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.

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

Sandor Nagy

Jane McKie

Until the end of the academic session 2020-21, Jane was Vice Principal – People at Ayrshire College, a role she had held since regionalisation in 2013. A dedicated public servant, Jane is a highly experienced and dedicated HR and OD professional, with an extensive working career, both in the NHS and the college sector.  Jane held a variety of NHS roles, finishing that part of her career in NHS Ayrshire & Arran as Assistant O&HRD Director for Policy and Performance, before moving to the former Kilmarnock College in 2008 as Director of Organisational Development.  This new career move enabled Jane to understand and be part of the transformational role that colleges can play in changing people’s lives and developing their careers.

 Whilst taking on the role of board member is new to her, Jane’s executive leadership experience enables her to be very aware of the significance of first class corporate governance, particularly where key strategic decisions are required during times of change and development and financial constraints.   Jane is a firm believer in the principles of staff governance and that a positive organisational culture, meaningful values and the investment in, and wellbeing of, staff underpin a successful and healthy organisation for the benefit of all stakeholders. She remains passionate about supporting the sector and continues to be inspired by what colleges and their staff do so well to enable students to achieve their ambitions and to maximise their potential, benefitting their communities and local employers.

George Rice

George has been a member of the lecturing staff at West College Scotland since January 2016 and previously taught evening classes at City of Glasgow College. He formerly worked as a member of support staff in the college from 2010.

He was born and brought up in Alexandria and now lives in Dumbarton, having previously lived in Stirling while completing his undergraduate degree. He has a BA (Hons) and MSc from the University of Stirling and a MLitt from the University of Dundee.

George was formerly a shop steward for UNISON for a period of seven years, including during the merger of Clydebank, Reid Kerr and James Watt Colleges to form West College Scotland. He has taken part in negotiation and consultation with senior managers both locally and at national level.

He has a passion for the FE sector and is focused on ensuring that the college strives to serve the local community and, in particular, those from disadvantaged backgrounds in order to improve their life chances.