Aideen McGinley OBE
Albert Tucker
Dr Colin Firth
Fiona Robertson
George Murray
Jane Livingstone
Janet McCauslin
Megan Mathias
Mike Reid
Professor Mark Shucksmith OBE
Sir John Elvidge
Chair
William Perrin
William Thomson CBE
President
Willie Campbell
Aideen McGinley OBE
Aideen is a Carnegie UK Trustee and chair of the Enabling Wellbeing in Northern Ireland advisory group. She was appointed to the National Trust’s Board of Trustees in September 2019. A former National Trustee on the BBC Trust, She has over 37 years’ local and central government experience in Northern Ireland including CEO in local government in Fermanagh and Permanent Secretary in the newly devolved central government in 1999 when She established the first Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure and then moved to the Department of Employment and Learning . Reflecting her interest in regeneration she took up a secondment in 2009 as CEO of ILEX, the urban regeneration company for Derry-Londonderry, where she was instrumental in building the £14m symbolic Peace Bridge and successfully securing the inaugural and transformational UK City of Culture 2013 title for the city.
She was chair of Galway European capital of culture 2020 and is member of the DCMS Advisory Committee for UK City of Culture. With a degree in Environmental Science and Masters in Social Policy Administration and Planning her areas of interest and expertise include Wellbeing, Community Planning and Co-production . She facilitates Whole Systems thinking and Stakeholder Engagement with Future Search Philadelphia She holds and has held a number of other voluntary positions in local and national charities Including the NI advisory committee of Historic Royal palaces and Vice Chair of the Fermanagh Trust.
Aideen was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Millennium honours list, an honorary doctorate from the University of Ulster , honorary membership of the Royal Society of Ulster Architects and A Heart for Habitat for Humanity Award in 2018 .
Albert Tucker
Albert has a track record of building strong values and ethics-based organisations while matching the innovation, quality, skills and efficiency of the best in any sector that he is active in. He has a long-term interest in developing safer, stronger and sustainable communities and has served as a Board member of Places for People – the UK’s largest housing and regeneration group – since June 2005. Albert has held a range of non-executive posts including at Comic Relief where he has been the chair of the International Committee for over 10 years.
Dr Colin Firth
Born in the Fife mining village of Ballingry, Colin was brought up in Dunfermline. He qualified from Edinburgh University as a Doctor of Medicine in 1979 and went on to complete GP training and MRCGP in 1983. He then spent a year working in Paediatrics in Newfoundland and Labrador for the Grenfell Regional Health Service. On his return to Scotland he became a partner in his former training practice in Rosyth where he remained a GP for thirty-two years.
During his tenure the practice was noted for its innovative developments informed by health needs assessment and planning. Colin was a prime mover in the development of Dunfermline Local Healthcare Cooperative and the transition to Community Health Partnership. He was awarded FRCGP in 2000. In 2003 he became a GP Specialist in Addictions, working part-time with Fife NHS Addiction Service until his retiral from medical practice in 2016.
Colin is married to Lynne and they have two children and two grandchildren. He was a warranted Scout Leader from 1986 until 2012 and awarded the Silver Acorn for distinguished service to Scouting. He continues to act as Duke of Edinburgh Award co-ordinator for a local Scout Group. He is a Munroist, keen alpine skier, fly fisher and keeps fit through golf and walking football.
Colin became a Trustee of the Carnegie Dunfermline Trust and Hero Fund in 2017 and was nominated to join the Carnegie UK Trust in 2020.
Fiona Robertson
Fiona has been a Trustee of the Carnegie Dunfermline and Hero Fund Trusts since 2005 with a particular interest in the work of the Hero Fund. She is a Physiotherapist who has worked clinically in the NHS in Scotland and England and also in Australia, specialising in Neurological Rehabilitation. MSc Rehabilitation studies funded by Department of Health (1993). Previously Research Physiotherapist employed by the University of Oxford. Fiona was formerly Physiotherapy lecturer at Queen Margaret University Edinburgh. Fiona has been Deputy Lieutenant of Fife since 2007 and Vice Lord-Lieutenant of Fife since 2015.
George Murray
George has been involved in Community Education for over 20 years, he worked for Fife Council as a Community Learning and Development Worker with a specific remit for delivering informal learning opportunities to young people across Fife. George managed a team of youth workers and young volunteers on various projects that improved the quality of life for young people in their respective communities. George has a particular interest in enabling young people to develop a strong voice through youth forums and to be active in the local and national decision making process.
In his spare time George is actively involved in the Music industry, he plays in various bands, assists in the organisation of an Arts Festival in Fife and has his own music management company looking after a local band developing their career. George is also a trustee of The Dunfermline Carnegie Trust , the chair of Youth1st and on the board of The Nicola Murray Foundation
Jane Livingstone
Jane Livingstone is a playwright and screenwriter and has been a trustee of the Carnegie UK Trust for 5 years. She also publishes online culture magazine Avocado Sweet and provides copywriting and content strategy services to a wide range of freelance clients. Jane lives in Dunfermline where she is in involved in various civic and cultural projects including being a trustee of the Carnegie Dunfermline Trust and a founding partner of Outwith Festival.
Janet McCauslin
Janet has dedicated her life to education, initially within Fife and latterly a strategic national position for which her current role is Senior Innovation Manager with Skills Development Scotland. After beginning her career as a primary school teacher, Janet worked at Lauder, Carnegie College, and Fife College, developing an expertise in a diverse portfolio of responsibilities and for almost 20 years held a Senior Management position and responsibility for all curriculum, partnerships, policy and strategy development. Her current role now involves the design and development of work-based learning degree pathways ( Graduate Apprenticeships), with universities across Scotland. Janet was awarded the MBE in 2007 for her services to education in Fife.
Hobbies include 3 gorgeous grandchildren!, walking, gardening and reading when time permits. Janet is a Church of Scotland Elder, and holds a number of voluntary roles in her church as well as her role as a Trustee of the Carnegie Dunfermline Trust and the Carnegie UK Trust.
Megan Mathias
Megan is a Senior Research Fellow in the newly-established Wales Centre for Public Policy, Cardiff University. She is also completing a PhD on leadership and sensemaking in government.
Megan’s earlier professional career was established with two sector-leading companies, PA Consulting Group and Serco. Between 1997 and 2005, she delivered successful client assignments for governments in the UK and USA, before becoming a director of Serco’s in-house think tank, The Serco Institute.
In 2006, Megan was approached to join the UK civil service as an interim Senior Civil Servant, working on public service reform and innovations in governance for the devolved Welsh Government. In 2010 she then co-founded and ran an independent research organisation, Kafka Brigade UK and Ireland – supporting the public sector to radically redesign and innovate services around the citizen.
Between 2013 and 2017, Megan lived and worked in the Middle East. She continued as an Associate for the Kafka Brigade UK, before taking a role in 2014 as a Senior Advisor for the New Zealand Government in the UAE, and then in 2015, joining the Mohammed bin Rashid School of Government in Dubai as a Research Fellow, specialising in strategic management and leadership.
Until her move to the Gulf, Megan also held advisory roles with Wales Public Services 2025 (a think-tank initiative she co-founded), SPICE (a time-banking social enterprise), the Equality and Human Rights Commission in Wales, and the Institute for Welsh Affairs – chairing its Cardiff and Valleys Branch (think-tank).
Megan is a Non-Resident Research Fellow for the Mohammed bin Rashid School of Government in Dubai; an Editorial Board Member of the International Journal of Public Leadership; and a Friend of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA).
Mike Reid
Mike’s career spans thirty years and has focused on the opportunities created by the convergence of technology, marketing and the transformative capabilities of digital. In January 2016 Mike retired as Managing Director at Sapient where he led the UK business from a start-up in 1998 to be recognised as the top digital agency by 2013.
Prior to Sapient Mike held various positions at Logica, playing a key role in establishing their Edinburgh office, and at ICL. Mike now has his own advisory business, Nine Patriots Consulting, which helps businesses grow and scale to the next level. In addition, he is an angel investor and plays a number of non-executive director roles including Chairman of the Scottish headquartered marketing agency Tayburn.
Outside of business, Mike serves as a Justice of the Peace in the Tayside, Central and Fife Sheriffdom.
Mike is a Trustee of the Carnegie Dunfermline and Hero Fund Trust, which was established by Andrew Carnegie in 1903, as well as being a Trustee of the Carnegie UK Trust. He lives in Dunfermline with his wife, Louise, has two children and will often be found on the golf course when not doing something useful.
Professor Mark Shucksmith OBE
Mark Shucksmith is Professor of Planning at Newcastle University, where he was also Director of the Institute for Social Renewal from 2012-18. His main areas of research include social exclusion in rural areas, rural housing, rural development and policy. Recent books include: Routledge International Handbook of Rural Studies (Routledge 2016); InterAction (Carnegie 2016); Rural Policies & Rural Transformations in the UK & US (Routledge 2012); Future Directions in Rural Development (Carnegie 2012); and Comparing Rural Development – Continuity and Change in the Countryside of Western Europe (Ashgate 2009). He has coordinated several EU research projects, including: The Territorial Impact of the CAP, Young People in Rural Development, and The role of Social Capital in Rural Development. Mark has recently served as Specialist Adviser to two House of Lords Select Committees, a role he previously performed in the Scottish Parliament. He served as a Board Member of the Commission for Rural Communities (CRC) from 2005-13, as a member of the DEFRA/CLG Affordable Rural Housing Commission (2005-06), and as Chair of the Scottish Government’s Committee of Inquiry into Crofting (2007-08) as well as directing the Joseph Rowntree Foundation Action in Rural Areas programme. Mark was Vice President of the International Rural Sociological Association during 2004-08 and Programme Chair for the XI World Rural Sociology Congress in Trondheim, Norway in 2004. He was awarded the honour of OBE in 2009 for services to rural development and to crofting. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and a Trustee of ACRE (Action with Communities in Rural England).
Chair
Sir John Elvidge
Sir John Elvidge was Permanent Secretary to the Scottish Government from 2003 to 2010. He had previously worked in the Cabinet Office and the Scottish Office and works in an advisory role with the OECD and with several governments in Europe, China and North America. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, an Adjunct Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and works with the University of Oxford on programmes for leadership and public policy for overseas governments. Sir John was appointed as a Carnegie Fellow on the Enabling State project in the summer of 2012 and has led our work in this area. He became a Trustee of the Carnegie UK Trust in May 2014 and became Chair in May 2017. He has also been Chair of Edinburgh Airport Ltd since 2012, Chair of the Advisory Board for the University of Glasgow’s Policy Scotland Institute since 2012, Chair of the Traverse Theatre since 2014 and Chair of the David Hume Institute since 2015.
William Perrin
William is a strategic practitioner and advisor at the interface of technology, the state and the voluntary sector. He is a trustee of several charities, the founder of tech start-ups and a community activist.
In a wide ranging public service career, which included being an advisor to Tony Blair, William was instrumental in creating OFCOM, reforming the regulatory regime of several sectors and kicking off the UK government’s interest in open data. William founded community journalism start-up Talk About Local in 2012.
William is a trustee of Good Things Foundation, Indigo Trust, The Philanthropy Workshop and 360Giving, a charity about charity data, which he co-founded. William also set up a successful broadband campaign and company to bring connectivity to rural parts of South Oxfordshire.
William is non-partisan and has advised the two major political parties in the UK. He has been active in London’s challenging Kings Cross community for many years, long before the partial gentrification though he now has a more rural focus living part time on a remote farm in the Chiltern Hills.
President
William Thomson CBE
William Thomson, great grandson of Scots American philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie, previous Chair of the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust and now our Honorary President. Formerly in shipping, now a director of retail and publishing companies.
Willie Campbell
Willie qualified in 1977 as a secondary teacher of Music, being appointed in 2000 as Head Teacher. Although a secondary teacher he worked briefly as a visiting teacher of music in Primary Schools in Islay and Jura while Assistant Head Teacher of Islay High School.
Willie joined Falkirk Education Headquarters in 2003, initially to oversee the implementation of the McCrone Report, and remained in the Resources section there until he accepted an offer of early retirement in 2010. In this post he worked across all sectors of education dealing with staffing and financial planning issues.
Willie became involved with the Carnegie “family” when he served as a Fife Councillor and in that role, as a trustee of the Dunfermline Trust. During his time with the Council he chaired the Superannuation Fund Subcommittee and Planning Review, and had particular responsibility for a major programme of Early Years development with a strong focus on Family Nurture, and chaired the Corporate Parent Board. He has continued to take a close interest in family issues and parenting as chair of the Fathers Network Scotland.
As well as being Assistant Organist in the Abbey Church of Dunfermline, and a longstanding member (and occasionally MD) of the Dunfermline Gilbert and Sullivan Society, he is taking up his baton as Musical Director of the Kingdom Singers.