Stewart Milne is leaving the chief executive job at his construction firm and moving upstairs.
The 64-year-old founded the Aberdeenshire-based Stewart Milne Construction Group in 1975, starting off his business renovating bathrooms.
In the three decades since, he is believed to have amassed a personal fortune of around £400million.
Glenn Allison, Stewart Milne Group managing director, has been named as Mr Milne’s successor.
As executive chairman, Mr Milne will continue to provide overall leadership but with a greater focus on long-term strategy and business planning.
Mr Milne said: “Over the past few years as the economy has been picking up and confidence in our sector has been improving, we have been taking steps to ensure we are in the best possible position to capitalise on the upturn in house building and realise our growth ambitions.
“The time is now right for us to announce our strategic intent by formalising these plans which include Glenn formally taking up the mantle of CEO, a role which he has to a certain extent already been fulfilling during this period.”
Stewart Milne Group has a current annual turnover of around £211million with over 800 employees.
The firm recently announced a £225million finance deal with the Bank of Scotland, which will allow the company to build thousands of new homes and create work for hundreds of joiners.
Having survived what has been a hugely damaging recession for the construction sector, the Westhill-based group says it is now ready to grow and build 5,000 properties in the next five years.
Mr Allison has been with Stewart Milne Group for 25 years, formerly as group managing director with day to day management of the group and its divisions.
He will be supported in his new role by John Slater, group managing director for homes, Alex Goodfellow, group managing director for timber systems and John Irvine, group finance director.
Commenting on his new role, Mr Allison said: “This is a particularly exciting period for the group and I am pleased and proud to play a more focused and strategic role in delivering our long-term plans, working alongside Stewart and the managing directors of our divisions.
“Exploiting the growth opportunities created by our strategy and by current market conditions will require a considerable amount of resourcing and one of the main tasks ahead of me will be ensuring that we are fully resourced to meet the planned growth.
“We have weathered the tough economic conditions of the last few years and, through prudent planning and a strategic approach, we are exceptionally well placed to secure the long-term success of the group.”