Marielle is responsible for facilitating the development of strengthened partnerships between youth work and schools to close the poverty-related attainment gap.

Brief overview of my professional career:

• 25 years in education, starting as a Maths teacher in a school in Paisley
• Head teacher of Renfrew High School 2013-23
• Past President of School Leaders Scotland
• Involved in various national education work, most recently the Muir Report
• As a school leader, always had a strong interest in inclusion, equality and wellbeing of our young people and the leadership approaches required to achieve this
• I co-host a podcast on education and wellbeing – Changing Conversations
• Now head of development and innovation at SAMH leading our work to support young people’s mental health

Martin Dorchester became Chief Executive of includem in March 2018. Previously Martin was the Group Chief Executive of the David MacBrayne Group, including CALMAC Ferries, Argyll Ferries Ltd and Solent Gateway.

In a career spanning 30 years Martin has operated nationally and internationally with organisations covering logistics, technology and finance. As CEO of Dixon's B2B operation Martin built up the largest Apple reseller business in the UK as well as developing a £100m public sector business. Martin was part of the team that brought the 5 radio authorities together to create Ofcom and worked with the London Borough of Hackney on developing its infrastructure for the 2012 Olympics. Martin is also a keen lecturer and academic and has written a number of papers covering areas as diverse as CSR and Emotional Intelligence in Management Development and more recently on children and young people.

Martin is a Co-chair of the Independent Care Review and a Non-executive Director of CCPS. He has held a number of non-executive roles including: Non-executive Director of Traveline Scotland, The Sailors' Orphan Society of Scotland and most recently Transport for Wales. He is a supporter of Social and Community Business and Chaired Firstport Ltd, a start-up funding organisation for social enterprises.

Professor Richard Kerley is Professor of Management at QMU with a specific interest in public service management. He was previously at the University of Edinburgh and the Scottish Local Authorities Management Centre, University of Strathclyde . He has also been a visiting scholar at Yale University. Before entering academic life, Richard worked in advertising, hospitality and in prison education. He also worked for four different councils, in adult education and then latterly in staff and management development.

He is currently also a Non-Executive Director with Mainstreet Consulting and a Trustee of the Centre for Scottish Public Policy 2021. He has been on the board of various companies, charities, and arts organisations.

Richard is the author of various books, research papers, academic journals, and numerous articles in the quality print media. His most recent publications include an edited book on International Local Government, and he is currently working on a taxonomy of international local government.

Richard chaired the Working Party on Renewing Local Democracy; the report of which was published in July 2000, and which was legislated for in June 2004 as the Local Governance Act. He has carried out research projects supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Scottish Consumer Council, Alcohol Scotland, The Accounts Commission Scotland, Tayside, Edinburgh and Fife Councils, the Association of MBAs, and the Scottish Government. He has been engaged in consultancy projects by government; local governments; government agencies; voluntary organisations and international education providers.

Shona took up the post of Depute Director of The Open University in Scotland in August 2017 with responsibility for student experience and widening access. The Open University provides life-changing learning opportunities to people across Scotland with 22,000 students and almost half a million users of its free online learning platform, OpenLearn. Shona and her team focus on opening up access to OU learning to individuals, communities, third sector, public sector and business.

Shona previously worked as Vice Principal and Pro Vice Chancellor at Robert Gordon University where she had accountability for the student experience and external relations portfolios for almost 10 years. Prior to that, Shona was Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise Tayside and has experience in both private and voluntary sectors. In a personal capacity Shona is currently Vice-Chair of SAMH, the Scottish Association for Mental Health

Jim McCormick is Chief Executive of The Robertson Trust.

Previously he was Associate Director Scotland with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (2017-20), ran an independent research consultancy and was Director of the Scottish Council Foundation think-tank (2002-07).

He is Chair of the independent Disability and Carers Benefits Advisory Group reporting to the Cabinet Secretary for Social Security and a member of the Scottish Government’s Social Renewal Advisory Board. He was Chair of the Edinburgh Poverty Commission (2018-20) and a member of the Social Security Advisory Committee (SSAC, 2014-20) scrutinizing DWP regulations. He was also an Advisory Board member of Business in the Community Scotland.

In 2018 he was a travelling Churchill Fellow looking at the impact of mentoring programmes for children and young people facing disadvantage in the USA, Canada and New Zealand. 

Interests include music, languages and Greenock Morton FC.

Fiona is Director of Place 2 Be in Scotland.

Having practiced as a Barrister representing children in London, she went on to work with the Care Review in Scotland and then as Head of Public Affairs for The Promise Scotland. There she led on the policy and communications work of the organisation, working to support organisations across Scotland to embed and keep the promise to Scotland's children and families.

She is passionate about place-based working, bringing services to where people are and smoothing the paths to early help and support.

Appointed in September 2023, Jimmy joined the SVRU following a career managing health and social care services, leading in care reform in Scotland, and as director of a charitable organisation working towards creating a wellbeing economy. He is a service designer, executive coach, and has represented Scotland internationally on leadership programmes with the World Economic Forum and the British Council. Jimmy leads the SVRU in its work reducing violence across Scotland using evidence-based solutions. As part of that work, he is committed to ensuring those who have lived experience are at the heart of the mission to make Scotland the safest country to live in.

Mona is a policy and public affairs professional with over 15 years of experience in communications and external affairs roles across the public, private and third sectors.

Since joining CHAS, Mona has worked on a wide range of policy issues, ranging from energy costs to transition to adulthood, social care to assisted dying.

Prior to joining CHAS, Mona held a similar role at Cancer Research UK, and during this time was seconded into the Scottish Government’s Diet and Healthy Weight team.

Mona is a Member of Children in Need’s Scotland Advisory Committee, helping to advise the Trustees of BBC Children in Need on grant awards in Scotland.