Board Members
There are currently eleven members on the Board, including the Interim Chair. Membership normally lasts for three years after which time a new Board is selected, and at which point existing members are free to put themselves forward for selection again. The Board is selected according to the recommendations of the Nolan Committee.
Arthur Cormack - Interim Chair
Arthur Cormack is a renowned Gaelic singer and the Chief Executive of Fèisean nan Gàidheal. He was a member of the Board of the Scottish Arts Council and he has worked in the Gaelic arts, and has contributed to Gaelic development for many years. He was also involved in the establishment of the Gaelic recording company Macmeanmna and in the founding of Aros Limited, of which he was Chairman for 13 years.
Rob Dunbar
Dr Dunbar is a Reader in Law and Celtic at Aberdeen University and he is a Board member of the Gaelic Media Service. Dr Dunbar is from Canada originally and he is an expert on international law and how minority languages are dealt with under that law. He has published a number of essays on language planning and the status of minority languages within international law and within the law of individual countries.
Dr Michael Foxley
Dr Foxley is a family doctor in Lochaber where he lives. Dr Foxley is a councillor for Fort William and Ardnamurchan and he has been campaigning for Gaelic for a number of years. He is a member of Highland Council’s Gaelic Committee and also Education Culture and Sport Committee.
John Angus MacKay OBE
Mr MacKay is Chair of NHS Western Isles Board and a member of the Board of An Lanntair Arts Centre. He has worked in Gaelic and broadcast development since 1985, in periods as Director of Comunn na Gàidhlig; Chair of Sabhal Mòr Ostaig , the Gaelic Television Training Trust and Colmcille; and Director of the Gaelic Media Service.
Alasdair MacLeod
Mr MacLeod is the Gaelic Policy Officer and Deputy Communications Officer with Comhairle nan Eilean Siar. He was previously a Primary Headteacher for 17 years and is actively involved in several community initiatives. He is from Point in Lewis.
Faye MacLeod
Ms MacLeod is a chartered accountant with a degree in Gaelic. She graduated from Glasgow University with an honours degree in Gaelic and Management and she was the chair of the University's Ossianic Society. She is a partner with Campbell Stewart MacLennan in Portree on Skye and is originally from Barra. Through her work Ms MacLeod spends a number of days each month in the Western Isles.
Annie MacSween
Ms MacSween is the Head of Gaelic at Lews Castle College, UHI in Stornoway and she is a member of the SQA’s Gaelic Assessment Panel. Ms MacSween has been working in Gaelic development for many years and is involved in a number of groups as a result. She is from Ness in Lewis.
Christina Allon
Christina Allon is a native Gaelic speaker. She is a graduate of Edinburgh, Napier and the Robert Gordon Universities and is a Fellow of the RSA. Most of her 30 years in public service were spent as a Careers Adviser in the Highlands and as Chief Executive of career guidance organisations in the Grampian Region. She was appointed in 2001 to set up and run a new national agency merging together the functions and staff of over 60 localised careers services, education business partnerships, adult guidance networks and lifelong learning partnerships. Careers Scotland was subsequently recognised by the OECD as an international leader in the guidance field. Ms Allon recently retired from her strategic leadership role as Director of Careers Scotland.
Alexandra Jones
Alexandra Jones is Director of Strategic Planning at the Commonwealth Secretariat. She has previously served in the United Nations Development Programme (Indonesia and Nepal); as Chief Executive of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy; Deputy Director of the Commonwealth Foundation; and at the World Bank, and McKinsey and Co. She holds Masters’ degrees from Harvard, Oxford and London Universities, in languages and international relations. She is a fluent Gaelic speaker, and keenly involved in Gaelic music (deputy conductor of the London Gaelic Choir, a committee member of Comunn nan Còisir (Gaelic Choirs Association), and a Mòd Gold Medal finalist).
Kenneth MacKinnon
Kenneth MacKinnon has undertaken since the early 1970s twelve major research studies into Scotland’s Gaelic community, locally and nationally (as well as a study of Gaelic speakers in Nova Scotia). He has supervised numerous research studies into other minority speech-communities, and has undertaken a great deal of demographic analysis of Gaelic speakers over recent censuses. He currently holds professorial appointments at the Universities of Aberdeen and Hertfordshire, and is an associate lecturer of the Open University in Social Sciences, Education and Language Studies. He has been a member of the Ministerial Advisory Group on Gaelic and a member and consultant to Bòrd na Gàidhlig. He has also previously provided consultancy to Comunn na Gàidhlig, and more recently to the Western Isles Language Plan Project. Kenneth is also a board member of MG Alba.
Murdo MacLennan
Murdo MacLennan served as Chairman of the Western Isles Education Business Partnership from 1988-1998. He was Chairman and a Board member of Tighean Innse Gall, the housing agency for the Western Isles, from 1990-1998. His public appointments have included serving as Vice-Chairman and a non-executive director on the Western Isles Health Board from 1993-1998 and as Chief Executive from 1998-2003. For 3 years he was a member of the Scottish Land Fund from 2000. He is currently Director of Lewis Crofters Ltd and Commissioner for the Crofters Commission, Governor of Highland Theological College, Trustee of Bethesda Care Home and Hospice, Member of Highland and Islands Valuation Appeals Committee (Western Isles) and a Member of the Scottish Crofting Foundation.