Board Members
Jim Gibson (Chairman) has over 30 years of commercial experience in senior HR roles including HR director with Rolls-Royce and Director of Capability with British Nuclear Fuels Sellafield. Jim is a graduate of Glasgow Caledonian University and a MBA graduate of Glasgow University Business School.
He has also held a number of non-executive roles including; Chairman of Greater Easterhouse Development Company, Chair of Governors at Westlake Academy, board member of Glasgow Opportunities, board member of Westlakes Research Company and a member of the university court of the University of Central Lancashire. Jim now runs his own management consultancy business.
Bruce Marks (Treasurer) is a Director at leading accountancy firm, KPMG LLP where he has worked for over 20 years. Bruce has considerable experience of providing accounting advice to businesses, Charities and other organisations.
Jo Noblet has over 18 years experience of in developing and designing programmes around employability and career planning for marginalised groups. Work includes - designing a pre-release programme for short term prisoners in HMP Barlinnie; working with Includem’s advisory team on the practice toolkit for staff A Better Life and secondment to the Scottish Government to manage the ‘In custody’ workstream for review of Learning Skills and Employability for offenders and ex-offenders which became the Options for Improvement Report.
Malcolm May retired after 20 years as Chief Officer of the Council for Voluntary Service in Dundee. He was previously a Training Officer for SCVO and before that on the staff of the Iona Community's House in Clyde Street, Glasgow. Malcolm also trained for the ministry of the Church of Scotland and qualified in social work and community work. As a student Malcolm worked in a youth club in the Calton in New York.
John McCaig recently retired after 3 years as Deputy Chief Inspector of Prisons. Prior to that he spent 32 years in the Scottish Prison Service in a range of prisons and roles, the last being Deputy Governor at HMYOI Polmont and HMP Barlinnie. Special focus during that time was on suicide prevention and young offenders. Currently a member of the Children's Panel.
Sheena Brown has worked in the public sector most of her career. A social policy graduate, her career has spanned 30 years working in child protection and mental health as a qualified social work professional. Sheena entered the Scottish Government in 2000 and drafted the Strategy for the Development of the Social Services Workforce in Scotland. Sheena now heads up the Scottish Government State Aid Unit, which advises public sector bodies on the compatibility of their funding under EU law.
Alison Petch has spent most of her career involved with research and policy across a broad range of social work, health and housing issues. From 1985 to 1993 she worked at the Social Work Research Centre at Stirling University. She then moved to Glasgow University as Director of the Nuffield Centre for Community Care Studies. The opportunity to ensure that research was used in practice tempted her south in October 2005 to work with research in practice for adults, a partnership funded by local authorities. In October 2009 she returned to Scotland as Director of IRISS (Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services). This focuses on supporting the social services workforce to deliver effective outcomes through the promotion of evidence-informed practice and innovation and improvement.