Scotland committee members

Meet the Scotland committee, the people who will take devolved decisions on Big Lottery Fund grants in Scotland.

The committee will make awards for the next three years through a range of BIG programmes. It will also be responsible for strategy, policy, planning and management of programmes in Scotland within an overall strategic and financial framework determined by BIG’s UK Board.

Alison Magee: Committee Chair

Alison Magee was the Convener of Highland Council for the four years to May 2007. She has had nearly 20 years’ experience in Scottish local government as an independent councillor, including:

• four years as Convener of Sutherland District Council
• chair of Highland 2007 (the year Scotland celebrates Highland culture)
• chair of Inverness City Partnership
• a member of Highland Health Board.

She has also been a Board Member of Caithness and Sutherland Enterprise, and previously ran a small business. She lives in central Sutherland.

Tim Allan: Chair of Young Enterprise Scotland

Tim Allan was the youngest major in the Army in 1996, and served with the UN in Cyprus. He was equerry to HRH the Duke of York, and has worked in the Diplomatic Service.

Since leaving the Army in 1998 he has pursued a career in banking, where he gained expertise in philanthropic investment, and has latterly moved into property development in Dundee. He lives in Clackmannanshire.

Tim’s achievements include:

• on the board of the charity Young Enterprise Scotland since 2003
• appointed deputy chair in June 2005, and
• chair in June 2006
• works with young people from extremely disadvantaged backgrounds – including care and prison - to provide routes into employment in business.

Elizabeth Cameron: Director, Scottish Chambers of Commerce

Elizabeth Cameron has been director of the Scottish Chambers of Commerce since 2004, and before that was director of Renfrewshire Chamber of Commerce since 1996.

Her achievements include:

• establishing the Scottish Youth Investment Fund to help young people into business
• is a director of the Princes Scottish Youth Business Trust
• has experience of social inclusion and regeneration by chairing the Ferguslie Park Social Regeneration Company
• represented the business community on the Scottish Parliament’s Ethic Minority and Labour Market Working Group.

She lives in Gourock.

David Green: retiring Chair of Crofters Commission

From his early career as a self-employed crofter running a small tourist industry and working as the driver of a snowplough in the 1980s, David Green rose to be Vice-Convener then Convener of the Highland Council.

Currently Convenor of the Cairngorms National Park Authority Board, he has had a strong involvement in rural community life for many years. David Green lives in Ross-shire.

Alistair Grimes: Director, Rocket Science UK Ltd

Alistair Grimes has had a long association with the social economy. From involvement in the 1980s and 1990s with the Wise Group, which provided for unemployed people to gain access to work in carrying out energy saving improvements to council houses.

His achievements include:

• serving as chief executive of Community Enterprise in Strathclyde from 1997 to 2005
• serving as Chair of the Scottish Credit Union Partnership
• the Scottish Urban Regeneration Forum
• Childcare Works
• committee member of the Scottish Centre for Research into Social Justice
• the McFadden Commission on Charity Law Reform.

Alistair is based in Glasgow.

Helen Forsyth, Chief Executive, Berwickshire Housing Association

Helen has extensive experience of tackling disadvantage throughout her career in health, care and housing, and a very strong commitment to achieving real change for poorer communities. She lives in Duns in the Scottish Borders

Helen Forsyth was:

• chief executive of Edinvar Housing Association from 1998 to 2004
• regeneration director, Scotland, for Places for People
• a board member of Age Concern Scotland.

Maureen McGinn (Lady Elvidge): Chief Executive, Laidlaw Youth Project

Maureen McGinn is former senior civil servant based in Edinburgh.

Her current work includes:

• running the Laidlaw Youth Project, which promotes partnership working between charities supporting children and vulnerable young people in Scotland
• the board of Evaluation Support Scotland.

Maureen has a track record of delivering policy solutions for complex social issues as well as experience of working with other funders.

Lucy McTernan, Director of Corporate Affairs, Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations

Lucy McTernan has been a dedicated advocate for communities throughout her career at the centre of the voluntary sector in Scotland.

Her achievements include:

• being a driving force behind recent developments in charity law and changes in public sector funding practice
• increasing links between Scotland and the international voluntary sector through bring the CIVICUS Assembly to Glasgow.

She is based in Edinburgh.

Shirley Young, Independent Trainer and Consultant

Shirley is currently self-employed as a trainer and consultant and is Chair of the Family Fund, distributing £30 million per annum in discretionary grants to families on low income with severely disabled children throughout the UK.

She is also:

• Non-Executive Director of Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education (HMIe)
• Chair of the Farepack Response Fund

formerly Director of SNIP (1992 - 2006).

Kristofer McGhee, Law Student

Kristofer is due to complete the Legal Practice Course at BPP Law School in June 2008. He will start his legal traineeship with Herbert Smith in February 2009. He was formerly a member of:

• BIG Scotland’s Young People’s Fund Committee
• vice Chair of the Scottish Youth Parliament
• UK Youth Delegate to the United Nations  
• a panel member of Glasgow Children’s Hearings System.

Kristofer is currently a Trustee of the British Youth Council, UK Representative to the European Youth Forum and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.