Scottish Conference 2016 speakers list
Hamish Taylor
Hamish Taylor is founder of the Skills Exchange Network which focuses on enabling organisations to achieve breakthroughs by looking outside their industry. He is also a formerbrand director for some of the biggest brands in the UK.
Hamish began his career with Procter & Gamble, working his way through the branding ranks to the position of head of brand management for household cleaners. After a spell as a management consultant with PriceWaterhouse, he returned to brands as Head of Brand Management at British Airways.
Staying with travel, Hamish’s next role was as managing director of Eurostar, then becoming chief executive officer of Eurostar Group before he was 40. His time at Eurostar was marked by a rapid stemming of losses and return to profit, a success he repeated in his next role as CEO of Sainsbury’s Bank.
After a period as CEO of consultancy Vision UK, Hamish set up the Skills Exchange Network. The Network is a management and leadership development organisation which studies people, process and products from a variety of industries and disciplines, and looks to combine and inspire the innovations and techniques from different areas.
Hamish looks at the importance of putting the customer at the centre of everything an organisation does, whether that’s an individual consumer, a business, or another internal department. He provides practical rules and ideas on how this informs not just traditional customer service, but culture, leadership, brand, teamwork and communication. As well as helping businesses operate better, Hamish has also worked with athletics and rugby teams.
George Lowder MBE
George Lowder took up the post of chief executive of Transport for Edinburgh in January 2016. Prior to this George served in Defence for almost 35 years. He was commissioned into The Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment) in 1981, having attended school in Edinburgh.
On commissioning, he studied Scots Law at Aberdeen, graduating in 1986. As a young officer he served in the Falkland Islands, Germany, the UK, Northern Ireland, Canada and the 1991 Gulf War. He spent two years instructing at The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He was then appointed chief of staff of a Germany based Armoured Brigade, deploying to Bosnia in 1996; awarded a Queen’s Commendation for Valuable Service for this tour of duty and made MBE in 1998.
He has commanded at every level from Platoon to Brigade, deploying on operations in the UK, Northern Ireland, Iraq, Afghanistan and the occupied Palestinian territories.
His last appointment was as the director of Defence Intelligence Operations, responsible for global operations, across the enterprise.
David Waboso CBE – APM President
David is currently managing director, Group Digital Railway at Network Rail, a rail industry initiative to organise and accelerate the changes needed to modernise signalling and train control using digital technology to improve capacity, reliability and provide better connections for customers.
He has a passion for the training and education of engineers and project managers and also the communication of the wider importance of infrastructure to human advancement. He has served on committees into the teaching of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects in our schools, speaks and writes regularly on these matters, and promotes opportunities for people of all backgrounds to realise their full potential. He was recently awarded a CBE for services to transport in London and was named as Leader of the Year in the Manufacturing and Infrastructure section of the Black British Business Awards on 2 October 2014.
In 2015 David accepted the role of president of the Association for Project Management (APM), the largest professional body of its kind in Europe, where he will champion the APM’s commitment to advance project and programme management across the country.
Sara Drake
Sara Drake was appointed chief executive of the Association for Project Management in 2015. After studying law her early career was spent in the media sector working with publishing 
and television companies. She moved into the construction and built environment sector in 2005 and has been managing director of the Home Builders Federation and the Royal Town Planning Institute. Sara also holds non-executive roles in the media and construction sectors and is a Trustee of Welcare.
Andrew Sharman
Andrew is chief executive of RyderMarshSharman, a global consultancy specializing in organizational safety culture and leadership. With offices in the UK, Switzerland and North America RyderMarshSharman has a 20-year track record of improving culture and enabling excellence for NGOs and organizations around the world through industry sectors including mining, construction, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, and FMCGs.
Andrew holds Masters degrees in Occupational Psychology, Organizational Behaviour and International Health & Safety Law. He is a Chartered Fellow of IOSH - the Institution of Occupational Safety & Health, a Fellow of the International Institute of Risk and Safety Management, a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership & Management and a Fellow of the Institute of Directors.
Andrew is a Professor of Leadership & Safety Culture at CEDEP, Fontainebleau, France and Visiting professor in Work & Wellbeing at the University of Zurich, Switzerland.
Anne Moises
Anne has overall accountability for Information Services and Information Systems.
Her responsibilities include the provision of ICT services, systems and support to the Scottish Government and a number of its agencies and associated bodies; with over 10,000 customers from Lerwick to London and beyond. A Fellow of the British Computer Society, Anne is the Scottish Government`s Head of the ICT Profession and has oversight of the professional development of over 400 ICT staff.
With over 25 years ICT experience, Anne`s career has covered everything from mainframe systems, service delivery and helpdesk, software design and development, through project and programme management to technical and IS strategy development and implementation.
Brian Wernham
Brian is an APM board member with the role of ‘Individual Membership Champion’. He was a Committee Member of the APM Governance Specific Interest Group where he was deeply involved for over ten years. He is co-authoring the new ‘Agile Governance’ guide and he project managed the second edition of the popular 'Directing Change' booklet, and co-authored 'Co-Directing Change' and 'Sponsoring Change'. He also implements large programmes of work as a hands-on programme director.
Caroline Donaldson
Caroline’s background combines over 27 years of consultancy with senior line management experience in operations, sales, human resources and retail in blue chip organisations. She is passionate about developing new levels of leadership, currently running several initiatives for the Institute of Directors in Scotland to bring more women into the Boardroom. She has been the driving force behind board behavioural workshops and board shadowing experiences in private, public and charity sectors. She is on the steering group of the Two Percent Club, part of An Inspirational Journey UK initiative aimed at growing the female talent pipeline.
Caroline has worked with over 200 UK-based client companies across all sectors, carrying out a variety of projects within FTSE listed companies to SME’s and charities. Her clients include NHS, Perth & Kinross Council, Centrica, The Tavistock Institute, Scottish Government, Oracle, KPMG, RBS, ScotRail, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Aker Kvaerner, De Beers, V Group, CGI.
David MacLean
David MacLean is the programme management lead for the BAE Systems - Naval Ships business. In this role since early 2016 David has an immediate term commitment to provide visible leadership across the project management community. One of the priority action areas for David is mobilising an effective competency & skills assessment. The ambition is to deliver and enable individuals to take responsibility for their own personal development and business level analysis of improvement opportunities. Capability through people is central to a quality improvement commitment that targets progression across the project management scope of work.
Gillian Hailstones
Gillian has worked for Maggie’s Centres for just over seven years, joining as a cancer support specialist initially, then becoming Centre Head in the Glasgow Centre before taking up the role of head of centre operations for Scotland earlier this year. She has a background in nursing, completing her BA (Hons) in Nursing Studies in 1995 and her MSc in Palliative Care 1999. Starting her career in oncology she moved quickly into palliative care with a strong belief that even when life is limited, individuals have an amazing capacity for growth and transformation. Working with individuals and families to find and focus on hope further strengthened her belief in a person’s ability to direct their future and re-write their own story even within the most challenging of situations. She joined Maggie’s for the opportunity to explore this further through their programme of support which applying this same philosophy and ethos regardless of the stage of a person’s cancer diagnosis.
Rodger Querns
Rodger, with some 15 years’ experience within the rail industry, took up the post of programme director, for the £742m Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP) in May 2011, after spending over 2 years leading the development of EGIP within Transport Scotland. Prior to this Rodger worked within Network Rail for 7 years and led the team that successfully delivered the £150m Waverley Station Rail Infrastructure Project in 2008.
Rodger has held a number of positions in both the public and private sector and before joining Network Rail in May 2001 he spent 2 years with Highland Council as head of project management and capital planning, as well as serving as property adviser to the Joint Highlands and Islands Fire Board.
Rodger holds an MSc in Project Management from Heriot Watt University and is a member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and Association of Project Management, and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institution of Building.
Rodger is married to Alison and has a 18 year old son, Nicholas.
