The Commission - current members
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Chairman
Speaker of the House of Commons
Ex-officio appointment.
The Speaker of the House of Commons is ex-officio Chairman of the Boundary Commission for Scotland and of the equivalent Commissions for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. However, the Speaker takes no part in the discussions and decisions of the Commissions.
Deputy Chairman
The Honourable Lord Woolman (Stephen Woolman)
Appointed from 1 January 2009 for a period of 4 years.
Lord Woolman was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court in March 2008. He is a graduate of Aberdeen University. Between 1978 and 1987 he was a lecturer at Edinburgh University, where for three years he was the Associate Dean of the Law School. In 1987 Lord Woolman was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates. He was standing Junior Counsel for the Inland Revenue, the Ministry of Defence (Procurement) and the Office of Fair Trading. He took silk in 1998.
From 1999 to 2002 Lord Woolman served as an Advocate Depute. Between 2004 and 2008 he was Keeper of the Advocates' Library. Lord Woolman was formerly Chairman of the Scottish Council of Law Reporting, the Bar Mediation Group and the Free Legal Services Unit. He is the author of a book on the Scots law of contract.
Commissioners
Kenneth McDonald
Appointed from 7 June 2007 for a period of 4 years, and reappointed until 6 June 2015.
As a Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute, Kenneth McDonald served for almost 30 years in Local Government prior to retirement in 1999. He has experience with a variety of Councils and areas including Ross and Cromarty, Northumberland, Falkirk, Central Region and most recently Stirling Council where he was Service Manager and had a lead role in preparing for the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park. In addition to his staffing and budget management roles, he has wide experience in the planning functions with an emphasis on environment, countryside and rural development issues working in partnership with public agencies and community groups. Since retiring from local authority work he has undertaken various short term consultancy contracts. He also serves as a Commissioner on the Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland.
Paula Sharp
Appointed from 1 January 2011 for a period of 4 years.
Mrs Paula Sharp is a graduate of Cambridge University and started her career as a local authority accountant. Having reached senior management level in a large local authority, she became a management consultant and, since 1994, she has been self-employed. Her firm, Paula Gilder Consulting, works across the public sector in Scotland, specialising in local authority services, governance, research, both quantitative and qualitative, and data analysis. She has a range of volunteering experience and is currently Chair of the Rock Trust, which works with homeless and vulnerable young people in Edinburgh and the Lothians. She also serves as a Commissioner on the Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland.
Secretary
Our work is supported by a small Secretariat which is headed by the Secretary, Hugh Buchanan.
Hugh Buchanan has spent his career in mapping and geographic information, including policy and technical roles. Hugh joined the Commission after being External Relations Manager in Scotland for Ordnance Survey from 2001 until 2007. His previous posts included user support for web services at EDINA, part of the Computing Service of the University of Edinburgh, and as a lecturer in what is now the School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences at the University of Newcastle, undertaking a variety a professional, research and teaching activities. Hugh is a Chartered Surveyor, has a PhD in geographic data handling and a mathematics degree.