ERSKINE - Key Persons
Alison has been with Erskine since August 2011 where she started her time as House Manager of Rothesay Wing and in March 2012 she was promoted to the post of Home Manager. Prior to joining Erskine Alison worked for several years as a Unit Manager for a Bupa Care Home and prior to this managed a nursing agency with Advantage Healthcare and Bupa Healthcare Professionals.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Senior Management Team
- Director of Care
Prior to joining Erskine in June 2016, Derek worked in NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde, NHS Orkney and NHS Ayrshire & Arran. Latterly he was Lead Nurse/ Associate Nurse Director in North Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership. Derek is also on the Nursing and Midwifery Council Professional Strategic Advisory Group and on the Editorial Board of the British Journal of Mental Health Nursing.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Senior Management Team
- Head of Facilities and Support Services
Dougie joined the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in 1988 and served for 22 years in various environments, reaching the rank of WO1.
On leaving the army he joined the Ayrshire Hospice as Facilities Manager and spent 7 years there gaining certified membership of BIFM before taking up post as Head of Facilities and Support Services at Erskine in November 2017.
In his spare time Dougie enjoys most sports, especially golf and football.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees
- Trustee
After studying Forensic & Analytical Chemistry at the University of Strathclyde, Craig subsequently obtained a PhD from Durham University. He then spent a number of years working in executive search and recruitment in the scientific industry, before choosing to pursue a career in fundraising. Craig has held senior leadership roles in leading UK universities, health charities and independent schools where his experience has extended to marketing, student recruitment, communications, fundraising and bespoke events.
In 2019 Craig began working with FJ Philanthropy Ltd, a boutique consultancy business, founded by his brother.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees
- Registered Nurse
- Trustee
Jane is a Registered Nurse and has had a varied and diverse nursing career. Working in the NHS initially and moving to work in Jersey in the Channel Islands, her interest was in acute nursing. Moving back to Scotland Jane began her first post as a Staff Nurse in a care home; after six months she became a Care Home Manager with a Registered Charity and continued to work in leadership positions in care homes. Jane then moved to work in Social Work initially as the Group Manager for Social Care and Health, and became Principal Assistant with Scottish Borders Council where she was the strategic lead and lead commissioner for older people, people living with dementia, and people living with physical disabilities. Following her role with the Local Authority, Jane moved back to care homes, and was the Chief Executive Officer for a registered charity in the Scottish Borders, where she led on a new design and development for small care houses to support people who are living with dementia. Jane led the organisation to achieve Investors in People silver accreditation along with winning the Scottish Care Award for Care Home Provider of the Year 2019 & 2020.
In 2019, Jane was awarded the Queen's Nurse title. Jane follows a rights-based approach to care, support and leadership based around Self-determination Theory.
Alison has been with Erskine since August 2011 where she started her time as House Manager of Rothesay Wing and in March 2012 she was promoted to the post of Home Manager. Prior to joining Erskine Alison worked for several years as a Unit Manager for a Bupa Care Home and prior to this managed a nursing agency with Advantage Healthcare and Bupa Healthcare Professionals.
Gordon Johnston is the Erskine Care at Home Service Pilot Manager. He trained as a Registered Nurse in Glasgow, qualifying in 1986. After several years working in acute NHS settings, Gordon moved into Elderly Care in 1996. He was the Manager of Sir Gabriel Wood's Mariner's Home in Greenock (a charitable Home for elderly merchant sailors) for six years, before becoming the Manager of Flanders House for ex-Servicemen, operated by the Earl Haig Fund Scotland. When Flanders House closed in 2005, Gordon transferred to Erskine and was the Erskine Glasgow Home Manager until its eventual closure in 2022. He is now responsible for the market research evaluation and development of a project to deliver Erskine quality care into people's own homes in the community.
Job Titles:
- Deputy Head of Marketing and Communications CIPR
My role is to be the strategic lead on the protection and promotion of the Erskine brand, and to continue to challenge the status quo in regards to the digital transition of all public relations and marketing activities. Technology led, and with a firm focus on people and collaboration, I head up a team of highly skilled marketing and communication professionals, dedicated to ensuring that Erskine's key message of "Futures for the Brave" resonates with Veterans and donors across Scotland - the UK, and beyond.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Senior Management Team
- Director of Strategic ( Finance and Business ) Planning
Joining Erskine during 2020 as Director of Strategic (Finance and Business) Planning, Gregor is responsible for ensuring Erskine delivers and grows financially sustainable, and relevant social impact to the ex-Forces community.
Previously, Gregor worked in Deloitte's UK corporate finance and external audit practices across the corporate and non-profit sectors, and later served in financial and commercial leadership roles with Angkor Hospital for Children a health care non-profit based in Cambodia.
Gregor graduated from the University of Strathclyde in 2009, qualified with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS) in 2012. Gregor was the recipient of The ICAS OneYoungCA President's award in 2018 for his work at AHC and graduated from a Master's degree in social innovation with the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge during 2020.
Gregor is passionate about building effective mission driven organisations through an approach which incorporates commerce, rigor and ambition.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive
- Member of the Senior Management Team
Wing Commander Ian Cumming served in the Royal Air Force Regiment for 27 years - providing safe homes and support to the deployed British Armed Forces, around the world. He left the military to become Director of Communications & Development for a mental health & social care charity. He also served as a Director and Trustee of Vale House Oxford - a specialist dementia care home. He joined Erskine having been Deputy Managing Director of a large UK commercial care company. He is delighted to once again be heading a multi-specialist team that provides safe homes and support for Veterans of all ages and their families - who are facing challenges of a different sort, post-Service. You can follow Ian on Twitter @IanCMBE
Job Titles:
- HR Manager
- Chartered Member of CIPD
Karen is a Chartered Member of CIPD and joined Erskine in October 2007 as an HR Advisor. In April 2014 Karen was promoted to HR Manager overseeing a department of five employees and the Erskine Reid Macewen Training and Conference Centre. Prior to joining Erskine, Karen held HR positions within the NHS and Babcock Naval Services.
Job Titles:
- Chartered Accountant
- Member of the Board of Trustees
- Trustee
Ken is a Chartered Accountant and joined the Board of Trustees in 2022 having been co-opted onto the Audit Committee in the previous year. Ken retired from EY (Ernst & Young) having spent 34 years in the audit / assurance practice in Glasgow and London where he served a wide range of private and quasi-public entities including a number of charitable bodies. Nowadays Ken is involved in a number of national and local charities and community organisations, in a variety of roles including as Audit Committee chair, Treasurer and independent Examiner.
Lesley has over 30 years' experience of working in care homes. She initially worked as a care assistant whilst waiting to complete her nurse training. After qualifying as a nurse, Lesley worked in neurology and oncology in the NHS before returning to her preferred environment in the care home setting. She joined Erskine in 2010 as a House Manager in The Erskine Home and now considers it an honour to manage Erskine Park Home. Lesley is passionate about the Care Erskine provides. Lesley was awarded the Queen's Nurse title in 2018 giving her the opportunity to champion Care Home Nursing as a positive career pathway.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees
A newspaper, radio & television journalist for 40 years, Mike Edwards was the nightly face of the Scottish News on STV for more than quarter of a century. He is an officer in the Army Reserve, having joined the Territorial Army in 1994, and as a Major in the Royal Highland Fusiliers, was mobilised to serve on operations in Iraq & Afghanistan.
Author of the novel ‘Friendly Fire' and autobiography ‘The Road Home,' he is currently working on new fiction and non-fiction projects.
When he retired from his media career to become a full-time carer for his mother Margaret, who had been diagnosed with dementia, he was appointed an ambassador for Alzheimer Scotland. Mike is passionate about helping people living with dementia and their families, and works to support military veterans as a caseworker for the armed forces charity SSAFA. He is also a trustee of the Royal Highland Fusiliers charity, the Highlanders Regimental Museum at Fort George and sits on the board of Crimestoppers Scotland.
He holds a BA degree in Sociology, a diploma in journalism and is a graduate of the British and Canadian Army staff colleges.
He is a Deputy Lieutenant of Dunbartonshire.
Mike was named Reservist of the Year in 2022 at the Scottish Veterans' Awards.
He was awarded the OBE for charitable and public service in the Queen's Platinum Jubilee birthday honours list in 2022.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees
- Trustee
Mark joined Glasgow Airport in 2004 after a number of roles working in the global semiconductor industry. He then went on to hold various positions within Glasgow Airport, including the Operations Director, before being appointed Managing Director in May 2018. Mark was appointed Chief Operating Officer of AGS Airports in November 2020. Mark has a BA Honours in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Heriot-Watt University and also an MBA from Glasgow University.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Finance & Performance Committee
Douglas joined the Board of Trustees in 2017. He has worked within NHS Scotland for almost 20 years, most recently as Director of Finance for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. Before entering the NHS, Douglas worked for nine years within the Defence Industry for Pilkington Optronics (formerly Barr and Stroud Ltd.). He trained as a Chartered Accountant and qualified in 1982, working for Peat Marwick Mitchell and Co (now KPMG) in Glasgow.
He is a non executive director of SHIL (Scottish Health Innovations Ltd) and is also Chairman of Shared Hope, a Scottish Charity which seeks to meet the needs of people in extreme poverty, working through small projects in different parts of the world.
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- Chairman of the Board of Trustees
Stuart retired in 2019 following a career in Facilities and Operational Management across a wide range of industry sectors, spending the last 11 years in a Director role with Babcock International Group based at HM Naval Base (Clyde), Faslane. He is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Staff Governance Committee
Lyndsay's NHS career started in 1987 when she joined as a National Management Trainee and rapidly moved into Human Resources. She worked in a variety of Organisational Development, Learning and HR roles in Scotland before being appointed Deputy Director of HR in Argyll & Clyde in 2003. From there Lyndsay moved to NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde working in the senior HR team for 13 years while also bringing up her family. In 2018 she moved to the Scottish Government as HR Adviser in the Workforce Directorate and spent a really enjoyable year supporting the national implementation of Values Based Recruitment and working in NHS Highland with the Executive Team on a number of projects including the initial response to the Sturrock Report.
In 2019 Lyndsay moved to the Scottish Ambulance Service as Director of Workforce and faced a whole new range of opportunities including a global pandemic.
She served as a Non-Executive Director of West College Scotland 2013-2108. In 2019 she was appointed as a Non-Executive trustee and chair of the Staff Governance Committee of Erskine, the Veterans charity.
Outside work and HR, Lyndsay loves reading and history, having trained as a History teacher when she left University. Lyndsay is particularly interested in family history and the calamitous 14th century which has many parallels with the 20th century and the times we are living through now.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees
- Trustee
- Registered Mental Health Nurse
Maria is a Registered Mental Health Nurse and her professional career has been dedicated to caring and treating people with mental illness, either through nursing or via cognitive behavioural psychotherapy. She moved from frontline clinical practice to management and leadership roles which have spanned both North and South of the border, holding senior posts in a number of Boards in NHS Scotland. She supports work commissioned via Scottish Government and has studied at both Dundee and Queen Margaret Universities. Maria is the Executive Director of Nursing and care at NHS 24.
Job Titles:
- Registered Nurse
- Depute Director of Care
Pauline is a registered nurse with over 26 years' experience. After qualifying in 1990 Pauline worked in Care of the Elderly Assessment and Rehabilitation. With the closure of Bridge of Weir Hospital in 1999 Pauline assisted in the opening of the Larkfield Unit in Greenock and delivered care in the Acute Stroke Ward. She joined Erskine in 2003 as Night Response Sister and took up the post of House Manager within her first year. In 2007 Pauline became Practice Development Nurse Manager and in 2011 joined the Clinical Governance and Quality Improvement Team.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Senior Management Team
Job Titles:
- Member of the Senior Management Team
- Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development
Sarah joined Erskine during 2020 as the Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development. Sarah is responsible for leading the HR and OD function as well as our in-house Occupational Health service; IT department, Volunteers and our flagship Erskine Reid Macewan Activities Centre.
Sarah started her career in the Royal Navy working in ‘personnel' where she served for seven years. Since then she has gained a further 20 plus years' experience at Senior HR level working in the Social Housing and Care sector. In addition to her post at Erskine, Sarah is a Board Trustee of The Mungo Foundation who deliver care and support to vulnerable people in the West of Scotland and is also Chair of their Workforce and Organisational Development Committee.
Job Titles:
- Information Technology Manager
Bill joined the Army in 1977 and went on to serve 10 years with the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards. Bill came to Erskine in 1996 initially as a disabled veteran but with Erskine's support took the opportunity to retrain in IT networking and went on to implement Erskine's first computer network. Bill is now Erskine's IT Manager and a member of the British Computer Society and Chartered IT Professional as well as a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer and is responsible for all data and network security and services across all Erskine sites.