Originally a mechanical engineer, my career developed into operations management roles in the service and retail industries. In 2001, I moved to the 3rd sector, setting up Dunfermline Town Centre Management's operations and establishing the company as an important driver and advocate for improvements in the town centre.From 2004-20011, I was Town Centres Manager for South Lanarkshire Council, where we developed key support/evaluation systems for town centres including Town Centre Key Performance Indicators and a network of local town groups across 10 town centres. In 2011, I set up my own company and continued to work on a range of projects and in 2012, was appointed as the main consultant in developing the BID proposals for Carluke town centre. The BID ballot returned a 75% majority in favour of establishing the BID.After setting up the BID operation, I moved on in late 2015.Through fostering work with children, I became a national training facilitator with the Fostering Network in 2013 and a member of the Scottish Government's Foster Care Review Technical Experts Group developing a national development framework for foster carers.In 2015-2016, I worked with Dundee Council fostering services, designing and delivering Social Media for Foster Care and Writing for Foster Care. The last course resulted in a book. Unpublished because...I completed my studies, achieving a BSc(Hons) (Childhood and Youth Studies) to complement my BA (Hons) (Humanities). In late 2016 I returned to Carluke BID, to help deliver some 70 improvement projects and install a comprehensive CCTV system in the town centre. After developing a 2nd term Proposal, the BID operation term ended on 30th September 2019.Lockdown 2020 involved a full circle return to the tools; a large DIY project, converting outbuildings and a garden at our new home. I'm really missing work though, and I'm very much looking forward to the exciting task of helping rejuvenating our town centres, post lockdown.

After establishing what is now Dunfermline Delivers BID as an operational town centre management company, I was appointed Town Centres Manager in an expanded role which covered 8-10 towns across south Lanarkshire. The main challenge was to find a way to manage and monitor multiple locations. Two projects in particular were at the heart of this.We established Town Groups, where community organisation and project leaders met - regularly and formally - with senior council members and officers to discuss and monitor local projects and priorities.This significantly improved relationships between communities and the council and provided a driving force for community networking and capacity building.As TCM, I was first point of contact for town centres, responsible for liaising with other council services and was responsible for management and support of the Town Group network.I developed a set of town centre health checks and performance indicators across all 10 south Lanarkshire towns. These involved the annual collation and analysis of hard data including parking and property use and - through on-street interviews - the perspectives and views of over 2,000 people on the high streets.This provided a significant amount of data and insight which informed council and community priorities.As a result of government finance constraints, I left the council in 2011 and established up my own consultancy company Booworks Ltd.