Three new Non-Executive Directors for Scottish Government

David Martin, Belinda Oldfield and Jenny Stewart have been appointed following an open recruitment process. Non-Executive Directors promote the highest standards of corporate governance by providing advice and support to the Permanent Secretary, Directors-General and other senior leaders across the Scottish Government.

The appointees will bring a whole system approach to their role, supporting collaborative and innovative responses to complex, dynamic issues and creating space for creative thinking, new ideas and challenge within the Scottish Government.

Welcoming the new appointees, Permanent Secretary JP Marks said:

“I am delighted to announce the appointment of these new Scottish Government Non-Executive Directors. David, Jenny and Belinda bring a significant breadth and depth of experience and will be welcome additions to our Non-Executive Director cohort.

“As an organisation, we remain focused on driving Covid recovery, making progress towards net zero, growing our economy and tackling deep-rooted inequality and child poverty within our communities. Good governance sits at the heart of how we operate in delivering meaningful policies and vital public services. 

“The role of our Non-Executive Directors is invaluable in providing us with strategic challenge, advice and assurance as we deliver our core business for people in Scotland.”

Background

The role of the Non-Executive Directors is to provide advice, support and challenge in the following areas:

• strategy and policy delivery process – challenging how policies are made, implemented and communicated
• risk management – ensuring risk is managed, monitored and evaluated
• audit – providing assurance to the accountable officer in relation to finance, risk and performance management
• performance monitoring – evaluating and improving performance through effective use of systems, management, staff engagement, resources and policies

David Martin has served as Chief Executive for Renfrewshire Council and Dundee City Council, where he worked with private, public and third sector partners to deliver change at a system-wide level. He has been a board director and trustee with organisations including SOLACE Scotland and the V&A Dundee.

Belinda Oldfield has 30 years’ experience of working in the public sector and operating at senior level in the highly regulated water sector in Scotland, where she was part of the merger team who formed Scottish Water in 2002. She holds Non-Executive Director roles at Highlands & Islands Enterprise and Northern Ireland Water, where she chairs the Risk Committee.

Jenny Stewart has had a long career in professional services, leading advice on major strategic, financial and operational projects. She retired as a Partner with KPMG in June 2020.  Her early career was in the fast stream in the civil service, including the Scottish and UK Governments and the EU. Jenny is currently a Non-Executive Member of Court at the University of St Andrews and Chair of the Dunedin Consort classical music ensemble.

The new appointees have all been appointed for a three year term. David Martin and Jenny Stewart take up their roles from 28^th March 2022 and Belinda Oldfield will take up her role in early autumn.

The Non-Executive Directors are appointed to provide approximately 40 days support annually and receive remuneration of £13,200 per annum.

The list of current Non-Executive Directors is available on our website.