Board of Management

Liz Connolly

Liz was appointed as Principal of West College Scotland on 3 September 2018, she was formerly Vice-Principal Corporate Development. 

She was born and brought up in the East End of Glasgow and has an honours degree and an MBA from Strathclyde University. She attended Harvard University to study Executive Development.

Liz worked for the Scottish Development Agency before its merger with the Training Agency in 1991 to become Scottish Enterprise. She then spent the next 16 years with Scottish Enterprise, becoming Chief Executive of three separate Local Enterprise Companies, as well as Operations Director for the West of Scotland.

Liz left the organization in 2010 to spend time working on charity projects, including the building of a community centre in a village in South Africa. She has since assisted in similar projects in Nepal and Cambodia.

Before joining West College Scotland, she project-managed the merger of Anniesland, Cardonald and Langside Colleges to create Glasgow Clyde College.

She is a board member of Targeting Innovation and has recently joined the board of Interface, which connects organisations from national and international industries to Scotland’s 23 higher education and research institutes.

Jim Hannigan

A former student of Reid Kerr College, Jim was formerly Director of Asset Management and Product Development for Doosan Babcock, based in Renfrew. Joining Babcock straight from school, and having served his time as an apprentice Jim then graduated with an honours degree in Metallurgy from University of Strathclyde in 1990.

After a number of years operating in the engineering and technical arena, Jim’s career moved more toward business development and management and in 2008 he graduated with an MBA from University of Strathclyde Business School. He is a professional member of IOM3 and has been a Chartered Engineer since 1994.

Jim is currently the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS) Skills Programme Manager with Skills Development Scotland (SDS), where he is responsible for leading the development of the skills proposition for the Manufacturing Skills Academy.

He has a particular interest in both organisational culture and people development, striving to give young people the opportunity and support required to grow toward achieving their career aspirations.

Linda Johnston

Linda is the Business Strategy Manager at North Lanarkshire Council and has extensive experience of change and transformation programmes, redesigning public sector services to meet the varying needs of users .  With a passion for supporting others to reach their full potential Linda has led the development of School/Employer partnerships to offer young people the opportunity to develop life skills, created job opportunities and mentoring support for young people with complex needs and supports young entrepreneurs to grow and develop sustainable business models.

Linda has chaired national policy groups, including the development of the public sector complaint’s handling procedures on behalf of the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman and has successfully delivered a number of high profile events.  These include the triathlon and time trial events for G2014 Commonwealth Games, the British Transplant Games where she welcomed over 1200 transplant athletes and their families to North Lanarkshire and designed a marketing campaign to increase the number of sign-ups to the Organ Donor Register in Scotland. More recently, Linda was Chair of the Local Organising Committee to deliver the Go Live festival event at Strathclyde Country Park as part of the Glasgow 2018 European Sporting Championships with over 20,000 local people attending the activities.  

Douglas Bayley

Dougie joined West of College Scotland in January 2019 as support staff for the Construction team. He has spent the majority of his career in the rail industry and undertaking a variety of roles within the industry both in the UK and overseas.  During this time Dougie was responsible for delivering fencing and vegetation contracts on the rail infrastructure. 

After settling down in West Dunbartonshire and developing a love for the Dumbarton FC he took up a change of career which he was successfully recruited into in the College and has not look back since.

Outside of work Dougie’s interests centre around his family and takes great joy in his 2 grandchildren and encouraging them to spend time creatively and in the great outdoors.  Dougie’s family underline his commitment to ensuring that there are the right support structures and opportunities for all young people to enable them to achieve their career goals.

Gordon Hunt

Graeme Bold

Paul Sefton

Ronald Leitch

Ronald, from Paisley, started his career at Glasgow Airport as a Modern Apprentice in partnership with Reid Kerr College back in October 2000.  He has held numerous senior roles at the airport and the wider AGS Airport group with a range of leadership responsibilities across our airside, rescue and fire,  security, terminal, engineering, and capital investment.

From 2015 to 2019, Ronald led the Capital and Engineering functions where he was  responsible for delivering capital investment programmes totalling £70 million, including the replacement of the airport’s baggage systems to meet Standard 3 compliance and also major refurbishment programmes in the terminal and airfield. Ronald also played a crucial role in bringing the iconic A380 aircraft into service at Glasgow in 2019, which was a first for Scottish aviation, using his experience in operations to lead design development and construction delivery.  

Now the leader of Glasgow Airport in the role of Operations Director, he has led the business over the last two years through its most difficult time and looks forward positively to better times ahead.  

With his wealth of knowledge and experience across two decades in aviation, Ronald has joined the Board with a desire to support and assist those in Education harness links with industry and be part of shaping the future of West College Scotland for its staff and students to ensure the best learning opportunities exist in the communities it serves.