National Park welcomes new Board members

The National Park Authority Board is responsible for guiding strategic decision making for the National Park and has an important role to play in ensuring the National Park Authority delivers its key aims.

Appointments to the National Park Board are:

Claire Chapman: A specialist at dealing with environmental regulatory and compliance issues. She works for Scottish Water with responsibilities for the operation and maintenance of renewable assets, and dealing with contractors to ensure that turbines generate as they should. She is experienced at engaging with landowners, regulators and other stakeholders, and is a regular speaker at renewable energy events.  Ms Chapman is also a Director of the Scottish Canoe Association.

Sarah Drummond: Sarah co-founded service design specialists Snook, MyPolice, CycleHack, Dearest Scotland, Alloa Pride and The Matter. She has experience supporting organisations in the public, private and third sector to deliver better services by transforming how they work, involving citizens in co-design of services and bringing digital practices to the fore to change how organisations deliver. Ms Drummond has worked on tourism projects around Edinburgh festivals, research into digitising the planning process and running innovative events with partners like The Data Lab in Scotland. Ms Drummond also runs CycleHack which supports multi-disciplinary teams in local areas to reduce barriers to cycling and co-design solutions together.

Ronnie Erskine: Ronnie brings a breadth of finance, audit and risk management experience to this role from various public bodies. This includes almost 20 years working in finance and corporate roles, within local government with responsibility for up to 200 staff and projects of up to £200m. Mr Erskine worked for three years in the Department for International Development, heading the finance profession and overseeing a budget of £6bn. Recently, he worked in the education sector in finance roles where he has designed and implemented a new system of risk management. In a voluntary capacity, he chaired CIPFA in Scotland, the chartered public finance accountancy body and currently chairs the parent body at the local school his children attend.

Dr Heather Reid: A science education consultant and former weather forecaster with the Met Office and BBC Scotland. She led the introduction of an outdoor activities weather forecast on television and regularly hill walks and mountain bikes within the National Park. She brings over 25 years’ experience in public science engagement and outreach, especially in environmental sciences. Dr Reid was previously Chair of the Institute of Physics in Scotland, and was a Trustee at Glasgow Science Centre for 10 years. She sits on several STEM Education advisory committees and works closely with the education sector and industry.

Professor Christopher Spray: A Senior Research Fellow at University of Dundee, Christopher’s work and research focusses on water and wetlands, habitat restorations and natural flood risk management. Working with Tweed Forum and Scottish Borders Council, he developed the Framework for Delivery of the Scottish Governments Land Use Strategy pilot in the Borders.

The appointments are for a minimum of four years and will commence on 1 November 2018 and end on 31 October 2022.

Convener of Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park Board, James Stuart said: “We are delighted to welcome these five new members to the Board. It’s an absolute privilege to contribute to the safekeeping of this special place, so I congratulate them all on their successful appointments.

“Board members play a crucial role in helping to steer the strategic direction of the National Park. With their varied and diverse areas of expertise, these new members will make a crucial contribution to our decision-making process.

“I look forward to working with them over the next four years to continue making Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park a great place to live, work and visit.”

The announcement by Minister for Rural Affairs and the Natural Environment, Mairi Gougeon MSP can be found on the Public Appointments website.

You can find out more of the role of the Board on our Board and Committees web pages.