Biographies

Addie Stevenson

Addie Stevenson was appointed as Chief Executive in December 2006 and had previously joined the Aberlour Child Care Trust as Director of Children and Family Services after two years with the Association of Directors of Social Work where she developed a framework for good staff support and people management in the social care sector. Addie started her career as a trainee social worker in Strathclyde and returned to Scotland after 22 years in Lincolnshire managing children and family services, and latterly working as a Strategic Project Manager on best value, e-government, strategic partnerships and organisational development.  Addie is a Graduate Member of the Institute of Personnel and Development and a registered project manager.

Nigel Fairhead

Nigel was appointed in March 2003 as Director of Finance. After working for various accountancy firms in the South of England and a spell in France, he moved to Edinburgh to work for the National Trust for Scotland in 1981. He held various finance posts in the NTS and became Director of Finance and Administration in 1992.

Ian Turner

Ian Turner joined Aberlour Child Care Trust as Director of Children and Family Services in February 2007. Ian is a Social Worker with more than 25 years experience in social care in Scotland. He worked in local authority social work in the West of Scotland for 16 years before moving to the voluntary sector in 1997. Since then, Ian has developed and managed services in a range of voluntary child care organisations. His main interests are in keeping young people safe and ensuring that the voices of young people inform service delivery and social policy in Scotland.

Adrian Snowball

Adrian has worked for Aberlour since 1984. He initially worked in residential child care and then in family centre provision before moving into Learning and Development in 1991. He has professional qualifications in teaching, social work and human resource development, and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. . In his current role as Head of Learning and Development he is responsible for learning and development strategy, health and safety and the implementation of Aberlour’s quality agenda.

Len Seal

Len joined Aberlour in 1997 as Assistant Director North, with particular responsibility for services for children with a disability. Qualified in 1971, he has worked in Local Authorities in England and Scotland in generic roles and specialist disability roles. He has managed residential services for children with a disability, in both long term and short breaks services.He worked with Barnardos as manager of a family support service in Dundee prior to joining Aberlour. Particular interests are disability and evaluation.

John Ryan

John joined Aberlour Child Care Trust as Director of Residential and Integrated Services in April 2006, moving from a post of Team Manager with the Care Commission.  John worked in local authority child care services from 1986 to 1998 when he moved into regulation of care services before moving to work in the East Coast Area Health Board in Dublin in 2001.  John returned to Scotland in 2003 and worked as Service Manager for Residential Services in Renfrewshire Council for a short time before moving to the Care Commission.  John’s particular interests are around quality assurance and the role that children and young people play in developing care services.

Patricia Hall

Patricia was born in the Netherlands, and has worked with and for children and families for over thirty years; initially within Education and Vocational Guidance and Youth Counselling, and since coming to Britain in 1987 in social work.
Trisha worked in youth justice and residential care in England, and within statutory local authority child care social work in Moray since 1993, as social worker and manager, before joining Aberlour in 2003.
She has a keen interest in evidencing the effectiveness of service intervention and has been instrumental in developing links with academic research in particular with the “Realist Evaluation” method.
Trisha moved to Stirling in 2006 after taking up post as Regional Director East/Central.

Marie Hayes

Marie joined Aberlour as Regional Director West in February 2005. Marie is a social worker with over 25 years experience in the health and social care sectors. She  has held a range of posts involved in the planning, development, delivery and performance management of care services.

Anne Black

Anne has been a governor of Aberlour since November 2000 when she was co-opted. Anne has been a Social Worker and Manager for over 30 years and has a particular interest in services for children and families, foster care, adoption, child protection and residential care. She is chair of Fostering Network in Scotland and involved widely in consultancy and development in social care services. She chairs the Policy and Practice Committee.

Edward Pickard

Edward was co-opted to the Board of Governors in 1994. He is a chartered accountant and former finance director of several companies, and now advises medium sized businesses. He chairs the Finance Committee.

John Milne

John joined the Governors in 2005 and has been closely involved in Aberlour's communications and profile raising strategies. He is currently the Primus's Representative. John has been a BBC News and Current Affairs broadcaster for more than 30 years, and a long-serving member of the Children's Hearing System - latterly as deputy chair of Glasgow CPAC.

Derek Bottom

Derek Bottom joined the Board of Governors in 2006. In his day job, he is Head of Business with HBOS Plc. He has held a number of senior roles within the bank covering a range of disciplines including Corporate Banking, Sales and Marketing, E-commerce,and Operational and Credit Risk Management. He recognises that he has been very fortunate in the range of experiences he has had throughout his career and was keen to take up the opportunity to re-invest some of these experiences back into the voluntary sector. HBOS fully supports colleagues who are keen to become involved in the charitable sector by allowing them to spend several days a year in this area.

Outside work, Derek enjoys a range of sports including Cycling, Football and Hillwalking. He has completed many fundraising charity events and last year completed LeJog, cycling Lands End to John O' Groats in 10 days. He has a wife and two teenage children and lives in Dunfermline.

Anna Munro

Anna Munro was co-opted to the board in November 2006. Having taught in primary and secondary schools she lectured and assessed in Early Years education. Working as a training adviser for Sheffield T.E.C, she was particularly involved with those who have been long term unemployed with complex training and support needs. As a chaplaincy visitor for Sheffield Health Trust, Anna worked on the neuro and ICU wards supporting staff, patients and those close to them.

Nancy Adams

Nancy joined the Board in February 2007. She was a lecturer in International Relations and a Political Analyse for a Middle Eastern research unit in London before moving to Scotland in 1984. Until recently, she held the post of Bursar/Secretary to the Board at Clifton Hall School, and was also the treasurer for 2 other small charities/trusts. She now convenes the Provincial Church in Society Committee of the Scottish Episcopal Church and it's Justice Peace and Creation Network.

Robert Stephens

Robert joined the board of governors in 2006. A senior manager heading
Prudential's investment marketing team, Robert lives in the founding
village of Aberlour and wanted to get involved to continue the tradition
of Aberlour's involvement in childcare for Scotland. Prudential fully
supports and encourages his involvement in the local community. Robert
brings with him over 20 years of marketing experience and is helping to
shape the marketing and fundraising strategy.