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Bord na Gaidhlig
14/11/2007
Linda Fabiani, the Minister for Europe, External Affairs and Culture, has announced the appointments of Mrs Christina Allon, Ms Alexandra Jones, Professor Kenneth MacKinnon and Mr Murdo MacLennan to Bòrd na Gàidhlig.
Matthew MacIver, Chair of Bòrd na Gàidhlig, said:
"I am pleased to welcome four new members to our Board. They will add considerably to the range of experience and expertise the Board can call upon to help develop the Gaelic language and culture. We are delighted to have secured the services of four highly experienced and versatile people. This is a strong team that will help take forward the National Plan and Gaelic Language Plans amongst many other initiatives. We are very much looking forward to working with them for Gaelic over the months to come."
Christina Allon is a native Gaelic speaker. She is a graduate of Edinburgh, Napier and the Robert Gordon Universities and is a Fellow of the RSA. Most of her 30 years in public service were spent as a Careers Adviser in the Highlands and as Chief Executive of career guidance organisations in the Grampian Region. She was appointed in 2001 to set up and run a new national agency merging together the functions and staff of over 60 localised careers services, education business partnerships, adult guidance networks and lifelong learning partnerships. Careers Scotland was subsequently recognised by the OECD as an international leader in the guidance field. Ms Allon recently retired from her strategic leadership role as Director of Careers Scotland.
Alexandra Jones is Director of Strategic Planning at the Commonwealth Secretariat. She has previously served in the United Nations Development Programme (Indonesia and Nepal); as Chief Executive of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy; Deputy Director of the Commonwealth Foundation; and at the World Bank, and McKinsey and Co. She holds Masters' degrees from Harvard, Oxford and London Universities, in languages and international relations. She is a fluent Gaelic speaker, and keenly involved in Gaelic music (deputy conductor of the London Gaelic Choir, a committee member of Comunn nan Coisir (Gaelic Choirs Association), and a Mòd Gold Medal finalist).
Kenneth MacKinnon has undertaken since the early 1970s twelve major research studies into Scotland's Gaelic community, locally and nationally (as well as a study of Gaelic speakers in Nova Scotia.) He has supervised numerous research studies into other minority speech-communities, and has undertaken a great deal of demographic analysis of Gaelic speakers over recent censuses. He currently holds professorial appointments at the Universities of Aberdeen and Hertfordshire, and is an associate lecturer of the Open University in Social Sciences, Education and Language Studies. He has been a member of the Ministerial Advisory Group on Gaelic and a member and consultant to Bòrd na Gàidhlig. He has also previously provided consultancy to Comunn na Gàidhlig, and more recently to the Western Isles Language Plan Project.
Murdo MacLennan served as Chairman of the Western Isles Education Business Partnership from 1988-1998. He was Chairman and a Board member of Tigheann Innse Gall, the housing agency for the Western Isles, from 1990-1998. His public appointments have included serving as Vice-Chairman and a non executive director on the Western Isles Health Board from 1993-1998 and as Chief Executive from 1998-2003. For three years he was a member of the Scottish Land Fund from 2000. He is currently Director of Lewis Crofters Ltd, Governor of Highland Theological College, Trustee of Bethesda Care Home and Hospice, Member of Highland and Islands Valuation Appeals Committee (Western Isles) and a Member of the Scottish Crofting Foundation.
The appointments will be for a three year term and will run from January 7, 2008 to January 6, 2011.
The posts are part-time and attract a remuneration of £6,200 per annum. Board members are expected to prepare for and attend approximately six Bòrd meetings a year, and may be involved in additional meetings and events. Mr MacLennan holds one other public appointment, that of Crofters Commissioner, with remuneration of £7,087 per annum for four days per month. Mrs Allon, Ms Jones and Professor MacKinnon do not hold any other Ministerial appointments.
Bòrd na Gàidhlig, the statutory body created by the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005, promotes a sustainable and positive future for Gaelic in Scotland with a Board appointed by, and accountable to, Scottish Ministers. The Board provides leadership, direction and guidance for the public body and promotes its core values, policies and objectives.
Ministerial public appointments are made in accordance with the Commissioner for Public Appointments in Scotland's Code of Practice.
All appointments are made on merit and political activity plays no part in the selection process. However, in accordance with the original Nolan recommendations, there is a requirement for appointees' political activity (if there is any to be declared) to be made public. Within the last five years Mrs Allon, Ms Jones, Professor MacKinnon and Mr MacLennan have not been involved in any political activity.