ICAS Council – composition and current members

Indy Singh Hothi CA, President

Indy is currently the co-founder of Upside Projects, a consultancy and venture builder which provides strategic advice on digital transformation, innovation and sustainability to public and private sector clients. Indy is also a cultural advisor to the Mayor of London and Greater London Authority.

Prior to Upside Projects, Indy was a senior economist with EY in London. He worked across a number of high-profile economic impact studies which influenced public policy and included clients such as the Premier League and Rugby World Cup.

Through his passion for social and humanitarian causes, Indy was a trustee and director of Khalsa Aid International, a charity which provides humanitarian aid in disaster areas and civil conflict zones. The charity was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021. His work has led him to the frontline on a number of projects including Iraq, DR Congo, Lebanon, Nepal and Haiti.

Indy was recognised as One Young CA in 2015 and joined ICAS Council in 2016, representing the England and Wales area and supporting engagement with under 35s and the broader London community.

In addition to the appointments he holds as President, Indy attends the Nominations Committee and has been closely involved in the work of the EDI Committee. Indy served as Vice President 2020/2021 and Deputy President in 2012/22.

Clive Bellingham CA, Deputy President

Clive Bellingham CA, retired in 2021 from his role as a Partner at PwC where his leadership roles took him to all parts of the world. As a member of PwC’s Global Board for 8 years, Clive contributed to the governance and oversight of a network that covers more than 150 countries. He chaired the Clients & Markets Committee for 4 years and retains a position on the PwC India Advisory Board.

Clive joined PwC in Glasgow in 1984 after qualifying as a CA with Bird Simpson & Co in Dundee. He has worked for PwC in Scotland, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland, where he has been resident since 1987.

Having benefited from a wide range of influences and experiences during his career, Clive is an advocate of diversity in business. In 2016 he joined the board of Advance, a non-profit association set up by leading Swiss-based companies to increase the representation of women at the executive level.

Clive was elected to Council in 2016 as the Europe seat member and has served on Members Board and the Audit & Risk Committee. Clive served as Vice President 2021/2022.

Alison Cornwell  CA - Vice President

Alison Cornwell CA, is a CFO of  PE backed businesses in the creative industries sector.

Alison qualified as a CA with C&L Glasgow in 1990 and spent 5 years in corporate finance in London before joining The Walt Disney Company where she was CFO for Disney’s TV distribution, Disney Channel and TV equity investment portfolio successfully driving its expansion in all markets outside the USA.

In 2005 Alison was appointed CFO of a private equity backed international TV broadcasting business which she and her colleagues improved and transformed and sold to NBC Universal in 2007. Following this Alison was appointed CFO of a Goldman Sachs backed international film distribution and film financing company with notable titles including The Woman In Black starring Daniel Radcliffe. After a number of corporate acquisitions Alison led the exit process and sale of the business to a trade player in 2013.

Alison has held a number of non-executive positions; She was a member of the Board of Governors of the British Film Institute from 2013 to 2018 in addition to being the Chair of its Audit Committee. In 2016 Alison also joined the board of CMI, a Scottish charity which runs the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

England, Wales and Northern Ireland - Electoral Area members

Dr Rimla Akhtar OBE CA

Rimla Akhtar OBE is that rare individual who has lived global business and elite sport.  A Guinness World Record Holder who, in 2014, became the first Muslim and Asian woman on the FA Council and in 2021 was awarded an OBE for her contribution to equality and diversity in sport, in addition to the MBE received in 2015.

She holds a portfolio of strategic and boardroom roles, including as an Independent Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee of Bettys and Taylors Group, home of our beloved Yorkshire Tea and famous Bettys Tea Rooms, Independent Non-Executive Director of the Rugby Football League, where she is also Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee as well as the Inclusion Board, and Council member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland as well as member of its Presidential Nominations Committee and Nominations Committee.

Rimla has over 20 years’ experience in the sports industry across the UK, Middle East and Asia.  She is a developer and strategist, known for her leadership and governance expertise, which led to her being ranked 14th in the 2018 Forbes global list of the Most Powerful Women in Sport.  Whilst at the FA, Rimla was elected as Chair of the FA National Game Finance Committee and as a member of the FA National Game Board, overseeing the strategy and finances for the entire National League System and grassroots game.

Whilst carving out a successful career in the city at leading global professional services firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Rimla also captained Britain in Futsal competitions.  She is Founder of the leading global sport development consultancy, RimJhim Consulting, and, as Chair of the Muslim Women’s Sport Foundation until December 2018, she led the organisation to one with a distinct reputation nationally and internationally for its extensive work in the field of women’s sport.  She is also co-founder of the global Muslim Women in Sport Network.

As a unique individual within the sports industry, she now shares her time between writing, speaking, mentoring, practical and strategic consultancy and campaigns.  She independently advises and leads projects with governments, advocacy organisations, national and international sports bodies and community groups.  Rimla is a sought-after speaker and commentator who communicates with quiet humility, practicality and passion.

Samantha Frost CA

Samantha provides consultancy services on corporate wellbeing, leveraging over 20 years’ experience in audit and risk management. She works with companies of varying sizes, across diverse industries and geographical locations.

Samantha has lived and worked in Australia for 15 years and relocated with her husband and children back to the UK at the end of 2018. Since then, her work has increasingly focussed on helping organisations to enhance their understanding of what wellbeing should ‘look like’ and ‘how to get it right’.

Samantha is passionate about mental health and wellbeing. She is the Board Wellbeing lead for a designated "World Class" secondary school, and is also a mentor at Exeter University for current and recent graduates. These roles stem from a deep desire to have a good understanding of the issues facing the next generation, so they can be best equipped to realise their full potential. Samantha has supplemented this personal interest by becoming an accredited adult, and youth, mental health first aider.

Samantha sits as the Board lead for Student & Member Wellbeing on the ICAS Members Board, which connects to the work of ICAS in this space. Samantha believes there is a wonderful opportunity for ICAS to be a thought-leader and she is hugely excited to have the opportunity to help make that happen.

Jason Harvie CA

After having studied mathematics at the University of St Andrews, Jason qualified as a CA in 2012 with energy investment bank Simmons & Company.  After building up experience across a broad range of corporate transactions, he subsequently joined the then Aberdeen Asset Management (now abrdn) focused specifically on direct private equity co-investments.

In his current role Jason is an Investment Director at Penta Capital, a UK based private equity investor.

Jason is currently Chair of the ICAS London Area Network.

Michael Kay CA

Michael qualified with Arthur Andersen in Edinburgh, with secondments to London and Melbourne. He joined a sales promotion plc in London, before he and fellow directors established their own below-the-line agency backed by 3i.

The majority of his career was then spent in financial services, with senior regional and global finance and operational roles in Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and HSBC. Michael subsequently moved to the public sector with NHS Digital, leading the Commercial function through a period of significant transformation.

Brought up in Ayr, Michael is a keen Burns enthusiast, winning the “Tam o’Shanter World Championship” in 2018. He is also an Honorary Steward at the Wimbledon Championships.

Suzy Kerton CA

Suzy qualified as a CA with Baker Tilly in 2012 and completed a secondment to the Buenos Aires office in Argentina shortly after qualifying. She became CFO of a cloud accounting software company at just 26 years of age which set her in good stead when starting her own cloud-based accountancy practice.

After a brief spell as Financial Accountant at the Cabinet Office, she embarked on a Full-Time MBA at Imperial College Business School. It was during the MBA that Suzy co founded Zyla Accountants, an accountancy practice offering a full range of accountancy services to start ups and small businesses from year-end accounts and VAT returns to R&D tax credits and SEIS compliance.  She has built Zyla to a fully remote team of 9 with over 100 clients. During Covid Suzy found herself temporarily relocated to the Middle East and in March 2021 she opened Zyla Accountants Dubai growing a client portfolio of Dubai startups and SMEs. Suzy is passionate about helping businesses understand their finances and making their accounting processes easy and efficient using new technologies.

Suzy is also Chair of the Members in Practice Advisory Board. Beyond Accountant Life Suzy plays basketball and tennis, she speaks Spanish and Portuguese and is learning Arabic since spending time in the UAE...it goes without saying that she loves to travel and experience new cultures!

Diana Muendo CA

Diana is an experienced Finance Business Partner and Creative Entrepreneur, who is passionate about empowering people to explore their creative side and helping SMEs grow.

After studying Economics and Management in Oxford University, Diana joined Ernst & Young on the Corporate Finance Graduate Scheme, where she qualified as a CA and specialized in Commercial Due Diligence. She left EY after 3.5 years to pursue an industry career in Consumer Goods and Entrepreneurship; working in a variety of roles in a number of businesses, from confectionary start ups to Virgin Start Up, Diageo and most recently working for the founders at luxury jewellery brand Monica Vinader where she established the FP&A function.

She also co-founded her own business in 2017, M.Y.O (for ‘Make Your Own’) - a creative studio for adults based in London Bridge. M.Y.O runs 14+ arts and craft workshops for events, the public and companies, whilst also creating social media content for brands. She has now also launched a sister brand Creative Jungle Co that is all about bringing Creativity to Life and Business through creative kits and a creative podcast.

Scotland North - Electoral Area members

Emily Kennedy CA

Emily Kennedy, CA is a Manager at KPMG within their Consulting department – DealConnect. DealConnect work with mid-market privately owned and Private Equity backed businesses to develop and execute their value creation and value protection plans. Emily brings together and leads multi-disciplinary teams from our Deal Advisory and Consulting practises to help clients solve problems and capitalise on opportunities. Experienced in identifying pragmatic business solutions, understanding markets and positioning companies, and growing businesses.

Emily also has experience in financial due diligence, vendor diligence, and strategic support on several high-profile transactions across the UK. Emily has been involved in deals across a wide range of sectors including oil & gas, food & drink, retail, healthcare, leisure and insurance.

Furthermore, Emily is the Chair of the KPMG Neurodiversity Network and contributes to both the Be-mindful Committee and the Business Stakeholder team within KPMG.

Emily graduated from the University of Aberdeen in 2014 with a first-class honour’s degree in Accountancy and Finance. Upon graduating, Emily joined AAB LLP in Aberdeen where she completed her CA training, qualifying in 2017. During her training contract, Emily managed a diverse client base having gained experience in Audit and Tax from small owner-managed businesses to large corporates.

Emily has taken an active interest in ICAS, sitting on the ICAS Grampian Area committee since qualifying in 2017.

Scotland East - Electoral Area members

Margaret Bunyan CA

Margaret is Associate Director at Drummond Laurie Chartered Accountants.  Margaret is responsible for a diverse portfolio of clients, predominately OMBs within the SME market; although specialises in advising clients within the agricultural sector.  As part of the Senior Management team she is involved in making key decisions within the practice. She is also the company’s ICAS Counselling Member and one of their Money Laundering Officers. She is a great ambassador for the firm.

Margaret qualified in 2009 and has had a successful career to date in practice.  Margaret currently is the Treasurer for an agricultural show, and is involved within Women in Agriculture events in Scotland.

Margaret is a hardworking, driven individual who is passionate about her work.

Niall John McCallum

Niall  qualified as a CA with KPMG in 1999, having read Accountancy & Finance at Heriot Watt University.  Following seven years in   Corporate Finance with KPMG, in 2006 Niall joined the private equity team at a major bank which was subsequently spun out with investments across a range of sectors where he was an investment director.  In 2013 Niall joined Capita plc as finance director of a large JV and then as divisional finance director of its high growth commercial division.  Niall joined Element Materials Technology in 2017, a global testing business, as Group Finance Director and laterly as interim CFO.  In 2020, Niall was appointed CFO at BrewDog PLC, leading the transformation of its finance / IT operations as the global brewer and bar operator continues to scale.

Scotland West - Electoral Area members

Bernard Dunn CA

Bernard Dunn CA is client director and Head of Office for T L Dallas in Glasgow and provides insurance and risk management advice to a wide network of corporate clients, including owner-managed, family and VC-backed companies. He also leads T L Dallas’s insurance due-diligence service in the UK.

He has advised family businesses for over 30 years on their risk and insurance programmes, and indeed T L Dallas Group was founded in 1919, and is now in its 4th generation, as one of the UK's leading independent insurance brokers.

Outwith the “day job”, and family, Bernard’s other interests include: Former chair, and current area committee member of ICAS, Chair of trustees of the Ethiopia Medical Project charity, Member of Employee Ownership Scotland Leadership Group (EOS), Volunteer on hospital radio for Hospital Broadcasting Service Glasgow (HBS).

Dalvir Singh Johal CA

Open seat members

Lyndsay Browne CA

Lyndsay was appointed to the Capita plc Board in 2019 as an Employee Non-Executive Director, following a highly competitive process to bring increased diversity to the Board and amplify the voice of the company’s 55,000 employees in decision making. Also serving on the Remuneration Committee and attending the Audit and Risk Committee, she has directly influenced strategic decisions, entity level risk management, corporate purpose and balancing the needs and interests of multiple stakeholders.

After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG in Glasgow in 1996, Lyndsay spent 3 years with KPMG in Bermuda working in the insurance and reinsurance sector. She returned to the U.K. in 1999 and has held senior Finance roles in Airtours and Capita plc, based in the North-West of England. She has considerable experience delivering complex transformation, M&A, financial control assessment and improvement and client partnering.

An advocate for Board diversity, Lyndsay was invited to address the All-Parliamentary Group on Corporate Governance in the House of Lords in 2020 and was interviewed by the FRC to inform their S172 guidance.

With two grown up children, Lyndsay enjoys family holidays, long walks with the dog and is proud to have completed a Snowdon midnight challenge for The Alzheimers Society.

David Cruickshank CA

David Cruickshank was Chair of Deloitte Global until May 2019, and was elected into this role in June 2015 having served on the Global Board for eight years from 2007.  Prior to this, he was Chairman of Deloitte UK from 2007 – 2015.  He continued with the firm as an adviser until June 2020.  Throughout his career, he has advised international corporate clients and some other private sector organisations.

Prior to becoming UK Chairman in 2007, David led Deloitte’s tax practice in the UK for eight years, during which time he was a member of the firm’s Executive Group and a member of the global organisation’s tax management group.  He specialised in international tax on qualification with the firm in 1982 and became a partner in 1988.  He is a Chartered Accountant and a graduate in business and economics from the University of Edinburgh.

Outside the firm, David is Chair of the Board of the Social Progress Imperative (a US based organisation that produces the country by country Social Progress Index) and, in the UK, he chairs the Board of Trustees of the Education and Employers charity.

David joined Council in September 2019, and became Chair of the Qualifications Board in April 2020.

Annie Graham CA

Annie started at EY in Glasgow as a summer intern in 1997, joining the firm a year later and qualifying as a chartered accountant with ICAS in 2002.  She became the youngest EY partner in 2008 and was named ‘Accountant of the Year’ in the Scottish Accountancy Awards. A year later, Accountancy Age featured her as one of its rising stars and was placed in top spot by Accountancy Age Women in Finance 2019.

As an Audit Partner in Scotland, Annie has a real passion for what she does in helping clients achieve their goals. She is well-versed in dealing with challenges that accompany both FTSE100 business and fast-growth companies.  In addition to her audit partner role, Annie is COO for EY’s UK&I Audit business.

Annie was a member of Sir Donald Brydon’s review committee considering how the audit process and product could be developed to better serve the needs of users and the wider public interest. She joined the ICAS council in 2016.

In her spare time Annie is mum to three little kids – and that is a handful for anyone!

Jonathan Jacobs CA

Jonny has been a Finance Director at Starbucks since 2020, where his role covers the diverse markets across the EMEA region. In addition to his core role, he holds the position of Sponsor of tSarbucks' Wellbeing Blend Network, an employee resource group. Prior to Starbucks, Jonny was Head of Food Finance at M&S Foods, and before that he spent eight years at international snacking brand pladis with most recent roles including Strategy & Transformation Director and interim CFO for North America. He has a wealth of experience across commercial, operational and group roles. He trained with KPMG and qualified as a CA in 2006.

Jonny believes in purpose-driven leadership and has a passion for wellbeing, ED&I and sustainability agendas in business. His passion to drive change is championed through his many roles across non-exec platforms including a Trustee of the Mental Health Foundation, Non Exec of Mental Health at Work, One Young World Ambassador, Goalkeeper of the Bill & Malinda Gates Foundation, and One Young Chartered Accountant of the Year 2017.

Louise Page CA

Louise trained and worked in practice for 9 years, training in a small firm which gave her exposure and experience in a wide range of activities and providing broad base of experience to her early on in my career. After practice, Louise moved to financial services where she gained experience in asset management finances, governance, global operations, and marketing operations.

After 15 years in financial services Louise chose to move to the not for profit sector and became Chief Financial Officer and Director of Corporate Services for the National Trust for Scotland, a Charity registered in Scotland.

Jim Robertson B.Acc CA CTA FCMA

Jim is currently a member of the ICAS Qualifications Board and Devolved Taxes Committee. He was the inaugural chair of the ICAS Equality Diversity & Inclusion Committee and of the Scottish Tax Policy Forum, a joint venture between ICAS and the Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT). He chairs the academic board of the Advanced Diploma in International Tax of CIOT and is a member of its Climate Change and Diversity & Inclusion groups. He is a non-executive director in the Scottish Government, Chair of the Government's Audit & Assurance Committee and member of its Global Climate Emergency Programme Board. He is a member of the GlobalScot network of Scottish Enterprise.

Internationally, Jim is a Senior Fellow of the International Tax & Investment Center, an education foundation based in Washington DC. In that role he delivers capacity-building programs to tax officials in developing countries together with the IMF, World Bank, OECD and UN. He is a member of the UN Subcommittee on Extractive Industries Taxation Issues for Developing Countries, the UN Subcommittee on Environmental Taxation, the OECD Policy Dialogue on Natural Resource-Based Development and the advisory board of Crystol Energy. He is a ‘he for she’ partner of the G100 Group of 100 Global Women Leaders.

Historically, Jim qualified with PwC in 1981 and joined Shell the same year. He had nine different tax and finance roles in Shell and lived in London, The Hague, Kuala Lumpur, Aberdeen and Houston. He was a founder member of Shell’s Finance Social Investment Network which connected staff to voluntary organizations in need of finance skills and experience, personally acting as mentor/coach to the owner of a cooking stoves business in Ethiopia. In Shell Finance he had global responsibility for promoting professional qualifications and for communications on diversity & inclusion. He was global head of oil & gas tax in Shell for 11 years.

Co-opted members

Elizabeth Gammie CA

Elizabeth Gammie is a Professor of Accounting at the Robert Gordon University where she is Dean of the Aberdeen Business School. Under her leadership the School achieved AACSB accreditation and was named as the Times Higher Education 2020 Business School of the Year.

Elizabeth trained with Ernst and Whinney in the Aberdeen office and specialised in tax on qualification. She subsequently moved into academia and now has over 25 years’ experience in the Higher Education sector. Over the years she has developed her career by undertaking a part-time PhD, developing a very successful Accounting and Finance under-graduate degree, building a research portfolio, heading up the Department of Accounting and Finance and from 2016 taking on the role as Dean of School.

Her research interests have focussed on gender issues within the profession and professional accounting education and she has undertaken various funded research projects for bodies such as ICAS, CIMA, ACCA and IAAER.

Elizabeth has been involved with many ICAS Boards and Committees, including various stints on the local Area Committee chairing this committee from 2017 to 2022, she previously sat on the Qualification Board, the TPE Exam Board, the Technical Policy Board, the Audit Committee, Members Board and Council. She also served as a member on the International Accounting Education Standards Board for nearly 6 years and during this time was involved with many Task Forces including chairing the IES1 Implementation Taskforce.

Elizabeth is currently a Trustee of the ICAS Foundation, a Trustee of the RDA Aberdeen group, a Governor of St Margaret’s School for Girls, and has chaired the TPE Examination Board since 2021.  She was named as 2020 Business and Public Sector Woman of the year in the Women in Accounting and Finance Awards.

Robert Grome CA

Robert was a Financial Services Partner with PwC Hong Kong for 22 years, including nearly 4 years in Singapore, where he now resides. Robert led the Firm’s Asset Management practice in Asia Pacific and dealt extensively with Private Equity and Hedge funds as well as the more traditional large Fund Managers. He sat on PwC’s Global Leadership Team for the Asset Management Industry for nearly 18 years.
Since retiring from PwC in the summer of 2014 Robert has taken on various consulting and fiduciary roles mostly related to the Asset Management industry. He serves on the Boards of two US$3 billion- dollar Hedge Funds managed out of Hong Kong and in addition a EUR4 billion Global Private Equity Fund managed in Singapore.
Robert’s interests outside of work include travel, the education of his three young children (one of whom is autistic) and sports. Combining his love of football and travel, Robert has attended the last 10 FIFA World Cup tournaments. In addition, he is an avid reader of newspapers and books on history, economics and geo-political matters.

Philip Johnson FCA

Philip was a senior partner in the Deloitte UK firm, having retired in 2007 after being a partner for 30 years, specialising in audit, mergers and acquisitions.  He was an elected member of the Deloitte UK Board of Partners and the first chairman of the firm’s Audit Committee.

In 2002, Philip had primary responsibility for integrating the clients, partners and staff of Arthur Andersen UK into Deloitte. From 2003 he was head of Quality and Risk Management for the UK audit practice of Deloitte until his retirement from the firm.

Philip was the President of Accountancy Europe (formerly the Federation of European Accountants (FEE)) during 2011 and 2012. He was also a member of the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board Consultative Advisory Group (IAASB CAG) and the International Ethics Standards Board Consultative Advisory Group (IESBA CAG). From 2013 until 2019, Philip was a member of the Standing Advisory Group of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) in the US.

From May 2007 to April 2015, Philip was a non-executive director of Yorkshire Building Society, where he also chaired the Audit Committee. He was a seconded member of the Audit Committee of Wellcome Trust for 9 years from 2008 and is a non-executive director of Lakeland Limited, a retail kitchenware company based in the Lake District.

He is also chairman of LTE Group, chairman of the Audit Quality Board at Grant Thornton, a trustee of the Rugby Football Foundation, the charitable arm of the Rugby Football Union (RFU), and a member of the RFU Audit Committee.

Tracey Rob Perera CA

Tracey is currently running a portfolio career focusing on NED, start up Board Advisory, pre-seed start-up Investor readiness, Business strategy and operations mentoring and Founder coaching.

Tracey has an extensive Audit background, 10 years leading audits as part of KPMG London in various sectors from scaleups to Aim to FTSE 100.  She also led the Global FS Audit strategy for 5 years working on audit quality, regulation, audit rotation and lead partner succession planning.

Her career has always had a risk and regulatory focus as she led strategy and transformation programmes for KPMG as a former Director. One of the longer programmes she led for the UK firm was the UK Brexit readiness programme and plans were used for Covid lockdown allowing all 17000 to work from home simultaneously.  Tracey has been Chair of the ICAS EDI committee since 2020.

Previously, Tracey was operating at C-suite level and led on strategy, growth and transformation programmes as well as implementing “Equality, Diversity and Inclusion” (ED&I) best practice in businesses of all sizes and sectors.  Tracey had a particular focus in the Tech sector.  As the Tech Talent Charter Ambassador and Thought leader, she led ED&I teams of senior business leaders and experts from various sectors and sizes of business to develop thinking and co-create valuable and practical ED&I Business Roadmaps.

Tracey is a Board Advisor member to a number of Tech startups from different sectors. Tracey is the strategic Board Advisor for the Global Tech Advocate Future of Work and a business advisor to Institute of productivity. She is also a member of the Board of Governors for a London secondary school and a member of the London Mayor’s Enterprise Advisor Network. Tracey is passionate about bridging the gap between education and entrepreneurship and advises, coaches and mentors young people and leaders in the education sector

Tracey is an experienced Strategic Transformation Director.  She has successfully led commercial, regulatory and political change programmes for C-suite.  Tracey has extensive UK, European and Global experience working within many industry sectors leading on business operations, finance, strategy, business development, people, risk, regulatory and crisis management.

Tracey qualified as a CA in 2001 and trained with KPMG in London where she spent a decade leading Audits of various corporate sectors from scale-ups right up to FTSE 100 companies whilst also doing transaction service projects.  Tracey has served two tenures on the ICAS England and Wales Committee. In 2019, she was invited to be a fellow of the Chartered Management Institute.

Bruce Beveridge

Bio to follow

Colin McClatchie CBE FRSE

Colin is Chairman of Prescient, his mentoring company and a member of the Global Irish Network.  In 2022, Colin was appointed Lead Public Interest Member

Colin worked in the newspaper industry for more than 40 years with Thomson Regional and Mirror Group Newspapers and latterly as Managing Director (Scotland and Ireland) News International Newspapers Limited. He has been a Non-Executive Director of Scottish Enterprise, Dunfermline Press Group, Beattie Media, The Kemsley Agency and was Chairman of Scottish Opera (7 years), St Columba’s School Kilmacolm, Glasgow UNESCO City of Music and the Institute of Directors Scotland.

He is a Life-Vice President of the Newspaper Press Fund and a former Chairman of Saints and Sinners.

Ana Stewart

After graduating in 1991 Ana founded i-design, a consultancy aimed at servicing the emerging digital creative industry. The business grew over the next decade into a global innovator in self-service software-based solutions for financial institutions including Barclays and RBS. In 2004, she launched a second business atmAd, an aggregated ATM-based digital media channel enabling advertisers to reach consumers with targeted offers across retail locations including Tesco, ASDA and Sainsbury's.

As CEO, she led the AIM listing of the company on the London Stock Exchange in 2007. Over the next five years, the organisation expanded into Europe and North America with its software delivering over 1.6 billion transactions per annum. In 2013, she sold i-design to NASDAQ listed Cardtronics, the world's largest ATM services provider, joining their executive leadership team before leaving the organisation last year.

Ana recently joined the Board of the Scottish FA as an independent non-executive director, becoming the first female board member in the organisation's 144-year history.

Dame Lin Homer

Lin is a Public Interest Member of ICAS.

She is a qualified lawyer and has had a distinguished career as a leader of large, complex operational and political organisations in local and central government, including Suffolk County Council, Birmingham City Council, the Home Office, the Department for Transport and latterly, until 2016, as Chief Executive and First Permanent Secretary at HMRC.

Lin is also a Trustee of the Centre for Ageing Better. Lin is also a non-executive board member of Nuffield Health, Harwich Haven Authority and Community Action Suffolk. A board member of The Stefanou Foundation and a member of the University of Birmingham Council.

Dr Philip Rycroft CB

Philip has considerable expertise in UK governance. From 2012 to 2019 he was the lead civil servant in the Cabinet Office advising UK Government Ministers on all constitutional and devolution issues. From 2017 to 2019 he was Permanent Secretary in the Department for Exiting the European Union, covering all aspects of the UK’s preparations for exit and for the negotiations on the future relationship. From 2012 to 2015 he worked for the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, leading the civil service team in his office.

Philip has held senior positions in the civil service working for both the UK Government and the Scottish Government, and has worked closely with Cabinet-level ministers of four political parties.  As Permanent Secretary at the Department for Exiting the European Union, he led the UK Government's preparations for Brexit, heading a 750 strong team of officials working on all aspects of the UK's exit from the EU. As head of the UK Governance Group in the Cabinet Office, he also promoted an understanding of devolution and constitutional issues within government.  He has also held roles in a range of policy areas, including better regulation, enterprise, innovation, higher and further education, skills and school education, environment and agriculture and fisheries.

Philip is an Independent Non-executive on PwC’s Public Interest Body and is also currently the Chair of The Portman Group and an Honorary Professor of the University of Edinburgh and Associate Fellow of the Centre for Constitutional Change. He has previously worked in the private sector with Scottish & Newcastle plc and Hutchison Whampoa (Europe) Ltd.

Philip is regularly sought out by the media to add commentary to government policy.