Leading North-east social care charity Inspire has appointed four new trustees to its board, following its 2018 AGM.
Sally Shaw, Marie O’ Hanlon, Peter Blackledge and Brian Minty have joined the board of the organisation which supports adults with learning disabilities and additional support needs in Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Moray and Angus.
Sally Shaw was previously interim chief officer at Aberdeen City Health and Social Care Partnership and is the current chief officer for Orkney Health and Care - the integration joint board that commissions and oversees community health and social care services in the Islands. Sally began her career more than 30 years ago as a nurse before moving into social work and has extensive experience at a senior level in health, social care and the third sector.
Marie O’Hanlon, has held a number of senior, strategic roles with BP during her 30 year career and was previously a board member of Inspire Ventures – the social enterprise arm of Inspire – working closely with the organisation on its Café Academy programme which provided employability training to young people with learning disabilities.
Peter Blackledge is a qualified social worker and joined Partnership (Inspire’s original name) in 1989, helping establish the organisation’s initial services in Aberdeen City. He moved on in 2001 and spent several years in research and development roles with RGU, ARC Scotland and Camphill as well as tutoring on the Open University’s Social Work programme until his retirement in 2015.
Brian Minty has over 20 years of executive leadership experience within the energy, consulting and foreign aid development sectors, and is currently a director of Europa Energy.
Linda Gray, chief executive of Inspire, welcomed the appointments, which come at an exciting time for the organisation.
She said: “We are pleased to welcome Sally, Marie, Peter and Brian as trustees of Inspire as they bring with them a wealth of experience from across social care and business and are strong additions to our existing board at a time when there is a lot of change in the sector.
“They are joining Inspire as we celebrate our 30th Anniversary, develop our first services in Angus and continue to grow our presence in Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and Moray and I am sure they will all be able to offer valuable contributions to enable us to achieve our ambitious goals for the next twelve months and beyond.”
For further information about Inspire PTL please visit www.inspireptl.org.uk