Staff and Board

Fraser Kelly, Acting Chief Executive

Fraser joined Social Enterprise Scotland in July 2011. With a career that benefits from private, public and third sector experience and includes over 20 years working in the field of economic regeneration, Fraser describes this new role with a mixture of excitement and privilege, working on behalf of an outstanding collection of member organisations and with a highly committed and experienced Board.

From 2004 until 2011 Fraser held the post of Chief Executive with Castlemilk Economic Development Agency and Glasgow South East Regeneration Agency Ltd and, prior to that, he worked as Head of Economic Development at Inverclyde Council. Fraser is a former Board member of Cassiltoun Trust and Castlemilk and Carmunnock Community Windpark Trust.

Sine Munro, Business Development Manager

Sine Munro is Business Development Manager at Social Enterprise Scotland. Her background is in business management and development in a range of industries, most recently spending seven years within the sports development sector (both professionally and voluntarily). Sine is a graduate from Edinburgh Napier University in Social & Management Sciences, a comprehensive business degree with a social focus.

Duncan Thorp, Parliamentary, Policy and Communications Officer

Duncan is a Journalism graduate of Edinburgh Napier University. He previously worked as a Journalist and also as Marketing and Communications Officer for Planning Aid for Scotland (PAS), the charity that helps people understand, engage with and benefit from the planning system. Duncan has also worked extensively at the Scottish Parliament, firstly as a media officer for the Lib Dem MSP group and then as a parliamentary aide to two MSPs.

Kate Walshaw, Administrator

Kate joined Social Enterprise Scotland in November 2007 as Administrator, responsible for membership, administering events, and acting as PA to the Chief Executive. Prior to this she was working at the Scottish Government as a temporary Policy Officer. Her background is in publishing and she worked at Elsevier for 10 years producing medical textbooks and journals. Previous to this she studied Geography at Edinburgh University.

Laurie Russell (Chair), Chief Executive, The Wise Group

Laurie Russell has been Chief Executive of The Wise Group since August 2006. The Wise Group is a Glasgow based social enterprise set up in 1983 that gets people off benefits and into sustainable employment in Scotland and NE England.  In 2010, it had a turnover of £32 million, employed 600 full-time staff and secured jobs for 5330 long-term unemployed people. Laurie was Chief Executive of Strathclyde European Partnership Ltd, and managed the programmes of European funding for the regeneration of Western Scotland from 1989 to 2006.  He was previously employed by Strathclyde Regional Council and led a community initiative in Clydebank in the early 1980s. Laurie is the Chair of Social Enterprise Scotland and a member of the National Economic Forum in Scotland.  

Douglas Westwater (Treasurer), Executive Director, Community Enterprise Ltd

Douglas has a background in community development and regeneration and has worked in the voluntary sector for over 20 years. Most recently this was focussed on coalfield regeneration before his interest in the sustainability of front line services initiated a move into social enterprise business development. He is Executive Director of Community Enterprise Limited, an organisation which has been involved in social enterprise development for over 20 years.

Susan Aktemel, Director, Impact Arts

Susan Aktemel is the founding director of Impact Arts, a world leading arts organisation with local focus, working across Scotland to improve people’s lives. She graduated from Strathclyde University after studying German, Spanish and Politics. Susan then used her retail experience, adult literacy and community development background to create the business. Impact Arts works with housing associations, local and national organisations and the private sector to incorporate the arts into their regeneration plans. Core business includes working to alleviate homelessness, improving employability and helping vulnerable young people transform their aspirations. Since 1994 Impact Arts has grown from a sole trader to a national charitable business, with 80 staff and a turnover of around £2 million. Susan leads on strategy, and asset development. She is currently working on developing replication models, to enable expansion to other parts of the UK. In  February 2011, Susan was named Scottish Social Enterprise leader of the year by the Scottish Social Enterprise Coalition, and is a Scotland winner in the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2011 Programme. She also chairs the Glasgow Social Enterprise Network.

Alastair Davis, Chief Executive, Social Investment Scotland

Alastair joined Social Investment Scotland in May 2009, after eight years with the Bank of Scotland, the last five of which he lead a team that specialised in lending to the not for profit sector. It is this experience, knowledge and network that he brings to SIS where he is Chief Executive, and also has responsibility for delivery of the Scottish Government’s £30m Scottish Investment Fund. A graduate of Strathclyde Business School, he is also heavily involved with JCI- Junior Chamber International- and served as President of JCI Edinburgh in 2008.

Pauline Graham, Chief Executive, Social Firms Scotland

Pauline joined Social Firms Scotland in January 08, having previously spent just over 7 years at the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations. While at SCVO, Pauline managed a range of capacity building and regeneration projects but she is perhaps best known for managing the Social Economy Scotland Development Partnership funded under the EU EQUAL Programme (2002 -2007), which attracted significant funding to support new social enterprise developments in Scotland. She was instrumental in leading on policy work through the mainstreaming phase of EQUAL which had a direct influence on the first social enterprise strategy in Scotland - in particular around promoting public social partnerships and procurement opportunities for the third sector. Pauline also has extensive experience of working with partners across Europe to exchange good practice and share learning on social enterprise development. She managed a cooperation agreement with partners in Austria, Italy, Poland and Finland. Her varied career history includes marketing management within Further Education, the Arts and a Glasgow based Regeneration Company.

Jeanice Lee, CEMVO Scotland

Jeanice has been working in CEMVO Scotland for over 6 years during which she has taken on various roles, including capacity building, project management and business development. She was one of CEMVO’s original Capacity Building Officers after successfully completed her sponsored MBA. She is currently the part-time Social Enterprise Capacity Building Officer, helping ethnic minority third sector organisations in different parts of Scotland to develop their social enterprising activities and access mainstream support and funding. Besides organisational development, she has a special interest in quality management and process improvement, and is currently an EFQM Accredited Assessor. In addition to her work at CEMVO, Jeanice is the Director of Elite Linguists C.I.C., a social enterprise providing interpreting and translation service with the mission to raise standards in public service interpreting nationally in Scotland, leading to a fairer Scotland where language can be a barrier

Malcolm McArdle, Managing Director, Alloa Community Enterprises and ACE Recycling Group

Malcolm is a serial Social Entrepreneur with significant mainstream business experience in publishing, materials handling and economic development. Malcolm is Managing Director of Alloa Community Enterprises and the ACE Recycling Group.

Frank McKillop, Policy & Relations Manager (Scotland), ABCUL

Frank has been the Policy & Relations Manager in Scotland for the Association of British Credit Unions Limited (ABCUL) since 2007. ABCUL is the main trade body for credit unions across Scotland, England and Wales, and is itself a co-operative owned and democratically controlled by its member credit unions. Frank studied Politics at the University of Glasgow and then spent seven months working in Vancouver, Canada.

Prior to working for ABCUL, he was the senior secretary to an MP and had previous experience working in insurance and banking. He helped establish and serves as secretary of the Scottish Parliament’s Cross-Party Group on Credit Unions, and he is also a director of Co-operation and Mutuality Scotland.

Alasdair Nicholson, CEO Third Sector Hebrides

Alasdair leads the Third Sector Hebrides group in the Western Isles of Scotland which includes charitable and social enterprise companies engaged in employability work, transport, a community newspaper, grounds maintenance and a social firm, Hebridean Chocolates.  He was a founding Director of Voluntary Action Scotland and also helped to establish the Scottish Crofters Union and was engaged in the development of the Housing Association movement in the Islands.  He was a Councillor from 1990-1999 on Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, where he held the Chair of Housing.  Alasdair has also been a partner in international work, both through the Equal programme in the Highlands & Islands as well as more recently in Active Citizens exchange work, with Slovakia, through the British Council.  He was awarded an MBE in the 2011 New Year Honours List, the same year that Third Sector Hebrides was recognised as Scottish Charity of the Year.

Duncan Osler, Partner, MacRoberts LLP

Duncan is a lawyer, qualified as a solicitor in Scotland and in England and Wales. Since 2004 he has been a Partner with MacRoberts LLP, where he heads the Public Sector & Government Group. He has spent over ten years advising on a variety of government contracting and he is accredited by the Law Society of Scotland as a specialist in Public Procurement Law. With MacRoberts, Duncan advises many public sector bodies in procuring what they need, ranging from hospitals, schools and other buildings to body armour, satellite dishes and the like. His procurement expertise also includes advising bidders trying to win competitive tenders and using their remedies to challenge breaches of the procurement rules, on shared service and other collaborations, state aids and the use of community benefit clauses. Duncan has advised on the public procurement aspects of a number of regeneration schemes and, as a member of the Procurement Lawyers Association he led a PLA working group producing (in July 2009) a paper on public procurement and land development schemes after the landmark European Court judgment in Auroux v Roanne.

Craig Sanderson, Chief Executive, Link Group

Craig was conceived in Auchterarder, born in Worthing and grew up in Rothesay. He has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Edinburgh. He joined Link in 1975 as Administrative Assistant and progressed to become Director (then Chief Executive) in 1987. Link is one of Scotland's largest RSLs operating in 26 local authority areas with over 6000 social rented houses and providing management/factoring services to more than 3000 customers. It develops 100 new homes each year. The Link group comprises the parent company (Link Group Ltd.) and a number of subsidiaries including Link Housing Association, Linkwide, Horizon Housing, LinkLiving and Larkfield Housing Association. Link has pioneered several initiatives during its 48-year history, including co-ownership, shared ownership, supported accommodation in 'ordinary housing', student flats, self-build, a Foyer, a dental surgery and - most recently - LIFT. Having become active in community regeneration projects, Link is supporting the establishment of social enterprises and local development trusts.

Louise Scott, Director, Mediaco-op

Louise is a director and founder member of workers' co-operative mediaco-op, an ethical company specialising in film production and media training with the third sector. Before setting up mediaco-op Louise was a freelance consultant to media organisations, from broadcasters to screen agencies, specialising in post-16 education, training, equality and social inclusion. As a former Director of the audio-visual industry’s Sector Skills Council, Skillset, Louise worked in partnership with trade unions, employers, trade associations and local and national government across the UK nations and regions developing strategies for skills development and employment. She spent 6 years working in Brussels both inside the European Commission and latterly as a lobbyist on arts and heritage and had a stint as an archaeologist in Iraq, prior to that. She has an MBA from the Open University and MA from Cambridge and is a member of the Glasgow Children's Panel, a Befriender and former Board Member of Equality Network, Glasgay and Glasgow Film Theatre.

Brian Weaver, CEO, Highland and Islands Social Enterprise Zone

Brian Weaver was appointed CEO of HISEZ in July 2008. He graduated from Stirling University in 1975 and worked for a multi-national pharmaceutical company before falling in love with the Highlands and one of its natives. He then found himself paying the mortgage by working for 20 years in the finance industry, 3 years as a partner in a small specialist sawmill and 5 years as Business Starts Manager in Highlands and Islands Enterprise. He brings to HISEZ a wide experience of private sector management and finance which is combined with knowledge of social enterprise gained by 10 years in Alness Credit Union. He is still married to the same Highland native and has one son.