I believe in challenging established thinking and have been instrumental in designing and delivering many ground breaking innovative and collaborative approaches within government and the voluntary sector tackling a wide range of social issues.

Both within my work in Scottish Government as Head of Child Poverty, and a founder of Inspiring Scotland, I have overseen the investment of over £200m into responses to alleviate Scotland’s ‘wicked’ issues. I hold a profound belief that all Scotland’s sectors need to come together to build the inclusive and thriving country we aspire to, and I am experienced in working collaboratively across sectors and cultures to achieve that.

My history is that of a serial social entrepreneur founding a number of organisations from the award winning Equality Network through to most recently, Inspiring Scotland; a funder and capacity builder of the voluntary sector in Scotland with a turnover of c£35m in this financial year currently supporting over 400 charities.

Through my work with Inspiring Scotland, I hold a depth of experience in supporting organisations with significant organisational developments.

I hold significant experience of working to, and being on, substantial voluntary sector boards. I am currently a Trustee of Turn to Us a UK wide charity focused on alleviating poverty, and Chair of the Edinburgh Trust a £20m endowed fund, again focused on poverty.

I’ve been a member of a number of academic groups on equality, social impact, research and evaluation including representing the UK in the European Union’s Social Impact Study Group and the School of Management Advisory Council for the University of St. Andrews. I have also been a Steering Group member for Collective Leadership Scotland.

I was a founding Fellow of Pioneers for Change, a Knowledge Exchange Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, and I am Fellow of the RSA.

My style is to create environments that enable good clear thinking spaces that lead to informed decision making, and that follow through to implementation.

Graeme Downie is Founder and Director of Crimson Bridge Communications, a public affairs and strategic communications company based in Fife. He has worked in communications for over twenty years, building strategic campaigns for organisations to educate, influence and help deliver their agenda.

He was previously a Director at Orbit Communications and Head of Communications in Scotland & Northern Ireland for innovation charity, Nesta and has worked in consultancy in London and Brussels.

Graeme has worked across a broad range of sectors including charities, food & drink, transport, construction, housing, health and energy.

 https://www.linkedin.com/in/graemedownie/ 

Anna joined SCVO as Chief Executive at the end of April 2018. SCVO is the national membership body for the third sector in Scotland, providing services such as payroll and IT and publishing Third Force News, as well as lobbying and policy work on behalf of the sector. During the pandemic, SCVO has also been a key player in distributing crisis funding to voluntary organisations, delivering a one-stop-shop for advice and support and managing the Connecting Scotland programme.  Before she came to SCVO, Anna was Chief Executive of the Scottish Social Services Council for nearly 9 years. The SSSC is the professional regulator for social workers and people working in adult and children’s social care.

Her career started with 18 years working in HR in local government, after which Anna joined COSLA as part of the employers function working on, for example, national pay negotiations. She then became lead for all policy relating to children and young people which led to her being seconded into Scottish Government to work on corporate parenting for children and young people in the care system before moving to the SSSC in 2009.

Anna has recently stepped down from the board of Who Cares? Scotland after 8 years, and has recently joined the board of SCDI. She has a degree in History of Art from Edinburgh University, and is a Chartered Member of the CIPD, and is passionate about grassroots football.

Lucinda joined ACOSVO in October 2022 following 16 years as CEO at Dundee Carers Centre and started her career as a youth worker. Lucinda has significant experience of leadership, service design and community engagement and has previously served as a Trustee. She has undertaken several other leadership roles on advisory groups and panels. Lucinda works closely with the Trustees and leads the ACOSVO team to deliver its vision of excellent Voluntary Sector Leadership. Outside of work Lucinda enjoys doing anything creative and reading a good book!

Calum has been Head of the Third Sector Unit at the Scottish Government since September 2019. The Unit aims to create the best conditions for the third sector to thrive and contribute to better outcomes. It does so by investing in key infrastructure and programmes designed to support the wider third sector and ensuring the legal environment best able to support the sector – for example through Charity Law. Prior to that Calum worked in the third sector for twenty years including leadership roles in Mental Health, Public Health, LGBTQ+ Equality and Third Sector Infrastructure.

Kenneth co-heads the Brodies Charities and Third Sector team. Kenneth specialises in charity law and governance, providing advice and guidance to charities and third sector organisations. Kenneth also works closely with individuals with philanthropic goals. His work in the area of charity law is extensive and includes the governance, establishment, merger and reorganisation of charities.

Kenneth's clients have included philanthropists, Royal Charter bodies, large umbrella membership bodies, family foundations, culture bodies and sports organisations. He has also worked on several high-profile governance cases involving the Scottish Charity Regulator. He is a member of the Charity Law Association.

Dr. Judith Turbyne became Chief Executive of Children in Scotland in August 2021.

She has spent most of her professional life working in and with the charity sector. For much of that time she worked in international development, with charities challenging global poverty and inequality. She worked in Latin America and the Caribbean for many years, in local frontline organisations and with multinational funders, before moving to Dublin to work as the CEO of Progressio Ireland.

Judith returned home to Scotland in 2013 as Head of Engagement with the Scottish Charity Regulator where she has had the pleasure of working with many charities across Scotland. She is currently the Deputy Chair of the Corra Foundation.

She has a PhD from the University of Bath which looked at empowerment in development. Aside from her wonderful friends and family, the things that make her most happy are mountains, music, running, cricket and a good book