New board members announced

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) is welcoming five new members to its board. The appointees will replace board members whose terms of office have recently come to an end.

The five new members are Professor Cara Aitchison, Dr Richard Armour, Linda Hanna, Kate Lander, and Alison Nicolson.

Professor Cara Aitchison was President and Vice-Chancellor of Cardiff Metropolitan University between 2016 and 2024. Before that she was Head of Moray House School of Education at The University of Edinburgh.

Born and educated in Scotland, Cara graduated from the University of Edinburgh before gaining her postgraduate and teaching qualifications. She brings extensive experience of higher education management and has expertise in transformational leadership.

Dr Richard Armour is a graduate of Glasgow, Open and London universities. He has spent most of his career in higher education, initially in the UK but predominantly overseas, particularly in Hong Kong serving in faculty, administrative and leadership roles.

Latterly he was Secretary General of Hong Kong’s University Grants Committee. Richard has recently served as a council member of Research England.

Linda Hanna is an experienced leader and non-executive working across academia and the public and private sectors where she focused on innovation and major economic opportunities.

As a member of the Executive Team at Scottish Enterprise for 10 years, Linda worked nationally and internationally, helping accelerate strategic investment in different parts of Scotland. She has a keen interest in science, innovation, and skills.

Kate Lander’s career spans education and financial services. She initially qualified as an accountant, before becoming a chartered financial analyst. After leaving banking, Kate returned to education in a number of leadership roles, most recently as CEO of Ivy House.

Between 2017 and 2023 she served on the Board of the Office for Students and was also Chair of its Risk and Audit Committee.

Alison Nicolson is an experienced leader and qualified accountant. She has held a variety of senior roles within corporate and commercial banking. Alison has extensive experience in finance; strategic leadership; and transformational change within the financial services sector.

She has been on the boards of charities supporting people with disabilities and is currently a member of the Board of the Independent Living Fund.

Commenting on the new appointments, SFC’s Board Chair, Mike Cantlay, said:

“The next few years will be a period of addressing challenges and seizing opportunities as we work with the Scottish Government and our partners towards the reform of Scotland’s tertiary education; skills; and research and innovation landscape.

“It is important that our board has a diversity of backgrounds and experience, and that its members are passionate about transformation and achieving the very best social and economic outcomes for our investments.”

“The new board members announced today will bring strengths in all these areas and I very much look forward to working with them all.”