The Board

Jon Seaton - Chair

I have worked with the Royal Bank of Scotland for 12 years, firstly in Change Management but then specialising in all areas of Business Resilience. This includes Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery, Threat Management, Crisis Management and Physical Security.

After 5 years of working with 2 of the Business Divisions (Retail Direct and then Retail) in RBS, I was brought into the Group Business Continuity team working specifically in the UK&I team building relationships with Divisions including Global Markets, Ulster Bank and Business Services (who look after all the Operational Centres and Back Office functions). I am also heavily involved in designing the framework and methodology for how the Group does BC moving forwards including introducing MTPD to them as well as moving towards the businesses defining their Risk Appetite and how that can help them to determine their recovery strategies.

As well as being a Board member of Scottish Continuity I am also one of the organisers of the Scottish Forum of the BCI.

Niall Kinloch, Vice Chair

Head of Risk, Back Office UK - National Australia Bank Group

Niall is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland and a Member of the Business Continuity Institute. He is a career banker having started work for the Clydesdale Bank, which is now a member of National Australia Bank Group (NAG), in 1980.

Niall was appointed Head of Risk, Back Office UK in December 2009. Prior to this appointment, Niall had 10 years experience in Business Continuity in NAG, firstly as Head of Business Continuity Risk - Europe for NAG in November 1999. He was appointed to Head of Resilience UK for NAG in April 2005. The section is charged with ensuring resilience within NAG UK against all continuity and security risks facing the Group.

Niall's role as vice chair of the Scottish Continuity is to support the chair and the various subgroups in the various activities which are designed to meet the Group's mission of 'Building Resilient communities'. These activities include setting up and running city, wide multiple sector table top resilience exercises, hosting conferences, running industry projects such as BCM benchmarking exercises and sharing best practice amongst members.

Alan Dawson

Alan has been in IT sales and management for over 20 years, including several years running his own businesses. He has a wide experience and knowledge of the IT industry in general, but recent specialisation has been in Business Continuity & Risk Management.

He has been on the board of the group for 11 years and served as Vice Chair between 2008 and 2011.

Gordon Mackie

I am currently the I.T. Service Continuity Manager for Tesco Bank, based in Edinburgh. Prior to this, I was the IT Service Continuity Architect for Standard Life for 12 years.

I have been working in IT Service Mgt since 1974, working in several sectors - Universities, Multinational Computer Manufacturers and 3 financial institutions. My experience has involved management of Operations, Problem, Incident and Change Mgt, Networks and Systems Programming. I am an ITIL Practitioner and active member of the ITSMF and a Member of the BCI.

I formed the SCG IT Subgroup (also known as Wing IT) in 1999, mainly to form a peer group to discuss Year 2K issues. Once we had Y2K out of the way, we continued to meet, discussing mainframe disaster recovery at first, then working our way through the technology platforms, identifying challenges and looking for recovery solutions and opportunities.

For 3 years, as Chairman of Scottish Continuity, I did not have the free time required to also run the IT Subgroup and so it was not very active. In 2010 and on into the future, I will hold workshops and events to bring together IT Service Continuity practitioners to discuss the current recovery challenges and also work with SMEs to assist them in putting robust IT recovery solutions in place to underpin their Business Continuity Readiness.

Chris Tunnah

I have over 30 years of IT experience and have had roles with various multinational organisations which have seen me implementing resilient systems for 25 years. In those roles I have audited and advised on best practices to minimise exposure to risk and to rapidly recover when problems do arise. In that time I have worked with hundreds of organisations to minimise risk and plan effectively for recovery . A board member for four years, I have a number of technical and advisory skills that I offer to be used by the Executive Board as they see fit.

Douglas Craik - Treasurer

Douglas is a Member of the Business Continuity Institute and before retiring was BC Manager at Prudential (previously Scottish Amicable) at Craigforth, Stirling. He now runs his own BC consultancy company. He has been a Board Member since 2001 and Treasurer since 2004. In April 2011 Douglas became Chairman of UK Business Continuity Ltd.

Douglas is also the National Convener of the Traditional Music & Song Association of Scotland (TMSA) and performs throughout Scotland on the folk-singing scene.

George Berrich

Born in the USA, with that inherent "can do" attitude, George did a degree in Systems Science before immersing himself in an IT career and has built up his knowledge within the Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery industry for the last ten years.

George has worked both in-house, managing, supporting and developing IT systems (Burroughs Corporation, Stakis PLC), as well as externally, sourcing IT, communications and business continuity / disaster recovery solutions for companies such as Compaq, Computacenter, Hewlett Packard Business Continuity and IBM Business Continuity.

His extensive experience across a wide range of business sectors and IT products and services means that he is able to give sound advice and support for even the most complex of IT or communications requirements.

And his passion for improving the business continuity and disaster recovery industry led him to sitting on the board of the Scottish Continuity Group for two years.

With UK Business Continuity Ltd, George is putting his money where his mouth is by delivering the low-cost, flexible solutions, and the vastly improved level of support that organisations of all sizes have been crying out for.

Debbie Ward - Secretary

A Board Member since 2010 and Secretary since 2011.

I have worked in the financial sector for the past 25 years, the last 11 specialising in Business Continuity Management. This includes Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery, Threat Management, Crisis Management, Testing and Assurance (Business and IT) . Twice heavily involved in designing and implementing a Business Continuity Planning Framework and Methology.

The past 6 years I have been working for Prudential in Craigforfth, Stirling. 5 years as a Business Continuity Manager and now a member of Risk specialising in 2nd Line Defence Business Resilience.