Scottish Campaign for National Parks

Bill trained as a biologist and agricultural scientist in Edinburgh. He has held posts as Assistant Director of Environmental Conservation with Merseyside County Council; Assistant National Park Officer with the Peak District National Park; Depute Director of Leisure with Highland Regional Council. He now owns and manages oyster and mussell farms in the West Highlands and lives at Drumnadrochit.

Ross, a retired landscape architect, was a founding partner of the ASH consultancy. He has extensive experience of the tourism business in Scotland and is a former board member of the North York Moors NPA.

Vice Chair of the Save Your Regional Park Campaign; retired Headteacher of Knightswood Secondary School which incorporates the national Dance School of Scotland; Trustee of the Tall Ship, Glasgow and President of the local branch of the RNLI.

Chairman, Ramblers Association Scotland, 1996-99;
Chair and Hon. Secretary, Kintyre Civic Society, 2000 to date.

Has lived in Drymen, Loch Lomond for 40 years. Retired Town Planner, Former Director of Planning for Central Regional Council, Member of the Executive Council for a number of Environmental Organisations.

Charles is a chartered planner and architect in private practice specialising in conservation planning and architecture. He has worked as a planner in local government in Ayrshire and the Borders, and for the National Trust for Scotland, latterly as Director of Buildings & Gardens where his portfolio included property Management Plans and projects at 26-31 Charlotte Square Edinburgh, and Newhailes. He is Chairman of APRS.

James has a lifetime’s experience in tourism having held senior positions with tourist boards over the years particularly covering the Loch Lomond and Trossachs NP area. Coming from Nethy Bridge, where he owns and manages a self-catering holiday business with his wife, he is also very familiar with the Cairngorms NP. He is a member or Director of several trusts including the PS Maid of the Loch Trust

A Geographer and Planner by profession; career goal was to see the establishment of National Parks in Scotland, and to realise the benefits such a designation can help to deliver. Chief Executive of Scotland's first National Park 2002 - 2007; Chief Officer to Loch Lomond and the Trossachs Interim Committee 1999 - 2002; Loch Lomond [Regional] Park Officer 1996 - 1999.

An historian and economist by training, John worked in a number of Government departments and public bodies both north and south of the border, including the Countryside Commission (E&W), before joining Scottish Natural Heritage as Director of Policy in 1992. In SNH he contributed to most of the major environmental policy debates of the past 20 years before retiring in May 2011. For over ten years he also led the organisation’s work in the west of Scotland. He has a particular interest in land use and development planning issues, including a possibly unhealthy fascination with the workings of the Common Agricultural Policy. He served for several years as chair of the UK-wide Countryside Recreation Network and as a council member of the Europarc Federation. He has recently taken over the chairmanship of the Southern Uplands Partnership.

Director of Physical Planning, Strathclyde Regional Council, 1984-1996; Commissioner, Royal Fine Art Commission for Scotland, 1996 to 2005; Chairman, Paths for All Partnership, 2002-2006; Member of the former Countryside Commission for Scotland's Advisory Panel on The Mountain Areas of Scotland: Conservation and Management; Trustee, Dalgarven Mill Trust incorporating the Museum of Ayrshire Country Life and Costume.

John Foster has a national and international reputation for his lifetime contribution to protected areas. He was Director of the Peak District National Park before returning to his native Scotland to become the first Director of the Countryside Commission for Scotland, a post he held for 17 years. He has made important contributions to many environmental and recreational organizations including the Ramblers Association, APRS, Cairngorms Campaign.

Adrian Phillips trained as a planner and geographer. He was Director General of the Countryside Commission (1981-1992), and professor at Cardiff University (1992-2000). He chaired the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (1994-2000), and has worked closely with the World Heritage and European Landscape Conventions. He has written and lectured on landscape. He served on the boards of Green Alliance, RSPB, WWF, CPRE and Woodland Trust. He is currently a Ministerial appointee on the Cotswolds Conservation Board, a National Trust trustee, an advisor to the Heritage Lottery Fund and a Vice President of the Campaign for National Parks, the Scottish Campaign for National Parks and the British Association of Nature Conservationists.

Michael Dower is the son of John Dower, who wrote the White Paper in 1945 on which the legislation for National Parks in England and Wales was based. Michael has served as National Park Officer of the Peak District (being successor bar one to John Foster); as Director General of the Countryside Commission; and as co-author of the European Landscape Convention, to which the UK became a signatory on 2007. Since 1996, he has been Visiting Professor at the University of Gloucestershire, in which capacity he wrote two reports for Scottish Natural Heritage, on 'The socio-economic benefits of national parks and protected areas in Europe' and on 'Protected National Landscapes in Europe'.