Board Members

Kirsty Darwent - Chair of the Board

Dr Kirsty Darwent took up office as Chair on 11 December 2017 having served on the SFRS Board since the Service’s inception. She has wide ranging leadership experience within the charitable and public sector and a professional background as a Chartered Psychologist and Systemic Psychotherapist. She has a substantive governance experience and is the Chair of the Scottish Agricultural Wages Board, Chair of Relationships Scotland, a Director with the Family Therapy Training Network and the former Vice-Chair of the Board of NHS Ayrshire and Arran Director. She is committed to widening diversity and a collegiate culture that ensure that different perspectives contribute to board effectiveness.

Fiona Thorburn - Deputy Chair

Fiona’s career spanned roles in publishing, utilities and financial services. She has successfully led significant change management functions, played a key strategic leadership role in the delivery of major change programmes and has an MBA from Strathclyde Business School. She is currently running her own business designing, making and restoring furniture.

Nick Barr

Nick is a former British Red Cross UK director for ambulance and first aid services. He has over 30 years' experience in operational and emergency service delivery and leadership in the public and 3rd sectors, including the Royal Air Force and the Scottish Ambulance Service as a divisional manager. He has recent leadership experience in large-scale change management and clinical governance. He was awarded an MBE in 2002.

Brian Baverstock

Brian is a qualified accountant and independent consultant specialising in public sector governance and risk management. Before consultancy, Brian had a long career in the public sector in Scotland, during which he has led a number of transformational change programmes, including being the founding Chief Executive of APUC Ltd, the procurement Centre of Expertise for Scotland’s universities and colleges. Brian has held a number of non-executive director roles in the public and voluntary sectors. He is currently on the Board of the Scottish Legal Aid Board.

Lesley Bloomer

Lesley has wide ranging leadership experience in Scotland’s public sector. She was an Executive Director responsible for Economy, Neighborhood and Environment functions with a local authority. This role involved substantial transformation work as services sought to improve performance despite reducing budgets. Lesley was also responsible in this job for liaison with emergency services. Lesley was a Director with Audit Scotland covering performance across Economy, Education and Justice policy areas in Scotland. This work led to her acting as an adviser to organisations on how to improve their performance. Lesley is an experienced non-executive director, and was formerly Deputy Chair of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and a board member of the Care Commission.

Malcolm Payton

Malcolm began his career as a teacher of mathematics, moving to ICT as improvements in technology provided opportunities to develop innovative approaches. He spent more than ten years in senior roles in education that included being Head of a group of schools, Local Authority Head of Education and Professional Advisor to the Scottish Government Education Department. Since 2007, Malcolm has worked independently, supporting education system development in the UK, Middle East and Asia. His main interest is in how the symbiotic relationship between strategy and operational practice can best be leveraged to deliver sustainable change. Malcolm also helps lead local youth groups. He is a Trustee of Capability Scotland and of Scotdec, which promotes the UN Sustainable Development Goals in education.

Tim Wright

Tim Wright is an experienced management consultant having worked with a number of high profile professional service firms and having held senior roles in a number of private sector companies. He is currently a director of a consultancy which he co founded. An acknowledged thinker and practitioner in the emerging field of the crowd economy Tim is a published author, an experienced speaker and an advisor on the Buckminster Fuller Challenge.

Mhairi Wylie

Mhairi graduated from Aberdeen University in 2004 and has since been actively involved and employed in the Third Sector in various roles and activities. She is currently the Chief Officer with Highland Third Sector Interface and prior to that worked with Ross and Cromarty Citizens Advice Bureau for seven years, the final four as Manager. Mhairi has previously sat on the Board of Ross-Shire Women’s Aid and was a member of the Children’s Panel in Highland for just under six years retiring in 2015.

Stuart Ballingall

Stuart is an experienced finance professional whose career spans banking, insurance and asset management. He has wide leadership experience from Bank of Scotland and Tesco Bank where he was involved in strategic planning and financial management. Throughout his career he has led a number of strategic change programmes. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland and a Fellow of the Chartered Banker Institute.

Steve Barron

Steve served as Chief Executive of Highland Council until 2018 and, in that role, chaired the Resilience Partnership. His career background is in Property, Housing and FM services with broad experience in Local Government, the NHS and in the Business sector. His work has given him clear insights into the challenges facing remote and rural communities and he supports diverse approaches which promote equality of outcomes across Scotland. Steve is also a member of the Public Health Scotland Board and promotes a whole system approach to wellbeing and resilience.

Angiolina Foster

Angiolina is a respected public service leader whose work has spanned local government, national government and the third sector. She most recently held a Chief Executive position within Scotland’s NHS. In all her roles, she has aimed to put people at the heart of service design and delivery. This has afforded her rich learning in leadership, strategy and service transformation. She was awarded a CBE in 2011 for her contribution to Scotland’s public services. Angiolina is also a voluntary Trustee with Playlist for Life, a dementia music charity, and with The Big Noise, a charity dedicated to transforming children’s lives through music.

Paul Stollard

Paul Stollard trained as an architect and is also a chartered fire safety engineer. He has run an architectural technology consultancy, worked in universities, and written a number of books on fire safety and architecture. He led the reform of the Scottish Building Standards and was also the Scottish Regional Director of the Health and Safety Executive. On behalf of Scottish Ministers, he recently chaired the expert review panel into building fire safety standards following the Grenfell Tower tragedy.