Public appointment: Members appointed to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service Board

The Minister for Victims and Community Safety today announced the appointment of Neil Mapes, Therese O'Donnell, Dr Andrew Smith and Madeline Smith as Members of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service Board.

Members

Neil Mapes has strong background in research, charity governance, leadership, social enterprise and income generation whilst pivoting organisations in response to a crisis. He is currently leading Nairn's environmental charity Green Hive, prior to this he was Founder and CEO of Dementia Adventure for ten years. He also served a four year term as a trustee on the board of the Postcode Innovation Trust.

Therese O'Donnell is an independent Consultant providing board level Corporate Affairs, Brand and Marketing expertise to global plcs, family owned and not for profit organisations. Specialising in strategy, organisational change, reputation management, brand building, performance improvement, leadership development and the creation of innovative Sustainability programmes across the sectors including Retail, Consumer Services, FMCG, Alcohol, Telecoms and Financial Services. With extensive experience of managing and influencing Board level executives and Chairs, the primary focus of the past ten years has been on turnaround, organisational change, merger and acquisition, integration, disposal, transformation and crisis management across a variety of sectors. Prior to this Therese help a number of senior roles across The Royal Bank of Scotland Group, including Global Banking and Markets, Group Functions and Retail Bank divisions. Therese is a Non-Executive Advisor at Forestry and Land Scotland and was previously a member of the University of the West of Scotland Court.

Dr Andrew Smith brings diverse experience of change, audit & risk and scrutiny to the board of SFRS. A young carer, he was in his family’s first generation to attend university and after studying law at Cambridge, he worked as a commercial property and banking solicitor, helping to build one of the UK’s largest property law firms as head of business services. He then changed careers into mental health and now works as a psychotherapist and executive coach. His twenty-five years’ board experience in the public, private and third sectors include ten years as a board member and chair in the NHS. Andrew lives in Argyll with his husband and adopted family, where he volunteers in the community with his local school and as a chaplain with his local hospital.

Madeline Smith combines experience from public, private and academic sectors, having initially trained as an engineer and started her career in industry. She led large scale improvement programmes in private sector manufacturing environments before moving to Scottish Enterprise, leading their approach to sectors and clusters and strategic policy on innovation. More recently she was Head of Strategy for the School of Innovation and Technology at The Glasgow School of Art, where she led the development and delivery of a portfolio of programmes using design to build the innovative capacity of businesses, public sector organisations and communities. She is founder of SmithKelvin, a consultancy focused on support for clusters, collaborative innovation and system change. Madeline is currently a Non-Executive board member for the Scottish Ambulance Service and was previously Vice Chair at NHS 24.

Appointment

These appointments will be for 4 years and will run from 18 December 2023 to 17 December 2027.

These appointments are regulated by the Ethical Standards Commissioner.

Remuneration

These appointments are part-time and attract a remuneration of £303.87 per day for a time commitment of 60 days per year.

Other ministerial appointments

Therese O'Donnell is a Non-Executive Advisor of Forestry and Land Scotland, for which she receives remuneration of £250 per day, for a time commitment of 2 days per month.

Madeline Smith is a Member of the Scottish Ambulance Service, for which she receives remuneration of £ 8842, for a time commitment of 4 days per month.

Neil Mapes and Dr Andrew Smith do not hold any other public appointments.

Political activity

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 within the last five years (if there is any to be declared) to be made public.   

Neil Mapes, Therese O’Donnell, Dr Andrew Smith and Madeline Smith have had no political activity within the last five years.

Background

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is the world’s fourth largest fire and rescue service committed to ensuring the safety and wellbeing of the people of Scotland. They are a national organisation delivering our front-line services locally from three strategically positioned hubs based in the North, West and East of the country.