About

Alison was elected to the role of Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament in May 2021. In this role, Alison chairs the Parliamentary Bureau and the Scottish Parliament Corporate Body. as well as the Futures Forum board of directors.

Alison has represented Lothian region in the Scottish Parliament since 2011 and prior to that was a City of Edinburgh Councillor from 2007 to 2012. Following her election to Presiding Officer Alison resigned her Scottish Green Party membership.

As an MSP and Councillor Alison campaigned on issues of environmental justice, health and wellbeing, sport, equality human rights and animal welfare.

Maggie is the Scottish Green Party MSP for North East Scotland and the Green spokesperson for Justice, Equalities and Human Rights, Economy, International Development and Social Security. She is Deputy Convener of the Scottish Parliament’s Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee, a member of the Economy and Fair Work Committee, and a member of the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body.

Born and brought up in Zimbabwe, Maggie moved to Scotland for university. Prior to her election as an MSP in 2021, she worked for feminist women’s organisations and a disability charity, and had been a lecturer in human geography for over a decade. She was Rector of the University of Aberdeen for six years, and a City Councillor in Edinburgh from 2007-2015.

Kirsten is head of Policy, Research and Campaigns at the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations.  She has built her career influencing policy on behalf of voluntary organisations, with a previous focus on social care, learning disability and children’s services.

Before joining the voluntary sector Kirsten worked on a European citizen participation project, inspiring an academic and professional interest in how different groups can get involved in decision making.  At Barnardo’s Scotland she helped to pilot arts-based methods for engaging young people and professionals in discussions about policy and practice.

Kirsten is a Trustee of Starcatchers, Scotland’s Arts and Early Years Organisation.  She holds an MA (Hons) in Politics and German and MSc in Public Policy, both from the University of Glasgow.

Diarmaid is an Associate Director (Place) at the Scottish Futures Trust. He’s an urbanist with a multidisciplinary background and over 20 years’ experience working across sectors in the UK and Europe. He helps clients make well-informed decisions about place-based policy and investment challenges, using design thinking to unlock problems.

Diarmaid is a designer, educator, communicator and collaborator who writes and speaks on creative approaches to making better places. He is a principled pragmatist and believes that place matters.

Diarmaid has a Masters in Landscape Architecture from the Edinburgh College of Art and a Masters in Urban Design from the University of Westminster.

Stuart was born in Barrow in Furness. He was raised in Port Glasgow and attended Port Glasgow High School. After attending Central College of Commerce, he studied at the University of Abertay where he graduated with a BA (Hons) in European Business Management with Languages and subsequently an MBA (European).

After graduating, he worked for IBM before working for SNP central office at Westminster. Before his election in 2007, he was office manager to the late Bruce McFee MSP.

Stuart served as MSP for the West Scotland region from 2007 to 2016 before being elected Greenock and Inverclyde constituency MSP in 2016. He won re-election in 2021.

Sarah has over 20 years of experience of cultural leadership following a distinguished career in Glasgow as both Artistic Director of Tramway and Head of Arts for the city, where she led the bid to bring Turner Prize 2015 to Scotland for the first time. In August 2015 she was appointed as Director of BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art.

Sarah is Chair of Scottish Contemporary Art Network (SCAN); Chair of Contemporary Visual Arts Network (CVAN) North East region and a member of Gateshead Cultural Forum and NGCV network.

She has an MA (Hons) in Politics and Philosophy from the University of Dundee and holds a PG Diploma from City University, London.

Esther is an expert in civic, corporate and constitutional governance and passionate advocate for a new route map to Scotland’s future. 

She has spent a lifetime in public service, most recently as Chair of NHS Lothian and before that Chair of NHS24 and as a Non-Executive Director of the Scottish Government. In 2017 she was asked to chair the Independent Review of Legal Services Regulation for the Scottish Government and was a Press Complaints Commissioner from 2007 to 2014. In the 1990s, Esther was Coordinator of the Scottish Constitutional Convention whose 1995 publication ‘Scotland’s Parliament, Scotland’s Right’ provided the blueprint for devolution. She is currently also Chair of Fife Cultural Trust. 

Alex was elected to the Scottish Parliament in 2014 as an MSP for the region of Mid Scotland & Fife. His interest in politics had been heavily influenced by his parents and the Trade Union movement, and he was a shop steward in his late teens.

After studying at Newbattle Abbey College in Dalkeith and the University of Edinburgh, Alex worked for the National Local Government Forum Against Poverty and the TUC. He then worked as full-time agent and constituency manager for Gordon Brown MP, as well as serving as leader of Fife Council and General Secretary of the Scottish Labour Party.

Alex was born in Dunfermline and brought up in Kelty. He has three grown-up children and four grandchildren. Alex is a keen gardener and loves growing his own fruit and vegetables.

Brian grew up in Ayrshire, and qualified as an industrial chemist before becoming a professional athlete.

Brian has represented Great Britain 45 times, including at the 1988 Olympics and 1990 Commonwealth Games. He’s probably most famous for running his leg of the 1986 European Athletics Championships with only one shoe – and still managing to achieve a personal best!

A South Scotland MSP, he has championed the role of community organisations and local sports clubs in promoting good physical and mental health. He is also an advocate for the use of technology and innovation to address many of the long-term challenges facing Scotland, such as climate change.