Amanda leads on Strategy and Performance for the Scottish Police Authority, having joined in February 2021 from a role in West Dunbartonshire Council as the performance advisor the Chief Executive and Elected Members, leading a team responsible for: Strategic Planning & Performance; Data Analysis; Policy; Consultation & Engagement; Equalities; Community Planning; Partnerships and Local Scrutiny.

As the Head of Strategy & Performance for the SPA Amanda leads the Authority’s approach to developing and reviewing the national policing strategy, maintaining a system of performance assurance and reporting to support best value, and maintaining public confidence in policing. Amanda’s career has been spent in the public sector, working across Local Government, NHS, and Non-Departmental Public Bodies. In addition, Amanda has held a number of non-executive public and voluntary appointments including Non-Executive Director of NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde.

Audrey is a graduate of a number of world leading UK Universities, including Oxford University’s Said Business School. Having graduated in Edinburgh, Audrey moved to Bristol University to undertake research within the field of sports psychology. Following this, she left the University sector and moved into private industry before returning to the education sector where she has held senior roles for the past 24 years.

Prior to her current role Audrey led and delivered a large scale, £70m merger resulting in the formation of West College Scotland. Audrey’s reputation as a visionary innovator has resulted in her holding a number of high profile national positions such as Board member of the Scottish Funding Council (responsible for £1.8billion funding for colleges and universities) and the Scottish Government’s Enterprise & Skills Strategic Board – responsible for improving the overall performance of the economy by ensuring that the whole Enterprise and Skills System, with a combined budget of over £2billion, delivers Scotland's Economic Strategy. In May 2022, Audrey was appointed by the Scottish Government to the National Strategy for Economic Transformation Delivery Board.

In addition, Audrey represented Scotland on the UK’s first Independent Commission on the ‘College of the Future’, Chaired by Sir Ian Diamond. In 2020, Audrey, along with Paul Little published the ‘Cumberford-Little Report’, commissioned by Scottish Government Ministers to consider the economic impact of colleges.

Audrey’s career has spanned both the private and education sector and underpins Audrey’s passion and drive to ensure tertiary education in Scotland plays a fundamental role in supporting businesses across the country - embedding a symbiotic relationship between the business community and Scotland’s colleges as providers of vocational and technical education, business support and skills training.

Graeme Downie is Founder and Director of Crimson Bridge Communications, a public affairs and strategic communications company based in Fife. He has worked in communications for over twenty years, building strategic campaigns for organisations to educate, influence and help deliver their agenda.

He was previously a Director at Orbit Communications and Head of Communications in Scotland & Northern Ireland for innovation charity, Nesta and has worked in consultancy in London and Brussels.

Graeme has worked across a broad range of sectors including charities, food & drink, transport, construction, housing, health and energy.

 https://www.linkedin.com/in/graemedownie/ 

Associate Professor of Public Leadership and Management in the Department of Leadership and HRM at Northumbria University. He is also current Chair of the Joint University Council, the UK learned society for public administration, public policy and social work. His research includes work on public leadership, organisational change in the public sector and community empowerment.

Jackie is Co-head of the Brodies Government and Business Team. She is a public law specialist with particular experience and expertise in the local government sector where she worked in-house for a substantial period of time. She regularly advises on the full breadth of local authority activity including social care, education, housing and roads as well as in relation to conduct and good governance. She also advises clients in relation to major infrastructure process working closely with colleagues in Real Estate and Planning in relation to compulsory purchase and statutory consents. Jackie’s client base includes a number of Scottish local authorities.

Jackie also acts on behalf of a number of registered social landlords as well as the Scottish Housing Regulator. Her regulatory practice also extends to advising and supporting care providers in connection with investigations and regulatory interventions in addition to advising clients in the independent schools sector in relation to regulation, standards and good governance.

Ryan is an Occupational psychologist with over 10 years’ experience specialising in employee engagement, wellbeing, and organisational culture. He has led global employee research programmes for organisations including Tesco, Nestle, HSBC and the NHS and delivered keynotes on employee experience at the global Amazon EX summit in Seattle. Ryan is the Client Director at KultraLab, a digital coaching platform fusing behavioural science and technology. He is driven by one simple belief that everyone deserves to have good days at work.

Jill Vickerman is an independent consultant specialising in providing advice and delivering solutions within the public and third sector. She is also the Deputy Chair of the Board of the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR).

Between 2013 and 2023, Jill was the National Director of the British Medical Association (BMA) in Scotland. During this time she led the work of the BMA in Scotland, influencing national health policy, and working on behalf of doctors and training doctors in Scotland. Prior to 2013, Jill spent 26 working for the Scottish Government in a range of different roles and departments, initially as an analyst where she led the analytical services for the health and social care department, and latterly as head of policy for health quality in Scotland. In this latter role, Jill worked with the NHS and with the third sector to develop the Quality Strategy and the 2020 Vision for health and social care in Scotland.

Over the period 2013-2017 Jill was a trustee for Erskine Hospital, the veteran’s charity, where she was a board member, and sat on the care governance committee and the audit and risk committee.