Chair:
Sir Sandy Crombie

Sir Sandy Crombie is currently Senior Independent Director of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc. He retired from Standard Life on 31st December 2009 after 43 years service, having been Group Chief Executive since January 2004 and Chief Executive of Standard Life Investments Limited from its launch in 1998. He was a member of the (former) Chancellor of the Exchequer’s High Level Group on Financial Services, served on the board of the association of British Insurers and was the Chairman of the Edinburgh World City of Literature Trust (November 2006-20 June 2011).  He is Vice Chairman of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, President of the Cockburn Association, and became chair of Creative Scotland on its establishment on 1 July 2010. Sir Sandy received a Knighthood for services to the insurance industry in Scotland in the 2009 New Year’s Honours List.

Peter Cabrelli

Peter has over 25 years’ international business experience, most recently as Group Human Resources Director of HBOS plc where he was closely involved in the large and complex merger of Bank of Scotland and the Halifax. Educated at St Andrews University and the London School of Economics, Peter has wide board-level experience, including directorship of several service subsidiaries of the Pearson Group. He has a broad view of business and cultural practices, having previously worked in London, Europe, Africa, and the Middle and Far East, including spells with ITT in Brussels and with Standard Chartered Bank in Hong Kong. Peter combines keen and regular theatre-going (he is a Director of the National Theatre of Scotland) with an active involvement in sport and recreation as Chairman of the National Playing Fields Association in Scotland. He is also a Non-executive Member of Court at the University of St Andrews and is Chairman of the Trustees of the university’s pension plan and was a member of the Board of Creative Scotland 2009 Limited.

Barclay Price

Barclay’s career has spanned employment in a bank; setting up and performing in a community-based theatre company; supporting the creation of small craft businesses; developing cultural policy; and engaging business with the arts. He worked in London for over 25 years and returned to Scotland to be Depute Director of the Scottish Arts Council. In 2001 he became the Scottish Office Director of Arts & Business, an organisation that works to encourage business engagement with, and support for, the cultural sector.

Steve Grimmond

Steve is Executive Director, Housing and Communities at Fife Council with responsibilities spanning housing, culture, sport, greenspace and community learning and development. He has previously held Director, Chief Officer and Executive posts across Culture and Sport at Aberdeenshire Council and Dundee City Council. He is an Executive Member and previous Chair of VOCAL (Voice of Chief Officers for Cultural, Community and Leisure Services in Scotland); a Governor of Adam Smith College; a Director of the Collective Gallery, Edinburgh; and a Non Executive Director of a number of cultural, sporting and voluntary sector organisations. He is also a practising artist.

Dr Gary West

Gary is a traditional musician, piper and broadcaster, and is currently Head of the Department of Celtic and Scottish Studies at the University of Edinburgh. Dr Gary West learned his piping with the much acclaimed Vale of Atholl pipe band with whom he played for 18 years winning both the Scottish and European Championships. His teaching and research interests include issues of local and national identity; the history of Scottish music, revivals and oral history. Gary presents BBC Radio Scotland’s weekly specialist piping programme, Pipeline. He is in regular demand as a recording session player, and has performed on over 20 CDs. More recent releases include his first solo album, The Islay Ball, and Hinterlands, a collaboration with harpist Wendy Stewart.

Professor Robin MacPherson

Robin is Professor of Screen Media, Director of the Institute for Creative Industries at Edinburgh Napier University and the founding Director of Screen Academy Scotland – A Skillset Film and Media Academy. The Institute, launched in 2011, aims to help creative practitioners, businesses and organisations prosper and flourish through accessing the knowledge and expertise of its staff, associates and partners.

The Academy, established in 2005, is a collaboration between Edinburgh Napier University and Edinburgh College of Art and is one of only two dual-status Skillset Film and Media Academies in the UK. Robin is also Project Director of ENGAGE, an EU MEDIA programme funded partnership between Edinburgh Napier and the national film schools of Ireland, Estonia and Finland which, since 2008, has provided talented new filmmakers from across Europe a unique opportunity to develop international collaborations.

Robin was a film and television producer from 1989 – 2004, producing a wide range of documentary, current affairs and drama for BBC, Channel 4 and ITV as well as international broadcasters. He received a UK BAFTA nomination in 1996 for his first drama production and a Scottish BAFTA nomination in 2004 for documentary. 

From 1999 to 2002 he was in charge of Script and Project Development for the national screen agency, Scottish Screen. He is a Board member of Creative Edinburgh and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Fergus Muir

Educated at Edinburgh University, Edinburgh College of Art and the City University, London.  He worked in the arts in London for ten years, and then joined the Home Civil Service in 1992, where his responsibilities included Head of Architecture in the Department for Culture Media and Sport. In 2003 Fergus was sent to Iraq where he worked as a member of the cultural team in the interim Iraq Government. In 2004 Fergus was awarded an OBE for his work in Iraq and was also made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects. In 2007 Fergus returned to his birthplace – the island of Islay in Argyll – where he runs a tourism-based business. Since returning to Islay, Fergus has worked towards learning Gaelic and is President of the Islay Gaelic Choir.  

May Miller

Brings to the board experience from her long career in broadcasting both in the public and private sector.  As Creative Director of Arts and Factual at BBC Scotland she oversaw an extensive range of output including the Culture Show, Artworks, Live 8 and the Film Programme with Jonathan Ross. Most recently she was Head of Talkbackthames Scotland and prior to that, Head of Mentorn Scotland. May is currently deputy chair of Bafta in Scotland, a member of RTS and a graduate of Common Purpose. Her main interests are music, architecture,  film, TV and Northern Renaissance art.

Richard Scott

Brings to the board over 25 years’ experience in the creative industries with a background in design and animation. Richard is the Managing Director and Executive Producer of Axis Animation, Scotland’s fastest growing animation studio. The studio has won BAFTA, Cannes Gold Lions and London International awards. Richard has spent the last four years growing the studio’s international reputation in Europe and the USA by building relationships with well-known names in the entertainment industry such as Warner Bros, Microsoft Games Studios, Disney, Sega and Sony Pictures. Throughout this time Richard has also been involved with Scottish colleges and art schools as well as speaking at a range of creative industry events.