Our board

Barry Sillers – Chairperson

Barry’s passion is helping, protecting and supporting people to achieve all that they can in life.

His executive leadership roles have included service with the United Nations, NATO, the UK Armed Forces, the NHS, Health and Social Care and in the Justice System.

He took up the role of Chairperson of Venture Trust having stood down as Chairperson of the philanthropic grant making organisation Foundation Scotland, on achievement of his personal target of reaching the milestone of £200 million in grants awarded to build resilience in Scottish communities.

Barry is also a membership elected Trustee on the Board of the Scottish Council of Voluntary Organisations (SCVO), which is the representative body for member voluntary organisations across Scotland, of which Venture Trust is one.

Bill Stephen

Bill is a Principal Teacher with the Outreach & Wellbeing Team at Midlothian Council. He develops and delivers Outdoor Learning opportunities for neurodiverse young people and provides advice and CLPL opportunities for schools on outdoor learning and managing educational visits.

Bill graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Outdoor & Science Education and completed an MSc in Outdoor Management Development. He is passionate about experiential learning, the impact of teaching the curriculum using the rich natural outdoor environment, and the use of adventure activities to encourage growth and personal development.

Dr Adam Burley

Dr. Adam Burley is employed by the NHS Lothian Psychotherapy Department, and works as a Consultant Clinical Psychologist at the Edinburgh Access Practice, a service dedicated to the provision of care to individuals who struggle to access mainstream care. He also provides input to wide range of public and third sector organisations across the homeless sector in Scotland. He graduated from St. Andrews University in 1994 with a psychology degree and a large overdraft, and worked at the Royal Hospital for Neurodisability in London before embarking on clinical psychology training in Edinburgh in 1998. He then moved to the east coast of New Zealand, establishing a clinical psychology service in a rural district working with marginalised populations. He returned to Scotland in 2005 to develop the Homeless Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy Service which he currently runs. He also works with Health Scotland around early years adversity, and is a board member at Community Justice Scotland. He has a particular interest in health inequalities, exclusion dynamics, early years, and the psychology of adversity. He is obsessed with collecting Munros, 20th century glass and steel frame bikes from the 1980’s.

Katy Hetherington

Katy has worked for NHS Health Scotland, a national NHS Board focused on tackling health inequalities since 2006. As part of her role on child and adolescent public health, she is leading work with a range of partners on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). This includes shaping action which will contribute to a Scotland wide movement on the prevention of ACEs and to a more informed response in policy and practice. Prior to working on child and adolescent public health, she led national work on public health’s role in the prevention of homelessness in Scotland and co-authored the Scottish Pubic Health Network’s Report on health and homelessness. Katy was also involved in the health sector’s contribution to Scotland’s National Action Plan on Human Rights and continues to have an interest in how a right to health approach can bring action on health inequalities.

Alastair Clarkson

Alastair is a qualified actuary and past Chair of the Life Board of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. He has 30 years’ experience in financial services, spending his Executive career in various senior leadership roles in Finance and Risk. He is an experienced Non-Executive Director, sitting on the Boards of 3 insurance companies, chairing the Audit Committees of 2 of these and sitting on the Risk committees of all three. In addition to this he sits on the Board of Scottish Rowing as Finance Director. Outside work, Alastair enjoys spending time outdoors with his family, hill-walking in the summer and skiing in winter.

Jill Roulston

Jill is a qualified accountant and chartered tax advisor, currently working for The Royal Bank of Scotland. Prior to this she held roles with a Big 4 accountancy practise as well as leading a Finance team in a third sector organisation. Jill brings to Venture Trust 20 years’ experience in Finance roles as well as a good understanding of charity accounts and the challenges faced by the third sector.

Hugh McGregor

After graduating from university with a degree in Biology, Hugh commenced work in social work, gaining a professional qualification in social work. Since then he has had a career in social work of 45 years, from a basic grade social worker and then management roles of senior social worker, ending up as a senior manager in the Justice section of the social work service in South Lanarkshire. Hugh has had a career interest and specialism in working with offenders, in particular violent offenders and from the start of the MAPPA process he was the chair of MAPPA meetings for South Lanarkshire council. From this time, he also headed up a small unit managing both sex and violent offenders.

Catherine Lindsay

Catherine has over 20 years’ experience in the finance and energy sector and is currently Head of Strategy for the Commodities team at Wood Mackenzie. She previously worked with their Consultancy team where she focussed on advising companies on their growth strategies and internally on corporate and integration strategy. She has recently worked with start-ups in the design and renewable energy space. Catherine is a qualified Management Accountant and works with Princes Trust delivering their Enterprise programme.

 

Neil McMillian

Neil has worked in the field of child and youth care for over 30 years during which time he has held roles in direct practice, learning and development, research, operational management, and strategic leadership. In addition to his substantive roles, he has worked as an independent consultant with governments across the world evaluating and advising on child welfare policy and practice. He is currently an Executive Director at Kibble which is one of Scotland’s oldest and largest charities serving young people at risk. Neil holds academic degrees and professional certifications in social work, child protection, alternative care of children, and business administration. Having lived experience of the care system, he has a strong sense social justice, and is passionate about upholding the rights of people who are disadvantaged and supporting them to realise their full potential. When not working, he enjoys spending time at the gym and with family.

 

Leigh-Ann Plenderleith

Leigh-Ann has over 20 years’ experience in financial services and is currently Chief Actuary and Financial Strategy Director at Aegon UK, having held various Finance and Risk roles throughout her career so far. She is a past member of the Scottish Board and the Life Board of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. Leigh-Ann is also a qualified highland dancing teacher and adjudicator and has served on the Finance Committee, Website Committee, and Quality Assurance Committee of the Royal Scottish Official Board of Highland Dancing for several years. In her spare time, Leigh-Ann enjoys being in the great outdoors climbing mountains and hiking long distance trails.