way they manage their businesses to improve culture, structure and leadership.

Mr Ellingham said: “A huge thank you must go to Steve Messenger whose stewardship and guidance has helped lay such solid foundations for the Agile Business Consortium, and who was instrumental in the creation of AgilePM, the world’s most popular Agile project management framework.

“His legacy to the Agile community is enormous, and it’s a privilege for me to follow him and champion the take-up of business agility globally.”