Staff

CEO – Ealasaid MacDonald

Ealasaid is the Ceannard (CEO) of Bòrd na Gàidhlig and has been in post since September 2023.

Ealasaid, hailing from the Western Isles and with her home in Stornoway has extensive experience of working in both mainland and island settings.  In her previous role as Director of Strategy and External Affairs with MG ALBA she lead on corporate and stakeholder communications. With experience of working in the public sector and as a freelance policy and public affairs consultant, Ealasaid has been at the forefront of many initiatives and developments to promote the needs of Gaelic speakers throughout her career.

Based in Stornoway, Ealasaid works closely with Board members and the senior management team, and also with Scottish Government, public bodies and Gaelic communities.

Director of Development – Iain MacMillan

The Director Development develops and influences appropriate strategies, and builds partnerships with individuals and other organisations in order to grow the Gaelic language and culture within communities.

Email: iain@gaidhlig.scot

Director of Education – Jennifer McHarrie 

As member of Senior Management team Jennifer contributes to the leadership, strategic direction, and the efficient management of Bòrd na Gàidhlig.
Leading on areas of Education, Learning and Language Planning and working in partnership with a range of stakeholders including national agencies, local authorities and the Scottish Government to fulfil the commitments in the National Plan for Gaelic.

E-mail – jennifer@gaidhlig.scot

Head of Finance and Corporate Affairs – Nicola Pearson

As Head of Finance & Corporate Affairs, Nicola Pearson
has overall responsibility for finance, corporate affairs and operations. As a member of the SMT, Nicola has a key role in planning and monitoring the strategic direction of Bòrd na Gàidhlig, through the Medium Term Finance Plan, budgeting, forecasting and financial reporting processes and works to ensure maximum value for our Grant-in-Aid. She supports the Finance Administrator in ensuring all day-to-day activities take place with appropriate financial control, ensuring that finance remains fit for purpose and that enhancements to our systems and process are planned and delivered when necessary and also has responsibility for managing the year-end audit process with our external auditors.

Nicola works closely with colleagues to manage the end-to-end committee and Board meeting processes to support good governance. Another important aspect of her work is managing the day to day working relationships with Internal and External audit ensuring all recommendations are appropriately implemented. Nicola also provides support to the Operations Manager, who has oversight of corporate functions including IT and HR.

E-mail:nicola@gaidhlig.scot

Business Administrator – Orla MacDonald 

Our Business Administrator, Orla MacDonald, supports the Operations Manager in providing support in the management and co-ordination of all aspects of the administrative functions of the organisation.

Email: orla@gaidhlig.scot

Communications Officer – Ruairidh Hamilton 

Ruairidh oversees internal and external communications, including social media, media requests, press releases, events, project support and much more. He works closely with theorganisation to support communication initiatives and such like.

E-mail: ruairidh@gaidhlig.scot

Compliance Officer – Carol Johnson

Carol Johnson manages Bòrd na Gàidhlig’s electronic and manual filing systems, ensuring they are up to date and maintained in accordance with the Records Management Plan, Data Protection, Freedom of Information and GDPR obligations.

Email: carol@gaidhlig.scot

Education Development Officer – Màiri  Morrison 

Màiri Morrison is our Education Development Officer & provides support with implementing the actions outlined in our operational plan.

Màiri works with a range of stakeholders to support Gaelic Education & in particular the Gaelic 0-3 Early Years Sector. Màiri provides advice & support to Early Years groups throughout Scotland, supporting the numbers of children continuing into Gaelic Medium Education.

E-mail:mairit@gaidhlig.scot

Education Manager – Joanne MacKenzie 

Our Education Manager, Joanne MacKenzie, is responsible for assisting in the development and implementation of the Board’s Corporate and Operational Plans and ensuring that the priorities and actions relating to learning are implemented effectively.

Joanne works with Local Authorities and other stakeholders involved in Gaelic-medium and Gaelic learner education to support the development expansion of these areas of education.

Email: joanne@gaidhlig.scot

Finance Officer – Helen Walker 

Helen Walker is responsible for all Finance based administration Including accounts and supporting the head of finance.

Email: helen@gaidhlig.scot

Funding & Projects Manager – Steven Kellow

Steven Kellow co-ordinates the administration and delivery of grants schemes and some other development projects at Bòrd na Gàidhlig. He is involved in communicating with Gaelic organisations, community groups and public bodies to support them in delivering projects that promote Gaelic.

E-mail:stevenk@gidhlig.scot

Grants Administrator – Theresa Macaulay 

Assisting with Bòrd na Gàidhlig’s funding scheme, Theresa MacAulay is responsible for the general administration of grants and supporting the applicants with their projects.

E-mail: theresa@gaidhlig.scot

Lanaguage Plans Officer – Anna Walker 

As one of our Language Plans Officers,, Anna Walker, is responsible for providing support, advice and guidance to public authorities through the legislative process as they develop and publish their Gaelic language plans.
She also supports the Bòrd’s process for monitoring delivery of Gaelic language plans and advise public authorites engaged in delivery of their plans.

Email: anna@gaidhlig.scot

Lanaguage Plans Officer – Chirsty Graham

Our Gaelic Language Plans Officer, Chirsty Graham, is responsible for advising and guiding public authorities through the legislative process in developing their Gaelic language plans. As well as that, the officer is responsible for monitoring the implementation of public authorities’ Gaelic language plans.

E-mail:chirsty@gaidhlig.scot

Operations Manager – Karen Smith 

Karen Smith is responsible for leading on and monitoring operations and ensuring that each element of operations complies with regulations and internal processes. She also has responsibilities for business administration, human resources, internal communications and information technology.

Email: karen@gaidhlig.scot

Outreach Officer – Sian Baldwin

Sian supports communication within the organisation and with the general public about the work of the Board and the development of Gaelic in general.

She also encourages people to choose careers where they can use Gaelic as an advantage.

E-mail:sian@gaidhlig.scot

Research and Corpus Planning Manager – Dr Peadar Morgan 

Dr Peadar Morgan leads on Bòrd policy, partnership and recommendations on corpus planning; matters relating to the language itself, for example vocabulary, grammar and orthography and names.

A major part of his work is compiling and presenting data on population and education in charts, graphs and maps to illustrate the situation of Gaelic for the public and – in more detail – for policy and decision makers.

Peadar is the main contact for researchers working on behalf of Bòrd na Gàidhlig to make sure they become properly acquainted with the state of Gaelic,. In addition, there is much to learn from research and from other languages, and Peadar keeps up to date with new international data which shows challenges or opportunities for Gaelic.

Email: peadar@gaidhlig.scot

BnaG Leadership Team Declaration of Interest at 22/10/2024

Disclosure of High Earners

In line with Scottish Government guidelines Bòrd na Gàidhlig publishes the name, job title and salary of senior staff (equivalent to Senior Civil Service Grade 2 and above) on our website.

At this time no Bòrd na Gàidhlig officers fall into this category, however Senior Leadership Team data is available in our latest annual report found here.

This information is up to date as of April 2024.