• Gerry Conaghan

Gerry is an accountant and worked for many years with a retail company before becoming self employed in 2006. He has been involved with charities since about 2000 and currently treasurer of two charities and a Credit Union. Over the years he has completed lots of funding applications for various charities and really enjoys helping charities and find the work very rewarding.

In his spare time he likes to go walking, play golf, read and watch sport. He is fortunate to have a clear view of Ben Nevis from his home and have managed to climb it twice and hope to climb some other local mountains in the coming years.

• Callum Farquhar

Callum Farquhar is employed by Fife Council's Funding & Monitoring Team and is responsible for European Funding and ensuring best value from the £14million a year that the Council grants annually to voluntary organisations. He chairs the Scottish Committee of the EU YOUTH grants programme and is a member of an Advisory Group for the European Social Fund in Scotland.

As a volunteer, Callum is involved with an active Explorer Scout Unit and has led over 100 youth exchanges throughout the world. He is responsible for Adult Training for the Scouts in the East of Scotland and enjoys hillwalking, caving, skiing, mountain biking and hovercrafting!

• Andrew Guest

Andrew Guest was born and brought up in Edinburgh and has over 30 years experience of working in museums, galleries, arts development trusts and environmental organisations in England, Scotland and Wales. He has run exhibition and event programmes, commissioned artists and designers, published books and magazines and directed and managed an architecture centre. He has written extensively about art, architecture and culture and continues to contribute articles and reviews to magazines and web-sites.

Andrew is particularly interested in the social, economic, cultural and environmental aspects of sustainability, and the potential of the voluntary sector as an agent for sustainable development. He works as a volunteer on several projects promoting different aspects of sustainable living in the Edinburgh area. He also likes growing food, cooking, listening to music, making ceramics, singing and travelling.

• Gayle Johnston

After graduating with an Economics degree from the University of Aberdeen in 2008, Gayle undertook a placement through Project Scotland at an extreme sports centre and now works for CLAN, a cancer support charity in Aberdeen, as a Trust Fundraiser.

Gayle has volunteered with various organisations over the years including Save the Children, British Red Cross and Madventurer. This included working and travelling around East Africa and USA and she will continue to explore the world to experience new cultures and languages.

Gayle’s overall ambition is to work in International Development and is excited about her future career path.

In her spare time, she enjoys singing, dancing and walking, and loves a good cup of tea!

• Lorna MacDonald

Lorna’s work in communities happened more by chance than conscious choice after applying for an administrative assistants post with Craigend Resource Centre, Greenock in 1995, a role which fitted around her childcare requirements. Since then Lorna has worked in various Community Development type roles in Inverclyde and Argyll, supporting voluntary management committees, parents and adult learners in varied sectors from voluntary organisations to further education and a local authority.

As a self confessed ‘serial learner’ Lorna has studied in various areas including Accounts, Public Administration and Community Learning & Development, graduating from University of Glasgow in 2006 having been supported through Inverclyde Community Apprenticeship Programme. Lorna currently manages Inverclyde Carers Centre and is involved in Partners Scotland a voluntary group which uses Training for Transformation to help others working in community settings to develop.

• Vanessa Paynton

Vanessa has worked in a range of roles within the arts in Scotland since graduating with a Film and Sociology degree in 1993.  She enjoys supporting arts education and working to develop creative partnerships within film, design and most recently storytelling. She is particularly interested in the changes that creative opportunities can make to individuals and communities.

Vanessa lives with her three children and husband in Stirlingshire. In her spare time she enjoys reading, the cinema and walking.  Vanessa has completed the Caledonian Challenge in June 2010.

• Frances Simpson

Frances has worked in the voluntary sector for twenty years, mainly in the field of social care, mixed with policy and communications work, with training and community development being the main threads that link all of her experience together. Providing emotional support to individuals who were in crisis or in distress was my starting point and I both delivered this support and developed a range of support services including establishing the Dundee Carers Centre, the Dundee Young Carers Partnership and the Dundee Direct Payments Support Service.

In 2010, following being made redundant from a national policy and communications role with a large national charity, Fances started working as an independent coach and trainer with a new social enterprise consultancy called Just the Business providing business support coaching and mentoring to mainly third sector organisations. Other work recently has included working with Dundee Voluntary Action to help local voluntary agencies develop capacity; and with the Scottish Consortium for Learning Disabilities to identify and engage participants in a web based project around Citizen Leadership.

Frances has lived in and around Dundee all of my life except for my time at the University of St Andrews. Frances is married with two adult children who have chosen to leave the tranquillity of rural Scotland to live in Surrey, and as a way of relaxing she indulges in long distance running.

• David Sinclair

David joined the Foundation’s team of Volunteer Grants Assessors in January 2010. He is a company secretary by profession and is currently Secretary to the Board of NHS 24. He has previously worked in the company secretariats of Scottish Power plc and HBOS plc (where he acted as secretary to the HBOS Foundation). He has also been a Volunteer Adviser with East Kilbride Citizens Advice Bureau.

David is a music fanatic and spends his spare time going to concerts and playing the piano. He is also attempting to relearn the double bass, and has recently joined an amateur orchestra.

• Liz Stewart

Having started her career working in IT public relations within large agencies in London, a move to Scotland in 1998 meant a dramatic change in lifestyle, from urban to rural living. Liz now works as a Fundraising & Communications Manager for an environmental charity in Edinburgh, specialising in raising funds for community greenspace projects and making links between quality local environments and mental and physical well-being.

She is actively involved in her local community through voluntary roles in a wide variety of different groups, including local film society, village gala and community newsletter and during her spare time, enjoys walking in the countryside and attempting to grow vegetables. She lives in East Lothian with her husband, two teenage daughters, three cats, dog and rabbit.