How we evaluate requests

Lucile is a Chartered Surveyor with 30 years of public and private sector experience. Prior to retirement she was Principal Property Adviser to the Scottish Government contributing to the Community Empowerment legislation. She is a volunteer Director of Drummond Arms Regeneration Ltd (a community restoration project), member of the Muthill Village Trust and Chair of Strathearn and Strathallan Local Action Partnership which brings services and the community together to tackle local issues and inequalities.

Gemma is Land Rights and Responsibilities Manager at the Scottish Land Commission, managing a programme that supports key stakeholders across all sectors to strengthen adoption of the Land Rights and Responsibilities Principles.

Her background is in finance, community led development and community ownership, with experience of community wealth building, governance, and funding for acquisition and development. Previously at Highlands and Islands Enterprise, she supported delivery of the Scottish Land Fund, helping communities to take ownership of land for community benefit.

Pete started out with a forestry degree, leading to work in forest management in Inverness. Turning a hobby into work, he retrained in outdoor learning, working with youth at-risk in Edinburgh, then managing Lochore Meadows Country Park in Fife. This overlapped with terms on the Board of Scottish Canoe Association and Sustrans Scotland Advisory Board. Until retirement in 2022, he was Head of Visitor Services for Cairngorms National Park Authority. Pete now wants to share those experiences to support others caring for the Scottish countryside.

A senior sustainability engagement professional with 20 years’ experience, Courtney specialises in strategic and technical responses to climate change and its impacts on the built environment and infrastructure, planning and land use, enabling blue-chip companies, government bodies and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs). She has a strong track record in delivering sustainable assets which underpin client Corporate Social Responsibility targets, achieving commercial recognition, community buy-in and national visibility. She enjoys public speaking and engagement across sectoral lines, taking a systems-based approach to sustainable change.

Ed is a woodland crofter at Kilfinan Community Forest. He was previously a director of Kilfinan Community Forest, a board member of Glenan Community Woodland, and spent 10 years running an independent record label. He sits on the Scottish Government’s Minimum Income Guarantee steering group, co-chairs the Scottish Campaign on Rights to Social Security and was a member of the Disability and Carers Benefits Expert Advisory Group. He is currently a committee member of the Kyles Allotment Group and works as a policy officer for a UK-wide anti-poverty charity.

Bill is a rural development specialist with 40 years of experience in teaching, researching and consultancy relating to rural land use and the rural economy. He led the Countryside and Community Research Unit at the University of Gloucestershire and the Social Economics and Geographical Sciences Group at the James Hutton Institute before semi-retirement and active third sector involvement in community food growing, community woodlands and an area partnership in West Aberdeenshire.

Eilidh has worked across Scotland in the third, public and private sectors, from supporting community organisations to acquire assets to distributing community benefit funds and developing the rural economy. She is currently a Community Development Specialist with South of Scotland Enterprise.