Meet the team

Key expertise: Community consultation and planning; community-led asset development and regeneration; and promoting a low carbon future.

Alan specialises in community planning, regeneration and a low carbon future. He has 27 years experience of working directly with communities and their partners to involve local people, help them plan for the future, and organise themselves to make things happen. He brings extensive skills in community consultation, facilitation, partnership development, strategic planning and capacity building. Alan specialises in asset development, the formation of Development Trusts and innovative finance models for social enterprise. He has worked with the statutory, voluntary, charitable, public and private sectors in rural and urban areas across the UK and Europe.

Alan worked within the charitable sector holding an Executive Director post before establishing his own consultancy practice eleven years ago. He believes passionately that local communities have a key role to play in creating a fairer and more sustainable future. He has written a number of publications, training courses and self-help manuals sponsored by organisations such as the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Development Trust Association Scotland. Alan holds an honours degree in Town Planning and a Postgraduate Diploma in Urban Design. He is a volunteer board member of the Comrie Development Trust and currently sits on the finance sub group of the Scottish Government’s 2020 Delivery Group.

Key expertise: Third sector organisational change; volunteer development; natural heritage management; and knowledge dissemination.

Andrew has 25 years experience in international and local development work specialising in organisational change and rejuvenation, volunteer development, natural heritage management, and knowledge dissemination. He has conducted research and consultancy assignments for organisations as varied as the United Nations Development Programme, Voluntary Service Overseas, Volunteer Development Scotland, Castlemilk Economic Development Agency, and Girvan Horizons. He builds organisational and enterprise effectiveness through the realisation of paid and voluntary staff potential linked to participatory research and strategic planning within the context of sustainable environmental management.

He brings extensive international and UK expertise in urban and rural contexts. He has previously held posts with Volunteer Centre Renfrewshire, the Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust, Azafady Madagascar, LIVE Addis Ababa, Appropriate Technology and Community Development Institute (Papua New Guinea), and Prentice Hall (Australia). He is registered as a specialist consultant with Voluntary Service Overseas and is a former Director of C-BETA (voluntary sector environmental auditing services). He is currently completing an MSc in freshwater and marine ecosystems management.

Key expertise: Community-led approaches to health improvement; and the relationship between health inequality, disadvantage, and poverty.

David has over 30 years experience in public health, specialising in community health and wellbeing issues. His particular expertise is in the relationship between health inequality, disadvantage, and poverty. He has undertaken research, strategy, and evaluation work for clients such as the World Health Organization (WHO), Government departments and agencies, Health Boards, Local Authorities, and voluntary organisations. He has significant experience in working with young people, community groups, GP’s, Primary Care Teams, volunteering organisations, Hospital staff, Care Centres, Health and Local Authority managers, and policy developers at local and national levels.

David has a long track record in helping communities to tackle inequalities in health. After working with Greater Glasgow Health Board’s Health Promotion Department for twelve years, David spent six years with the Glasgow WHO Healthy City Project, and for the past twelve years has run Communicable Health a research and design consultancy. David is an honorary fellow in the Department of Community Health Sciences at Edinburgh University. He holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Health Education, an MSc in Health History, and an MSc in Applied Social Research.

Key expertise: Personal philanthropy; social investment; and the funding and governance of charities and social enterprises.

David is an independent consultant working in the UK and internationally on the promotion of personal philanthropy and social investment and on the funding and governance of charities and social enterprises. His clients have included many endowed, corporate and family foundations, private banks and wealth advisers, the European Foundation Centre, and the UK Government. His commissioned work includes research, facilitation, strategy development, strategic reviews, and evaluations. He also works as a mentor or advisor for the senior staff of several charities and social enterprises.

David has been an independent consultant since 2001, and has held senior management positions in the third sector for over 25 years. He has been Chief Executive of three UK foundations including the Baring Foundation and a board member of over a dozen national organisations. He is a founding director of the charitable company that publishes the global journal on philanthropy and social investment, Alliance, is a member of the Supervisory Board of the Triodos Bank in the Netherlands, and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Centre for Effective Philanthropy in the USA. Until this year, he was a member of the Social Investment Task Force in the UK. David was educated at King’s College, Cambridge and operates from his base in London.

Key expertise: Tackling economic inclusion and area regeneration; social enterprise development; and promoting corporate social responsibility.

David brings more than 30 years experience in economic development, area regeneration, and social enterprise support. For most of his career he has focused on ways to secure opportunities for local communities from public and private sector led regeneration programmes. He has also been an instrumental figure in supporting the development of the social enterprise movement in Scotland. Over recent years he has majored on issues surrounding Corporate Social Responsibility and in particular the relationship between CSR and social enterprise.

David has a long and distinguished career in local government, new towns, and economic development agencies. In his early career with the Scottish Development Agency he worked on one of the first, and largest, area regeneration programmes in Europe. Later posts covered property development, environmental renewal, and community regeneration. For almost a decade he was Head of Inclusion at Scotland’s national economic development agency. David currently serves on the board of CEiS (the UK’s oldest social enterprise support agency) and the Scottish Urban Regeneration Forum (a network promoting a holistic approach to regeneration). He holds an Honours degree in Geography and Postgraduate diploma in Urban and Regional Planning (Strathclyde).

Key expertise: Developing community-led projects and funding packages; feasibility assessment and business planning; and research into social housing and regeneration.

Emma brings a wealth of experience in social research, the development of community-led projects, raising public and charitable funding, and assisting clients with complex funding packages. Her clients have included a variety of rural community development trusts, housing associations, Government departments, regeneration agencies, and charitable bodies. Having worked in the North West of England, and much of West and Central Scotland, Emma has extensive experience in developing community-led projects in both urban and rural contexts. She often works with clients over the longer term, being retained and brought in at different stages of a project.

Emma has built up a track record of achievement over many years. In her varied career she has worked as a researcher and consultant for private sector consultancy practices in Merseyside and Glasgow. She has also held the position of European Funding Officer for two Local Authorities. She currently works as Project Manager with Community Links, a not-for-profit organisation that supports the work of housing associations in neighbourhood renewal and regeneration. Emma holds an MA Hons degree in Geography and an M.Phil in Urban Policy, both from Glasgow University.

Key expertise: Social enterprise development; public sector and third sector organisational change and restructuring; and public service externalisation.

Geof has 30 years social enterprise development experience. In the UK context he specialises in organisational change and restructuring, especially around the start or expansion of trading activities by public or voluntary sector bodies. He has worked on some of the highest profile public service transformations in the UK in recent years, including externalisations in the NHS and local authority sector. He has researched and written many technical guides on organisational restructuring and public service externalisation. He also works internationally, typically advising aid charities on the role that social enterprise can play in local livelihoods and social inclusion work.

Geof has built up a significant consultancy portfolio over many years. Internationally, he has worked for some of the world’s largest aid charities, and is an associate of the leading international social enterprise development organisation, NESsT. He has been working intensively for Oxfam since 2007, including advising on how social enterprise can contribute to their anti-poverty programme in Russia. He is lead advisor on the national roll-out of the flagship miEnterprise supported self-employment programme. Geof is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a member of the ACEVO and Development Trusts Association consultancy pools, and a director of a number of leading social enterprise bodies, including Social Firms UK, The Common Cause Foundation, and miEnterprise CIC.

Key expertise: Business planning and project management; delivery of key interventions for public sector agencies and the recycling and environmental sectors.

James has over 17 years experience working as a business advisor within both the private and social enterprise sectors, most recently within CEiS in Glasgow where he has developed his skills across the range of business competencies. He is responsible for the delivery of key interventions on behalf of Scotland’s main public sector agencies including the Scottish Government and Glasgow City Council. During 2010 he successfully project managed the launch of Specialisterne Scotland, a social enterprise which trains, employs and supports people with autism to deliver professional software testing services in Scotland.

Prior to joining the team at CEiS in 2005, James spent 12 years employed by Motorola Semiconductors based in East Kilbride. During his career with the American multi-national he held seven different positions, increasing in responsibility up to European Management level, through which he amassed a wealth of experience across all of the major business operations. James holds a BA in Business Economics with Marketing (distinction).

Key expertise: Social research; participatory forms of consultation; and researching issues relating you children, young people, and families.

Katy is a highly experienced social researcher and facilitator, whose principal experience is in the fields of community learning and development, childcare, youth provision, advice services, social care, and employability. She is a trained practitioner of participatory appraisal techniques, a highly experienced and creative group facilitator, and a skilled interviewer of people from all fields and backgrounds. Her consultancy work includes community action research, feasibility assessment, organisational strategy and business planning, and project and programme evaluation.

Katy works as a freelance researcher with Think. She brings more that 20 years experience of working in and for the voluntary sector in various capacities, including as a research officer with a large national charity. During her career she has conducted research into the experiences of a variety of excluded groups, including lone parents, people with disabilities, ethnic minorities, elderly people, and young people. Katy holds an Honours degree in Business Studies and Applied Social Studies and a Postgraduate Certificate in Social Research.

Key expertise: Business planning; marketing; and learning and development for private, public and third sector organisations.

Kevin is an experienced consultant who has performed a mix of consultancy and client-side roles within both the private and third sectors. Most recently he has worked with public sector procurement officers and service commissioners on engaging with social enterprise. Currently, the main focus of his work is the identification and development of sustainable market opportunities and alternative business models for social enterprise growth. He has also designed and delivered a number of workshops relating to business planning, strategy development, marketing and tendering.

Kevin’s career to date includes six years sales experience with NCR; three years as a business consultant with CCA; three years managing Glasgow Opportunities’ Management Development Programme and two years as Marketing and Production Manager with Design Corporation. A member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Kevin also holds a BA (Hons) in Marketing from the University of Strathclyde.

Key expertise: Community consultation and planning; community-led asset development and regeneration; understanding of complex multi-partnership relationships including partnership agreements.

Maisie is an experienced consultant who provides support, guidance and capacity building to community groups and organisations. Her role encompasses producing full cost recovery plans, achieving open membership via Memorandum & Articles of Association and community consultation which evidences the need for projects, and project planning to enable the production of comprehensive business plans and funding applications.

Maisie has a proven track record of collaborative working with a range of partners within the statutory and voluntary sector, developing and implementing action plans, services and monitoring systems. She has an excellent understanding of complex multi-partnership relationships and sound strategic awareness of service and project development. She previously worked for a thematic Social Inclusion Partnership developing strategy, policy, research, projects and services under the auspices of local authority Children Services Planning Structures. Maisie undertook work as the Lead Officer for the development and implementation of Involvement and participation strategy for children, young people and services in Glasgow. Maisie has an MA in Applied Social Sciences.

Key expertise: Public service restructuring and business transformation; economic development; employability; and area regeneration.

Michael brings a broad base of project development and management experience, gained over the last 20 years across several key sectors covering public services, economic development, employability, and area regeneration. Most recently his work has concentrated on service restructuring and business transformation; helping public service organisations to develop their evolving business structures in response to the emerging need for alternative delivery models. Michael’s consultancy practice includes research, strategy, and evaluation work. His client portfolio ranges from national and regional development agencies through to neighbourhood regeneration groups.

Prior to entering consultancy he was Senior Manager with one of the most successful community-based regeneration organisations in the UK, and before that held key positions within a number of local authorities. He is a longstanding director of Loretto Housing Association, an Associate Lecturer to the Open University, and a former Transatlantic Fellow with the Churchill Foundation. He holds qualifications from the Open University and from the Universities of Strathclyde, Edinburgh, and Glasgow.

Key expertise: Third sector policy research, training and development; collaborative and community action research; and the exchange and dissemination of knowledge.

Mike brings almost 25 years experience in third sector research, training, and development. He has researched and written extensively on the role of social enterprise and the third sector for national and international audiences. His recent research has focussed on back to work programmes in the voluntary sector, community ownership and management of assets, advocacy and representation amongst multi-purpose community organisations, and the governance of small social enterprises. This has been undertaken on behalf of many agencies and foundations including the Community Alliance, Office of the Third Sector, Charities Aid Foundation, and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. His focus is on real world research, using collaborative and action research approaches, and on the exchange and dissemination of knowledge.

Mike is Head of Research at the Institute for Voluntary Action Research (IVAR) in London. Previously, he worked for nearly 20 years in training and consultancy roles in the voluntary and community sector with organisations such as Community Matters, Save the Children, and the Development Trusts Association. He is a visiting research fellow at the Co-operatives Research Unit at the Open University. Mike gained his PhD in third sector research at the Open University and holds an MA in Applied Social Policy at the University of Sussex.

Key expertise: Business planning; financial analysis; financial forecasting and budget preparation.

Roddy is a qualified accountant who has worked in a variety of senior management roles within the manufacturing and service sectors. Roddy currently specialises in providing support to clients in the recycling, regeneration and community transport sectors as well as advising clients on how to tender for public sector procurement opportunities. Roddy also delivers workshops and seminars on a variety of topics and is currently project managing a programme of tender writing training for third sector organisations.
During his 10 years as a senior management consultant with CCA, Roddy provided consultancy support to a range of private and public sector clients including: market research, project management, balanced scorecard reporting, KPI development and measurement, continuous improvement programmes and business control implementation. Roddy is a Fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants and holds a B.Acc from Glasgow University.

Key expertise: Social media strategy in the third sector; the use of digital media for social reporting; and the facilitation of online Communities of Practice.

Ross is a digital media consultant with a strong background in education, community planning, and the use of social media in the third sector. His particular interest is in the role that digital media can play in social reporting – among other tools, video and audio content, and live blogging to facilitate consultations and bring events to life. Having founded the popular ThirdSectorForums.co.uk, Ross is experienced in building thriving online Communities of Practice. He has helped a wide range of third sector organisations with website design, development, and social media strategy, including ENABLE Scotland, Tramway Theatre, and Relationships Scotland.

Ross has a varied background and experience, including positions with a national charity, local authority strategic planning partnership, and a leading community-based regeneration organisation. He is a former member of the Big Lottery’s Fair Share Scotland Panel and was recently appointed to Scottish Community Foundation’s National Grants Committee. Ross is also the founder of Be Good Be Social, an event which brings together third sector professionals interested in social media for social good. Ross holds an MSc in Business Information Technology Systems from the University of Strathclyde Graduate Business School.

Key expertise: Community action research; public consultation training and facilitation; and the promotion and use of participatory appraisal methods.

Susan is recognised nationally and internationally for her pioneering work on community-led action research, consultation, and evaluation. She brings particular expertise in participatory research design, training, management, and facilitation. She has advised many government departments, public bodies, and national and international charities on their approach to consultation and worked with communities across the UK to ensure that they have a real say in the issues that affect them. She uses robust, innovative, and socially inclusive methods that work in a variety of situations. Rather than using any packaged or labelled approach, she adapts or invents techniques that aim to secure wide-ranging stakeholder participation.

Before moving to the UK, Susan was Project Manager with the National Gallery of Canada. She was then a major influence in the introduction and spread of Participatory Appraisal methodologies and training to the UK in the early 1990s. Susan has been a director of her own participatory research practice since 1993 as well as a leading community consultation trainer and practitioner. She holds a masters degree in Landscape Architecture and Planning from the University of Guelph (Canada).

Key expertise: Community and stakeholder engagement; research and policy advice on community energy, climate change, and sustainability.

Tim is an experienced consultant who specialises in providing research and policy advice on community energy, climate change, and sustainability. He holds significant expertise in designing and delivering stakeholder and community engagement programmes. He brings many years experience of consultancy work for clients including government departments, government agencies, regional and local authorities, as well as a range of third sector groups and organisations.

Based in Newcastle, Tim is a director of CAG Consultants, an employee-owned co-operative that focuses on climate change and sustainability issues. Prior to joining CAG in 2003, he was a Senior Regeneration Consultant at Urban Practitioners in London, where he project-managed a wide portfolio of planning and regeneration work. He has experience of working within local government from his time as economic development officer at the London Borough of Greenwich. Tim gained a masters degree in urban planning from Oxford Brookes University and also holds a first class honours degree in geography and planning from the University of Birmingham. A chartered town planner, he is also a member of the Royal Town Planning Institute.

Key expertise: Events Management including initial client liaison, budget construction, sponsorship strategy, and programme development.

Having commenced her event management career at the Scottish Government, Gill has developed a wealth of events management experience in the public, private and social enterprise sectors for both national and international clients. Gill is a certificated Human Resources practitioner and has been responsible for the delivery of UK recruitment programmes for industry. She has financial management experience and is responsible for budget management for CEiS’ Events Service. With an ability to interpret and develop a brief to meet client needs, Gill ensures that client expectations are substantially exceeded on a regular basis.

Gill undertook the lead role in the development and management of the inaugural Social Enterprise World Forum in 2008 and provided event management support to Social Ventures Australia at the World Forum in Melbourne 2009. During this time Gill also led on event visit programmes to Western Australia, California, Berlin and Genoa. Gill has a Diploma in Event Management (pending) and a Certificate in Personnel Management (CIPD).