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Brian Cavanagh has 25 years of experience of making and shaping public policy in Scotland.  Until recently Brian was Chair of NHS Lothian, the second biggest Heath Board in Scotland and from 1982-1999 was a Councillor on the City of Edinburgh where he was Chair of Social Work for many years.  Since leaving NHS Lothian, Brian works part-time for Citigate Public Affairs, a leading public affairs company in Europe and the UK.

Since 1999, Brian has run Clifden Consultancy, which specialises in organisational and change management and service development. Brian has undertaken two extensive studies of Community Planning on behalf of Dumfries and Galloway Council.

Ian Maye was appointed as Director of Local Government Reform within the Department of the Environment (DOE) in May 2006. He is responsible for co-ordinating the implementation of the Review of Public Administration in relation to local government and the reform and modernisation of local government.  Prior to taking up that post he worked on environmental policy and planning issues within DOE. In his career he has worked on a range of justice issues, security policy and Anglo-Irish relations.  He was a member of the British Government’s negotiating team on the Belfast Agreement, and was subsequently Secretary to the Review of the Criminal Justice system in Northern Ireland.

He lives in South Belfast and his interests include reading, music and eating out with friends.

Sharon O’Gorman is Director of Regeneration and Development with Armagh City and District Council.  She has responsibility for economic development, tourism facilities, tourism development, rural development, arts, EU funding, and urban regeneration activity within the city and district.  She was also a member of the RPA Community Planning Working group.

Alison holds Honours and Masters degrees in English; matching career direction, she undertook postgraduate and professional studies in Marketing, and later an MBA.  In May 2006 she completed a City Management Programme in Boston College.

Since October 2004, Alison has been Head of Development at Omagh District Council, and is responsible for economic development, infrastructure initiatives, community development, urban and rural regeneration, sports development, recreation and leisure services.  Prior to this, Alison was employed by Queen’s University Belfast, where she undertook the management of EU funded projects, community links, social inclusion and widening access initiatives, in addition to lecturing and teaching responsibilities.  

Alison has contributed to various conferences, roundtable discussions and seminars in Ireland, and, in addition, travelled to Bangladesh to the University of Dhaka to deliver workshops on community engagement and participation in decision making.  A former Ministerial nominee to the Northern Ireland Rural Development Council, since 2003, she has been a member of RTE’s inaugural Audience Council, and in January 2007 was appointed an external independent director of the Irish Football Association.

Norma is a Director of Blake Stevenson Ltd, an economic and social development consultancy company.  Norma set up the company with her fellow director in 1992, and the company now employs eighteen permanent staff, an associate group of around fifteen, and a field force team and has offices in Edinburgh and Newcastle.  Within the company Norma works intensively on government contracts in the fields of community planning, social inclusion, health, and equalities.  In 2005 Norma carried out Case Study Analyses for the Review of Public Administration on Community Planning in Operation in the UK and Ireland.

Prior to setting up the company, Norma worked as a lecturer in industrial relations, and as a researcher for Strathclyde University.  She was at one time very involved in local politics and spent some time as a Councillor in Edinburgh.

Liz has been in local government for almost twenty years in councils in Dumfries and Galloway and Yorkshire and the national Scottish local government association COSLA.  During that time she has been involved in committee work, scrutiny commissions and the development of the Scottish Parliament. She currently manages a team responsible for best value and corporate policy development (including social inclusion, health improvement, equality and diversity and public involvement). She has also been involved in a wide range of joint working initiatives including the North Channel Partnership, Border Visions, D&G Community Planning and most recently an International Learning Exchange with Indiana, USA.

Miranda Alcock is Communities Portfolio Manager in Audit Scotland, based in the Public Reporting Group – Local Government Directorate. She has overall responsibility for performance studies in the community work of local authorities, such community planning, and in the police and fire services.  She led the team which worked on the recent Audit Scotland study on community planning, published in the summer of 2006. Current work within her portfolio includes studies on police call management and a review of modernisation in Scottish fire and rescue services.

She joined the Accounts Commission in 1997, and moved to Audit Scotland when it was formed in 2000.  She has previously managed studies on youth justice, school property risk management and community safety. She also spent a couple of years on secondment within Audit Scotland as their business manager.  Prior to joining the Accounts Commission, Miranda worked for the City of Edinburgh Council as a senior manager in quality and customer care, and prior to that in policy and performance management.

Sarah has been employed by the Scottish Borders Community Planning Partnership, New Ways, as its co-ordinator since January 2005.  Until December 2004, she was a lecturer in Business Management at Heriot-Watt University (Scottish Borders Campus), and previous to this was a production planner and buyer for a clothing supplier to Marks and Spencer.  She holds an MSc in Textile Management and MA (Hons) in Architecture from Edinburgh University but never practiced formally as an architect.

She was born in Lurgan, N Ireland and lived in Armagh until 1975 when her family relocated to Scotland.  She now lives in the Scottish Borders with her partner and young son and put her Architecture degree to good use when designing and building a new home last year.  She is a keen walker and badminton player as well as an active member of a local drama group.

Waheed Saleem has held a number of management positions in different areas within the health service.  He is currently employed by Birmingham Eastern and North Primary Care Trust as the Locality Director with responsibility for Practice Based Commissioning and Children's Commissioning. His previous post was at University Hospital Birmingham Foundation Trust, managing the Medical Assessment Unit, Elderly Care Services and Junior Doctors. A graduate of the London School of Economics in Social Policy, he has chaired a number of major regeneration programmes and

He has been a member of a number of national committees including NACRO Children and Crime Committee, NRF National Community Forum, National Crime Squad Service Authority, Rail Passenger Committee and the Meat Hygiene Advisory Committee. He has a background in chairing and representing young people in different forums.

His interests are in social policy, especially in the fields of health, social exclusion, crime, diversity and youth policy. He is looking forward to contributing to the sustainable development agenda. He is a former Labour Local Councillor. Waheed is the Commissioner for Education and Young People.

Barbary is the Director of the Community Development and Health Network. CDHN tackles health inequalities using a community development approach. CDHN supports community development and health projects where local communities work to define their own health needs and design projects which address those health needs. CDHN works regionally to influence policy on community development and health.

Prior to joining CDHN, Barbary worked as a consultant on change management and equality and human rights issues. Barbary has extensive experience working as a staff member,independent consultant, activist and founder, withinboth the statutory and community and voluntary sectors. Barbary has workedon equality issues including mainstreaming equality via the Section 75 statutory duty, the Single Equality bill and the Bill of Rights. She was the Convenor of the Coalition on Sexual Orientation and the Communications Coordinator at AdviceNI.

Eric Byiers joined Fife Council in 1985 as Assistant Director within the Economic Development and Planning Department having previously worked for Central and Borders Regional Council.  At reorganisation in 1995 he was appointed Head of the Economic Development Service within the newly created Fife Council.

In his current post as Strategic Manager, which he took up in April 2000, he is responsible for the co-ordination, effective integration, development and strategic direction of a group of four Services (Community Services, Education, Housing, and Social Work).  Children and Adult Services have a combined workforce of over 14,000 employees and a gross annual budget of almost £700m (including the Housing Revenue Account).  Specific remits include Health & Social Care; Integrating Children’s Services – including child protection; Integrating Older People’s Services; Health Improvement; and work with the Voluntary Sector.  

He is also responsible for taking forward the priorities and key drivers of the Council as a member of the Fife Management Team.  A key element of the job is the development of the Community Planning agenda through the promotion of joint working with other organisations in areas such as Health, Housing, Children’s Services and Older People’s issues.  He currently Chairs the Fife Child Protection Committee.