Gillian Houston

Gillian is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy with vast experience of public sector finance. She is the chair of CIPFA in Scotland and the Scottish representative on the CIPFA local authority housing panel.

Gillian has extensive working knowledge of all aspects of financial and management accounting, with an inherent understanding of the links between finance and service delivery.

She is highly skilled in the development of complex analytical models having developed detailed HRA and RSL business plan models, as well as mechanisms to test the impact of new build housing, the Prudential Borrowing regime, and disaggregated assessment of housing needs and mechanisms to assess the effect of the 2012 target.

She has a clear ability to think strategically particularly in relation to future service planning.

Jamie Andrew

Jamie Andrew is the Scottish mountaineer who had his hands and feet amputated following a horrific accident in the French Alps.

Miraculously, despite his handicap, Jamie has carried on with his mountaineering career and has made some amazing ascents all over the world, raising many thousands of pounds for charity along the way.

He says "It seems to me that our greatest limitations are the ones we impose on ourselves.  I want to encourage others to throw out these misconceptions and to be all they can be. Remember, nothing is impossible!"

Mike Notman

With over 25 years of experience, Mike is a skilled change and development specialist, who has demonstrated achievements within business units and teams, supporting organisational and individual change within complex regulated environments.  After graduating, he spent the early part of his career in Outdoor Management Development, before developing his general and operational management capability through local authority service provision and then HR Management in UK manufacturing companies.  As a result of the dramatic changes within manufacturing companies during the late 1980’s, Mike became particularly experienced in the people aspects of the management of change.

Since moving into consultancy in 1991, Mike has delivered significant change programmes, working with senior leaders and teams within organisations such as National Savings and Investments, HMRC, DES (MOD) and numerous Local Authorities.  He is currently working with a large ALMO dealing with the strategic and operational challenges of achieving more with less; and with Schlumberger, developing their talent pool of leaders.

Mike’s focus is on developing leaders, senior teams and corporate cultures to improve business and operational performance.

Linda Fabiani

Linda Fabiani was first elected to the Scottish Parliament in May 1999 where she was an MSP for Central Scotland until 2011 when she was elected as MSP for East Kilbride.

Linda is a Fellow the Chartered Institute of Housing and an Honorary Fellow the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland. In 2007 the Italian Government awarded her the Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella della Solidarieta’ Italia (Knight of the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity) for working to promote Scots/Italian links.

Linda is a member of the Scottish Parliament’s Corporate Body and Convener of the Scotland Bill Committee.

Anne Spray Kinney

Ms. Kinney has more than 25 years' experience in government management, much of that time as a practitioner.  Her areas of specialty include performance budgeting and performance measurement, organizational design and assessment, and strategic planning,  Prior to coming to GFOA, Ms. Kinney was a Senior Partner at the Public Strategies Group.  As a government practitioner, Ms. Kinney served as budget director and administration director for the City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, executive director of the MMSD, Milwaukee's regional flood control-water reclamation authority, and held other management positions in the State of Illinois and Illinois local governments. Ms. Kinney has managed a broad array of organizational improvement, performance budgeting, and performance measurement and management engagements.

Ms. Kinney is a frequent presenter to national audiences, has published numerous articles on local government management topics, and has taught government financial management at the graduate level.

Jonathan Flory

Prior to joining Social Finance in 2011, Jonathan served as Acting Director of Pro Bono Economics, a charity which introduces economists to charitable organisations to help address questions around measurement, results and impact. Previously he spent over 25 years as a Corporate Finance adviser within the investment banking sector, principally at Dresdner Kleinwort. As a banker, Jonathan has wide international experience of advisory and equity capital markets transactions across a number of business sectors and has worked in London, New York and Paris. During his investment banking career he was Managing Director and Global Head of Transport and Business Services at Dresdner Kleinwort and subsequently Head of Corporate Finance at Daiwa SMBC Europe. Jonathan holds a MA in History and History of Art from Pembroke College, Cambridge.

Chris Bilsland

Chris joined local government in 1972 at Doncaster and qualified as a CIPFA accountant in 1976.  After working at Derby as Chief Auditor he then joined Deloitte Haskins and Sells in 1982. 

He rejoined local government in 1987 at Hampshire County Council with a particular brief on business planning. That position also led to some interesting assignments, including being appointed as an Adviser to the States of Guernsey. 

Chris was appointed County Treasurer at Somerset in 1991 and held that post until it was abolished in 2004 and he was reappointed as Corporate Director of Resources with responsibilities including Finance, Human Resources, Information Technology, Property, Customer Services and Contract Services.  

In that time he led some particularly important corporate projects, including the Somerset Waste Project ? the first flexible public: private partnership in the waste sector.

As the County Council?s Equality Champion, he led the County Council to Level 3 of the Equality Standard. 

He has previously been a lead financial adviser to the Local Government Association, representing County Council interests, and is a past President of the Society of County Treasurers.

Chris has always been active on professional matters, initially from being a CIPFA examiner and has now been an elected member of CIPFA Council for the last 10 years.

John Swinney

Born in 1964, John Swinney MSP joined the Scottish National Party in 1979 and went on to graduate from Edinburgh University with an MA (Hons) in Politics. He has worked for the Scottish Coal Project, Development Options and Scottish Amicable.

Prior to his election as Westminster MP for North Tayside in 1997, he held a number of posts in the SNP at local and national level. In 1999, he became the MSP for Tayside North, remaining as the constituency's MP until standing down from Westminster at the 2001 General Election.

Having served as the SNP's Deputy Leader since 1998 and became Leader in 2000. After relinquishing his post in 2004, Mr Swinney became Convener of the Scottish Parliament's European and External Relations Committee.

He was re-elected as an MSP at the 2007 Scottish Parliament election and appointed Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth.

John has two children and is married to Elizabeth Quigley. He lives near Blairgowrie in his constituency and his hobbies include cycling and hill walking.

Dr Brian Robson MBChB, MRCGP, MPH, DRCOG

A graduate of Glasgow University and Harvard School of Public Health, Brian has a background in General Practice, GP out of hours, telephone triage and latterly eHealth and Quality Improvement. 

He was a Health Foundation Quality Improvement Fellow (2008-9) with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Boston, Massachusetts where he was involved in leading a subcommittee of the IHI Board exploring the role of Health Information Technology in accelerating quality improvement.   In 2009 he completed an MPH (Clinical Effectiveness) at Harvard School of Public Health.

In June 2010 Brian took up post as the Medical Director of Healthcare Improvement Scotland which supports NHS Boards to improve the quality of care for the citizens of Scotland. His responsibilities include Knowledge Management, Co-Director for Implementation and Improvement Support, patient safety and eHealth. In November 2011 he was appointed as the Board Executive Clinical Director with responsibilities across all clinical disciplines and lead responsibility for clinical engagement.

He continues a regular clinical session in General Practice in Glasgow which keeps him grounded in the realities of working at the frontline!

Craig Dearden-Phillips

Craig Dearden-Phillips MBE is the Founding MD of Stepping Out, a social business helping public services to become a social enterprise or employee-owned mutual.  He also chairs its new social ventures fund - the Stepping Out Foundation. 

A serial social entrepreneur, Craig is the Founder of the UK disability social enterprise Speaking Up (now VoiceAbility) and is co-founder of five smaller civil society organisations.  Craig is the author of a best-selling business book for new social entrepreneurs and is a regularly columnist for The Guardian, as well as a regular speaker. Craig is a Trustee of social investor Impetus Trust and a Committee member of  the Communitybuilders Fund.   His new book ‘How to Step Out’ aimed at people ‘spinning out’ of the public sector was published in December 2011 by NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts).   Outside his  own businesses, Craig is a County Councillor in Suffolk and a Director of EFMS, Suffolk County Council's traded services company, employing 2000 staff.

David Meade

David is a researcher and lecturer in international business, whose personal interests have always focused on aspects of popular psychology, consumer behaviour, and choice.

By combining these professional and personal passions with his love of the performance of mentalism, David has become a sought after speaker with a reputation for an innovative style that forces audiences to think critically about the challenges around them.

Having caught the bug for mind-reading and mentalism as a teenager, David has been honing his act for nearly 20 years. He has combined a childhood interest in the paranormal and showmanship with his academic interests to create the remarkable set of skills that he is famous for today.

Drawing inspiration from many sources and day to day observations, David's act is always developing and progressing, and he is always learning. David says "In my line of work you have to keep an open mind, so I'm always open to new lessons, new experiences and new technology. It's the only way you can keep up to date and stop your work getting stale."