APEX BOARD
The Apex Scotland Board is responsible for the governance of the organisation. This includes ensuring the organisation is well managed and run in terms of finance, service delivery and reputation. It agrees strategic objectives with the Corporate Management Team and works with them to ensure that these objectives are met.
The current Board members are:
Born and brought up in Edinburgh, Ann graduated with an MA (Hons) in History from the University of Edinburgh followed by a PG Cert in Youth & Community Work from Aberdeen College of Education.
Ann worked as a community education worker and lived in Aberdeenshire for more than 30 years becoming a head of service for Culture and Learning at Aberdeen City Council. During this period, Ann also graduated with an M.Ed from the University of Aberdeen and a Diploma in Change Management from the Robert Gordon University.
At the end of 2011, Ann moved from the statutory sector to the voluntary sector and started work with Crisis, the national charity for homeless people. As director of Crisis Skylight Edinburgh for 7 years Ann established and developed the charity’s outreach services delivering education, training and one-to-one support to homeless people in Edinburgh.
Ann is Vice Chair of the Board of Edinburgh College, a trustee of the Edinburgh Development Trust and the Secretary of Southside Community Choir.
Ann has three adult sons, two of whom live in Edinburgh. The eldest lives with his family in Kuala Lumpur.
Kathrine graduated from the University of Edinburgh BA LLB. She was admitted as a Solicitor in 1978 and practised principally in the field of civil litigation. She was accredited by the Law Society of Scotland as a specialist in Medical Negligence. From 1994 until 1997 she served as the first female President of the Society of Solicitors in the Supreme Courts of Scotland, and was appointed as a Sheriff in 2000, sitting principally in Edinburgh.
Kathrine was a member of the former National Group to Address Violence against Women, and chaired a multi-agency group responsible for establishing and monitoring a pilot Domestic Abuse Court in Edinburgh and thereafter, in 2015, a Domestic Abuse Court. She was one of six Sheriffs designated to sit in the All Scotland Personal Injury Court, was Chair of the Edinburgh Sheriff Court Personal Injury Users Group, a member of the Scottish Civil Justice Council Personal Injury Committee and the Court of Session PI Users Group.
Kathrine retired from the judiciary in April 2018 but still holds a commission to sit as required. She is an advisor to the Board of Community Justice Scotland, a member of the Independent Prison Monitors Advisory Group, a member of the RRT Advisory Group and Chair of the Applecross Community Forum.
Kathrine is married with one adult daughter and a black Labrador. In her spare time she acts as a Judicial Officer in rugby and other sporting disciplinary bodies.
Karen graduated from the University of Stirling in 2006 with a BA joint (Hons) in Criminology and Sociology. After working in the private sector she moved into the third sector where a passion for all things prevention and early intervention were realised through innovative service delivery, service design and partnership working.
Karen began her employment with Apex Scotland as a frontline practitioner, gaining invaluable experience and developing a bespoke skillset through the partnership with Venture Trust and delivering services for criminal justice, SPS, DWP and local authority contracts before developing into leadership roles. Her greatest privilege and professional achievement to date is the development of the RE:SET – revising youth mindset service (formerly Apex Inclusion), which she grew from one school to a national service; creating a bespoke curricula to improve outcomes for children and young people at risk of exclusion. Karen also worked in the evenings as a youth worker in Fife for 10 years, serving intermediates and seniors in Kennoway, Leven and Methil.
After a rewarding 12 years at Apex Scotland, Karen stepped into the public sector as one of Education Scotland’s Attainment Advisors. Karen plays a strong role in linking the work of Education Scotland, Scottish Government and Local Authorities to improve educational attainment and to reduce the attainment gap between children and young people from the least and most socially disadvantaged backgrounds.
Karen lives in Fife with her husband, children and their pet dog. In her spare time she enjoys catching up with friends and family, going for walks, listening to music, being part of her church assembly and reading.
Gordon was a police officer with 30 years’ experience managing a wide range of responsibilities, including setting direction and overseeing delivery of child protection/MAPPA/ and domestic abuse. He was a senior investigating officer for 15 years and was head of Crime Management Training nationally. Gordon has delivered strategic management training nationally and internationally. He has extensive experience in working with multi agency partners across a wide range of issues. Gordon chaired and sat on national working groups influencing direction of travel including crime management and the management of substance abuse in communities. He has a passion for early intervention informed by his work within the criminal justice system.
He has also, most recently, worked within the higher education environment where he helped drive enhanced university approaches to mental health first response and in particular to supporting strategy and practice around gender based violence and enhanced 24 hour first response support for students generally. He was chair of the national security association within Scotland and sat on the UK board. He has travelled abroad reviewing university security and protest management arrangements in Hong Kong.
He lives in Alloa with his family and labrador. He loves football and follows Falkirk Football Club.
Stephen is currently Head of Practice and Policy at Children’s Hearings Scotland. Prior to this he held management roles in the voluntary sector, NHS, Local Government and the Children’s Commissioner’s Office.
In his free time Stephen enjoys playing football and basketball. He loves spending his holidays hill walking and wild camping in the North West of Scotland.
Claire is a licensed insolvency practitioner and chartered accountant, working with individuals, company directors, partnerships on formal insolvency appointments, solvent restructuring and risk reviews.
Recognised within her peer group, Claire has been asked to speak at industry conferences on various matters within insolvency as well as being consulted on a regular basis by members of the professional community, primarily within the central belt of Scotland but also across the UK. Claire has in-depth knowledge of the licensed trade, payroll agencies, agriculture, construction, legal firms, and the leisure industry. She is a member of R3, the trade body for insolvency professionals.
Claire joined the Apex Board in January 2022.
CORPORATE LEADERSHIP TEAM
The corporate leadership team have responsibility for the day to day running of the organisation. They provide the managerial leadership and are responsible for the development and implementation of the organisational strategy.
Email: emma.wilson@apexscotland.org.uk
Emma joined Apex in 2008 as a frontline practitioner working in a consortium, Turnaround, in West Dunbartonshire, supporting males experiencing the justice system with the first point of contact being in the Court cells. The Turnaround project offered holistic support to contribute to the reduction in the cyclical offending pattern.
Emma’s whole career journey has been with Apex, who accomplished her MSc in Applied Social Research (Criminology) also in 2008, graduating around the same time as her start date with Apex. This was achieved at University of Stirling and prior to that Emma had achieved a BSc (Hons) Criminology and Sociology. Emma’s early career passion was to support individuals experiencing the justice system and is interested in particular, in the social context of crime, the environment and life experiences that perpetuate it.
In 2010 Emma moved into the role of Business Development Officer covering the North of Scotland, supporting operational managers to develop services and to comprise funding applications. In 2012 Emma moved into an operational management role as Service Development Manager covering Forth Valley, Fife and Tayside. Emma managed an array of services and teams within her remit including justice social work partnerships, DWP interventions and young people’s services.
Emma joined the Apex Corporate Management team in 2018 as Depute Director of Operations, working alongside the then Director of Operations to oversee all of Apex’s operational services. In early 2022 Emma was appointed into the Director of Operations role as part of a strategic refocus on areas of work.
Emma oversees the organisation’s practice and is committed to high practice standards desiring to use a highly reflective approach with teams to ensure the most impactful experience for both staff and for people who use the services. Emma is also the lead for Apex’s implementation of trauma policy and the application of trauma informed practice into organisational systems and processes. Emma is particularly interested in developing strategic relationships and joining up the dots with service provision in local areas.
Emma is also interested in early intervention and facilitating the voices of people to be heard, and hopes to have an impact in this area as Chair of her son’s Parent Council. In her spare time Emma enjoys long, brisk walks and hill gazing, being fortunate enough to live under a view of the Ochils and finds this is one of the best ways to de-stress and gain perspective.
CENTRAL SUPPORT
The central support team helps to ensure that the organisation runs efficiently and compliantly, providing a range of services for Apex staff and partner organisations.
Lynn Hannah, Central Support Manager
Lynn is senior administrator of Apex, managing a team which provides a full range of administrative services for the organisation and Board, including resources and events.
Email: lynn.hannah@apexscotland.org.uk
Derek Milligan, Health, Safety and Welfare, and Training Officer
Derek looks after and advises on all aspects of Apex’s health and safety requirements. He is Apex’s primary trainer, ensuring quality of delivery to service users and external organisations.
Email: derek.milligan@apexscotland.org.uk
Callum Gibson, Vocational Activity Officer
Callum is responsible for the implementation of the workforce development programme and the content on Apex’s STACC training portal for clients and staff.
Email: callum.gibson@apexscotland.org.uk
Silvana Watson, Best Practice Manager
Silvana provides operational support to the Director of Services and Programmes and oversees compliance of national contracts.
Email: silvana.watson@apexscotland.org.uk
Gareth Thomas, Service Development Manager
Gareth is the implementation lead for trauma policy and the Partners in Change project. Gareth also leads on early intervention strategy and manages the RESET service.
Email: gareth.thomas@apexscotland.org.uk
SERVICE DEVELOPMENT MANAGERS
Apex teams are managed by Service Development Managers and/or Team Leaders who are responsible for the operational day to day activities in each area as well as working with local partners and funders to achieve the best outcomes for our service users.
Chris Holloway (Interim)
North West – Highlands and Islands
Email: chris.holloway@apexscotland.org.uk
Rioghnach Armstrong
North East and Tayside – Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Dundee
Email: rioghnach.armstrong@apexscotland.org.uk
Ann Mathieson
Central – Forth Valley, Fife, Glasgow and West
Email: ann.mathieson@apexscotland.org.uk
Paul Belton
Central – Edinburgh
Email: paul.belton@apexscotland.org.uk
Mhairi Ross
South and South West – Dumfries and Galloway
Email: mhairi.ross@apexscotland.org.uk