Board of Management

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The Board of Management is responsible for overseeing the College’s activities, determining its future direction and fostering an environment in which the College’s vision is achieved. Members are appointed following a fair, open and merit-based recruitment process, and the Board also includes the College Principal, elected members of staff and representatives of the Student Association.

Board of Management

Keith McKellar
Keith McKellar, Chair of the Board of Management

Keith McKellar

Keith McKellar was appointed as Regional Chair of West College Scotland in March 2014. He is also Chief Executive Officer of the Hannah Dairy Research Foundation (a Scottish scientific and education research charity) and a non-executive director of Colleges Scotland. He has held a number of CEO positions and non-executive roles within the research, education and commercial sectors. Most recently in October 2019 Keith was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
Liz Connolly
Principal & Chief Executive

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.
Jacqueline Henry
Vice Chair of the Board of Management

Jacqueline Henry

Jacqueline Henry has a wide ranging experience in the education and wider public sector fields. Previously the Convener of Education for Renfrewshire Council, she has held a number of senior posts in education including Lecturer in Childhood and Primary studies at the University of Strathclyde, where she was Course Director of the BA Childhood Practice and the Early Childhood Education Postgraduate programmes.

In this latter post she worked closely with Colleges as part of joint course teams. Over the course of her career, Jacqueline has worked in West Dunbartonshire, Inverclyde and Renfrewshire - where she lives - and knows the areas well.

Outside of work and politics Jacqueline's interests centre on family, friends, reading and travel.
Nick Allan
Board of Management

Nick Allan

Nick brings over 35 years of business experience to his position with West College Scotland, having spent his career working within the property sector.

A chartered surveyor, he is the managing director of Nick Allan and Associates Ltd, providing strategic property advice across the private, public and voluntary sector.

In addition he is a Non-Executive director on various boards spanning the built environment, social housing, community empowerment and economic regeneration sectors.

His knowledge and experience, coupled with his passion and enthusiasm for education, are the cornerstones of his aim to continue to successfully develop links between industry, professional bodies and the college.
Jim Hannigan
Board of Management

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.
Andrew Hetherington
Board of Management

Andrew Hetherington

Dr Andrew Hetherington, (recently retired ) has wide experience and has worked as a Chief Executive, General Manager and in specific high level environmental management roles. Andrew has 35 years direct experience in the field of Environmental Initiatives and is recognised internationally as an expert and is regularly requested to attend as a key note speaker.

A qualified Environmental Practitioner Andrew is a founding director and member ( by examination) of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment of which he was elected as it's first Chair. An Honorary Fellow for services to the Environment, he is also a Chartered Environmentalist.

Andrew was a member of the James Watt College, Board of Management prior to the creation of West College Scotland.
Jenifer Johnston
Board of Management

Jenifer Johnston

Jenifer Johnston is the External Affairs manager at Citizens Advice Scotland. She has previously worked as a senior journalist at the Sunday National and Sunday Herald newspapers, as Communications and Outreach Manager for the Scottish Human Rights Commission, as part of the communications team during the Bid phase for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, and as a press officer for the Scottish Government. She has a BA in History from the University of Strathclyde, and an MSc in Chinese Studies from the University of Glasgow.
John McMillan
Board of Management

John McMillan

Coming from a legal background and after training with a large commercial practice, John spent most of his career in the public sector, working for Scottish Enterprise, Scotland's economic development agency, where he was, for a number of years, a senior legal manager.

He served on the Board of Management of Reid Kerr College from 2011, latterly as Chair of the Change Committee, in anticipation of the creation of West College Scotland. He has a strong interest in legal and governance matters is currently the Chair of the Audit Committee and is the Senior Independent Person on the Board.

As regards hobbies, John is a member of his local golf club in Paisley, and support the local football team.
Mark Newlands
Board of Management

Mark Newlands

Mark is Head of Partnerships for Scottish Enterprise with responsibility for the West of Scotland incorporating the Glasgow City Region and Ayrshire. Prior to this role Mark was the Head of Trade & Investment for Technology and Engineering in SDI. He joined SDI in 2007 to set up their International Education team working with Universities and Colleges and has developed extensive national and international networks with experience of doing business globally.

He has over 25 years’ experience in working with the Education sector in Scotland holding various teaching and support roles in Kilmarnock and Cardonald Colleges before joining Scottish Enterprise as Brand Manager for the Modern Apprenticeship Programme and working on a range of skills programmes for young people.

He has retained a passion for Education since his early days as a school teacher in Ayrshire and brings this passion and ambition for the college sector to his work on the board.
Linda Johnston
Board of Management

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.
John Leburn
Board of Management

John Leburn

A qualified Chartered Accountant, John has enjoyed a long and varied career with many blue-chip organisations. Well known for his “left-field” thinking, John has a strong track record of implementing best practice throughout all major areas of a business or organisation.

His experience spans many sectors such as Audit; FMCG; Infrastructure; Defence; Aerospace, Wines and Spirits and SME’s. He has managed Finance, IT, Business Analysis; Customer Service, Strategic Planning, Consumer Intelligence, Commercial Development, Supply Chain and Investor Relations functions – contributing new ways of thinking to many of them.

John is a Principal Consultant for Exponentiate.uk, providing a wide range of business support services (Strategy, Leadership, Change Management and Business Modelling) to a varied client base.
Angela Wilson
Board of Management

Angela Wilson

Angela joined West Dunbartonshire Council as Director in March 2012. She has strategic oversight of wide ranging services which help to support the day to day running of the Council, providing a positive workplace and delivering better outcomes for the citizens of West Dunbartonshire. These services help to improve the lives of all who work, live and visit the area.

Angela’s career to date has been in the public sector, having previously held posts in Central Government in her early days prior to moving to Local Government in 1996 where she joined South Lanarkshire Council’s Personnel Services team and worked there for 11 years. A promotion opportunity saw Angela join South Ayrshire Council in late 2007 and she enjoyed over 4 years as the Head of HR and Customer Services.

As a member of CIPD, Angela has enjoyed professional roles in Local Government including HR Adviser to CoSLA and President of Society of Personnel Directors Scotland enabling cross council working, and collaborative engagement with Trade Unions and colleagues at a national level. She continues to be involved in Scotland wide partnerships across the public sector and is a member of Solace Scotland.
David Watson
Teaching Staff Member on the Board

David Watson

David joined West College Scotland in 2015 before which he held various FE teaching and management positions since 1997. With over 20 years’ experience as a Teaching and Learning professional, he now brings that experience to the Board.

Before becoming a Full Time lecturer he worked as a Design Engineer in the private sector or multinationals that included Cookson, Schlumberger and Marconi. He is a graduate of the Universities of Strathclyde and Stirling.

David’s hobbies include playing golf in Ayrshire and piano.
Vanessa Thompson
Students' Association President

Vanessa Thompson
Steven Cairney
Support Staff Member on the Board

Steven Cairney

Steven has worked in the College since it’s inception in 2013 and is currently Quality Standards Coordinator. Before this, he held various positions since 2008 at the legacy Clydebank College. With over 11 years’ experience within the FE sector, he now brings that experience to the Board.

Before coming to work at the College, Steven worked in the retail industry for four years in several front-facing customer service roles. He is a Business Management graduate of Glasgow Caledonian University.

Steven regularly enjoys an outing to the theatre and loves to spend his down-time with family and friends.