Antonia Swinson, Chief Executive

Antonia Swinson joined SSEC in November 2005. She is an award-winning business journalist who has written for both UK & Scottish national newspapers, including the Sunday and Daily Express and a weekly business column in Scotland on Sunday. A long standing champion of social enterprise, she has also been involved at policy formation at senior level. Antonia is a former Chairman of the Society of Authors in Scotland and has written five books including 'Root of all Evil?' on business and ethics. She is an executive board member of the Centre for Theology & Public Issues at Edinburgh University.

Donna Ferguson, Operations Manager

Donna graduated with a first class honours degree in Business and Information Management in 2003 from Glasgow Caledonian University. She then worked as a Marketing and Outreach Coordinator with a local economic development company in Glasgow, before moving to Oban, joining the Nàdair team, in 2004 where she was the Senior Project Officer for a £4.2million Landscape Partnership Scheme in Argyll. In 2007 she moved to Edinburgh to join SSEC as Operations Manager, responsible for finance, communications, events management and to develop the Coalition as a well run and sustainable organisation. Her interest in Social Enterprise has developed over the past couple of years and she was involved in setting up a Social Enterprise in Argyll.

David Ogilvie, Parliamentary & Communications Officer

David is currently on a secondment from the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) which he joined in 2006, and where he is now part of their Good Practice team with responsibility for a number of policy areas including housing support and care, community regeneration and community planning. David has a broad background in social housing, having worked with Refugee Housing Association in London and Dunedin Housing Association in Edinburgh, before joining East Lothian Council in 2000 as a Strategic Policy Officer. More recently, he was a Senior Consultant with DTZ working on a range of projects across the UK and then also an independent housing policy consultant. He was attracted to the role due to a long-standing interest in politics and social policy. As Parliamentary & Communications Officer, David will be responsible for establishing and maintaining relationships with key stakeholders within the parliament and the Coalition.

Kate Walshaw, Administrator

Kate joined the SSEC in November 2007 as Administrator, responsible for membership, administering events and MSP visits, 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.

Chair: Laurie Russell, Chief Executive of The WISE Group

Laurie Russell has been the Chief Executive of the Wise Group since August 2006. The Wise Group is a social enterprise, set up in 1983, whose main purpose is to help unemployed people into sustainable employment in Scotland and NE England. Its annual turnover is over £21 million (€30 million) a year and it employs 420 full-time staff. In 2007 the Wise Group worked with over 11,000 clients and through its employability projects 3,653 long-term unemployed people secured jobs. From 1989 to 2006, he was Chief Executive of Strathclyde European Partnership Ltd, the public sector company that managed European Structural Funds Programmes in Western Scotland. The Programmes invested over €1,500m of European funds in economic development projects and played a significant role in the economic and social regeneration of Glasgow and the surrounding region.

Prior to 1989, Laurie was employed by the Chief Executive's Department of Strathclyde Regional Council and led a community regeneration initiative in Faifley, Clydebank in the early 1980s. Laurie is currently the Chair of the Scottish Social Enterprise Coalition, the members led organisation, which champions social enterprise to policy and decision makers and other stakeholders in Scotland.

Vice Chair: Gerry Higgins, Chief Executive, CEiS

Gerry is the current Chief Executive Officer at CEiS leading a team of 81 people to provide business advice to social enterprises and support the social economy in Scotland. CEiS delivers innovative employability solutions through outreach teams and Childcare Works, manages a range of social economy support programmes and through DSL provides business finance to social enterprises and SME's.

Gerry was previously the founding CEO at Social Firms UK from 1999 to 2006 and he was a founding director of the Social Enterprise Coalition and worked with the DTI in developing the Social Enterprise Strategy. Prior to this Gerry spent time working to develop innovative training and employment services for the NHS and voluntary sector organisations.

Gerry is a director of the Scottish Credit Union Development Agency, Childcare Works Ltd, the Scottish Social Enterprise Coalition, Social Ventures Scotland, DSL Business Finance and CEiS Ayrshire in addition to advisory roles with Boards in Scotland, England and Australia. One of his particular interests is micro credit and finance to enable enterprises and communities to grow and develop.

Treasurer: Douglas Westwater, 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 currently co-directs Community Enterprise Limited, an organisation which has been involved in social enterprise development for 18 years.

Tracy Axten, Director of Community Banking, Royal Bank of Scotland

Tracy works with a wide range of organisations that are developing sustainable approaches to meeting social, economic and environmental needs in areas suffering from multiple deprivation. Working in partnership with these 'community anchor' organisations through her relationships with key sector National Associations, she is able to gain an understanding of how their enterprising solutions with social objectives are making a difference to community and economic development.

Her specific area of interest is social enterprise and she is committed to understanding how the Bank could play a greater role in supporting the growth and sustainability of the broader 'third sector'. Tracy is a board director of Key Fund (South Yorkshire) Ltd and the Development Trust Association, a judge of Enterprising Solutions Awards and sits on the Scottish Social Economy Advisory Board. She is also a graduate of Common Purpose.

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.

As well as being a Board member of the Scottish Social Enterprise Coalition, Pauline is a also a Board member of Highlands & Islands Social Enterprise Zone (HISEZ), the first CIC established in Scotland. She also co-authored a new publication: Buying for Good - Housing Associations, Social Firms and Community Benefits. She has 3 main passions in life: her family, social enterprise and football.

David Herd, Loans and Investment Manager, Social Investment Scotland

David, a native of Edinburgh, joined Social Investment Scotland (SIS) in January 2002 following early retirement after 37 years of working with Bank of Scotland. His banking career covered a diverse range of activities but the major part concentrated on Branch Management, focussing latterly, specifically on Business lending and sales to a specific business customer portfolio.

Social Investment Scotland was established in late 2001 to address access to loan finance where this was not obtainable from normal commercial sources and to encourage development/growth of CDFI across Scotland whilst influencing culture change from Grant reliance.

David is on the Board of CDFA (currently Vice Chair), SIS (Community Finance) Ltd, and SIS (Futurebuilders) Ltd, - the lending/investment arms of SIS, and two regional CDFI in Scotland.

Naomi Johnson, Executive Director, Firstport

Naomi joined Firstport in January 2007 as its first Executive Director. Having started her career as Operations Manager in a recycling based social enterprise back in 1996 Naomi has experienced first-hand issues in winning and sustaining new business growth. She moved on to the Community Recycling Network (CRN) UK where she set up a variety of work programmes for waste recycling projects including establishing business support services alongside a £35million lottery scheme, developing support programmes in four English Regional Development Areas and researching and designing a "Measure Your Treasure" evaluation programme for recycling, reuse projects.

Naomi has an MBA (Masters in Business Administration) from Cranfield University. Passionate about social enterprise yet keen to see organisations develop effectively and professionally, Naomi aims to combine her knowledge and experience while maintaining a grassroots and community level approach in the provision of support and advice. Outside of Firstport, Naomi is a keen cyclist and keenish runner with Lands End to John O'Groats and the Edinburgh marathon as her top achievements in these fields.

Izzie Johnston, Executive Director, Spruce Carpets

Izzie Johnston graduated in 2000 with a BSc (Hons) in Zoology from Glasgow University. With an interest in improving the sustainability of the UK and Scotland in particular, Izzie spent several years working for conservation organisations and running recycling and environmental projects. It was the short-term nature of these programmes which inspired Izzie to become part of the social economy movement.

Previously a director on the board of Spruce Carpets, Izzie joined as the CEO in November 2006. Since then Izzie has enhanced her skills, understanding and expertise in running and leading a small social enterprise and has a first-hand experience of the difficulties in making them succeed.

Izzie is dedicated to local solutions to sustainability from within the social economy for long lasting positive change to communities. Izzie enjoys climbing large hills, particularly for the view at the top and is also partial to car boot camping and skiing.

Jim Lee, CMS

Jim Lee represents the Co-operative Movement on the Scottish Social Enterprise Coalition board. Jim is secretary of Co-operation and Mutuality Scotland Ltd which is a strategic voice for the co-operative and mutual sector in Scotland. CMS works in partnership with other organisations to support the development of new and existing areas of co-operative and mutual enterprise including consumer co-operatives, worker co-operatives and employee-owned businesses, credit unions, housing co-ops and supporters' trusts. Co-operatives are based on the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity, and solidarity. In the tradition of their founders, co-operative members believe in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility, and caring for others.

Jim is chair of Co-operative Education Trust Scotland, a charitable trust for the promotion of co-operation and co-operative enterprise, through education within schools in Scotland. CETS operates a unique service to schools in Scotland called Co-operate to Succeed which works in partnership with the Determined to Succeed strategy of the Scottish government, to bring the unique attributes of a co-operative approach to enterprise in education. CETS also provide a wide range of resources, support and development for those interested in exploring the benefits of the co-operative approach within all aspects of education.

Jim is active in Scottish Co-op, the largest consumer co-op in Scotland which is part of the Co-operative Group. The family of business which operative within the group includes food retail; the Co-operative Bank; smile – the first full internet bank in the UK; Co-operative Insurance (CIS); Travelcare; Co-op Pharmacy and Co-operative Funeralcare.

Neal Mackay, Marketing and Communications Director of Forth Sector

Neal has overall responsibility for all marketing and communications functions within Forth Sector as well as representing Forth Sector Development, which offers business support services to organizations looking to develop social enterprise anywhere in the UK (and beyond). He was involved in the establishment of Social Enterprise Edinburgh, which Forth Sector operates as a member of the Local Social Economy Partnership, which also currently includes the City of Edinburgh Council, Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh and Lothian, Communities Scotland, the Capital City Partnership and EVOC. SEE has worked with over 300 organisations, at various stages of social enterprise development. Neal has been instrumental in developing the mentoring approach which characterises the work of Forth Sector Development and which focuses on building the trading capacity of organisations. He has also contributed to the creation of a range of tools tailored to assist organizations explore and build sustainable trading activity and deliver community benefit. Neal has also worked with organizations wishing to replicate successful businesses established by Forth Sector and delivered training in idea testing and marketing.

Suzanne Munday

Suzanne graduated from the University of Bradford with an honours degree in Peace Studies. This was rapidly followed by post graduate qualifications in communications, advertising and marketing and community education. This varied educational background led Suzanne to the voluntary sector where she has worked in a variety of posts for the past 18 years. For the last 7 years she has been employed as the manager of MECOPP (Minority Ethnic Carers of Older People Project) – a dedicated Minority Ethnic Carers Centre providing a range of services to Minority Ethnic carers in Edinburgh and the Lothians. During these 7 years MECOPP has established itself as the foremost Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) social care organisation in Scotland.

Suzanne has a deep standing commitment towards achieving race equality and in the past has served on the Management Committees of a number of BME organisations. She is currently working with Lothian & Borders Police as a Diversity Lay Advisor providing expert advice on diversity and equality issues. She has a long standing interest in social enterprise and believes it has significant potential to offer the BME voluntary sector. She hopes that she can bring both her personal and professional experience as a member of, and working with, Minority Ethnic communities to the SSEC.

Craig Sanderson, Chief Executive of 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 23 local authority areas with over 6000 social rented houses and providing management/factoring services to more than 1500 owners. It develops 100 new or improved homes each year. The Link group comprises the parent company (Link Group Ltd.) and a number of subsidiaries including Link Housing Association, Linkwide, LinkLiving and Larkfield Housing Association.

Link has pioneered several initiatives during its 44-year history, including co-ownership, shared ownership, supported accommodation in 'ordinary housing', student flats, self-build, a Foyer, a dental surgery and - most recently - Open Market Homestake. Having become active in community regeneration projects, Link is supporting the establishment of social enterprises and local development trusts.

Craig is a Board Member of the Scottish Social Enterprise Coalition and has served on the councils of both the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations and the Scottish Council for Single Homeless. His interests include drumming (in two bands), transport heritage (especially shipping), Manchester United, Partick Thistle, and the music of Brian Wilson, Jeff Lynne, Ennio Morricone and Gustav Mahler.

Jacqui Watt, Chief Executive, Scottish Federation of Housing Associations

Jacqui has been the Chief Executive of SFHA since October 2005. Though she was born and bred in Shetland, she has worked in housing throughout the UK. Immediately prior to joining SFHA, she was Director of Community Services at Shetland Islands Council from January 2001. This department included the management of housing, education, community development and social work services for the very diverse islands community. Previous posts include: Head of Housing Management for Edinburgh City Council; Head of Housing Management for Gloucester City Council; Regional Manager for Knightstone Housing Association in Bristol; Director of Homeless Action in London, where she re-structured the organisation which provided support services for women throughout the city; Colonnade Housing Association in Bath; Cardiff City Council; and a Drug project in Newport. Jacqui gained a MA (Hons) in Social Policy from Edinburgh University (1984) and an MSc in Management, Development and Social Responsibility (MDSR) from Bristol University in 1995.