Katharina Kasper
Chair of Edinburgh Integration Joint Board
Katharina is a senior risk and compliance professional, with substantial experience acting as a risk subject matter expert and professional adviser. Her core areas of expertise are audit, oversight and assurance, risk management, financial crime prevention and organisational transformation. Katharina is passionate about leading by example, facilitating meaningful organisational change and delivering a lasting positive impact for all stakeholders.
Katharina’s career to date has included a number of senior risk, compliance and transformation roles in the Financial Services (FS) industry, She is an experienced management consultant, advising a wide breadth of UK and EU based financial institutions, including FS regulators. Katharina holds an MA in Business and Law from the University of Edinburgh and a Diploma in Enterprise Risk Management from the Institute of Risk Management.
Katharina’s interests include travel, photography and arts and crafts.
Tim Pogson
Vice-chair of Edinburgh Integration Joint Board
Tim Pogson was elected the Labour councillor for the Southside Newington ward at the 2022 council elections. Professionally his whole career has been spent in the social/affordable housing sector, and currently he works for Scotland’s Housing Network, a membership organisation of Scotland’s council housing services and housing associations. He has worked extensively in the fields of older people’s housing and homelessness. Tim is also a Board Member with two voluntary sector organisations, including Housing Options Scotland that provides housing advice to people with disability, older people and veterans. Prior to being elected, Tim was Chair of Southside Community Council and was involved in health and social care provision issues both in the Southside and throughout the city.
Robin Balfour
Robin is currently the Interim part time Clinical Director of the EHSCP. A St. Andrew’s graduate, he has been working as a GP in Edinburgh since 1990, 29 years as a partner and now as a locum.
Hannah Cairns
Allied Healthcare Professional Representative
Hannah is a state registered Occupational Therapist, qualifying from Queen Margaret University in 1998 and has since worked in the Health and Social Care sector in a range of clinical, management, and professional leadership roles. This experience has enabled Hannah to develop a substantial knowledge and experience to work with a range of service users, user groups, clinical and non-clinical individuals, and teams. Hannah has undertaken a range of professional development opportunities including an MBA (Masters in Business Administration) at the University of Strathclyde which she completed in 2019.
Hannah is passionate about the planning, design and delivery of person-centred, safe, and high-quality care and is committed to the improvement and development of services to meet the changing needs of the people she serves and the environment in which she functions. She recently completed her Scottish Safety and Quality Fellowship (SQSF) through NHS Education for Scotland.
Dr Andrew Coull
Registered medical practitioner not providing primary medical services
Biography coming soon
George Gordon
Member of the EIJB
George has been a long-term community activist for forty years, founding two community councils and was the first community chair for the Neighbourhood Networks. He has a particular interest in public and community health and was a founding member of two youth groups, namely Granton Youth and Spartans Community Football Academy, the latter he is still a trustee with. He was elected as a councillor for the Forth Ward in 2017 and took on a senior role in the administration and was the spokesperson for disabilities, equalities, and sustainability. He chaired the Edible Edinburgh Partnership, helping to achieve the Sustainable Food Places Bronze and Silver Awards, the Capital City Partnership and the EICC. He then joined the Edinburgh Integration Joint Board and NHS Lothian in 2019 and also co-chaired the North West Local Community Planning Partnership. He also chaired the Green Health Advisory Group for NHS Lothian Charity. As a councillor he held roles in Planning, Finance and Resource and served short terms on numerous other committees.
Having stepped down in 2022 from council, he retained his position on the Edinburgh Integration Joint Board as a voting member for NHS Lothian and retained his position as the chair of the North West Local Community Planning Partnership. He has subsequently taken on roles as the Scottish Regional Chair for Organ and Tissue Donation and joined the Scottish Donation and Transplant Group, which is the advisory group to the Scottish Government. He has also retained his role as the chair of the Green Health Advisory Group for NHS Lothian Charity and re-joined Granton and District Community Council and is now the Secretary. He was also appointed onto the board of West Lothian Integrated Joint Board and has assumed the role of chair of the Audit, Risk, and Governance Committee.
When finding time for leisure activities and interests, he enjoys watching football, rugby, Formula 1, and listening to music, has a keen interest in nature and was a former member of the Lothian and Fife Swan and Goose Study Group and continues to keep updated of politics within Scotland having previously held a number of roles both locally and nationally.
Peter Knight
Member of the EIJB
Peter joined the Edinburgh IJB in 2022, following his appointment as a non-executive board member of NHS Lothian. For most of his career prior to that he had been a statistician leading the design, development, compilation and use of statistical information at Scotland level on themes across health and social care, population and public health.
In the latter part of his career he was a member of the Scottish Government/COSLA’s Joint Improvement Team and involved collaboratively with many local health and social care systems, before and after the Public Bodies Act 2014 that formalised IJBs. Before his retirement in 2022 he was working for Public Health Scotland on social care data. At a more detailed level, his experience has included co-design of information on substance misuse services, immunisation programmes, NHS waiting times and planning services for older people. It is likely that the influence of his analytical preferences may be evident from time to time on the IJB.
In an earlier phase of his career Peter was a lay trade union officer for Lothian’s NHS and chaired the Scottish Committee of his union for five years. His deep interest in fairness and the impact of poverty remains alive.
Peter has been a citizen of Edinburgh for most of his life and, although growing up in the west of Scotland, has a strong commitment to the City. His personal interests include his family, photography, playing tennis (for as long as he can) and keeping a keen eye on our fragile environment.
Jacqui Macrae
Chief Nurse
I qualified as a Registered Nurse in 1982. Since then, I have gained a range of experience within the NHS, hospice, care home and housing sectors and with Healthcare Improvement Scotland. I have a MSc in Human Resource Management and am currently undertaking a Clinical Doctorate in Nursing at Stirling University. I took up post as interim Chief Nurse in August 2019.
Allister McKillop
Service User Representative
I started my life as a Bank of Scotland clerk in 1973, retiring after 33 years for what I thought would be a well-earned rest! Boredom set me on a different path.
I joined forces with a few others in creating a local charity, Dementia Friendly Pentlands covering the villages of Juniper Green, Currie and Balerno. We aim to make our communities a safe place for those living with dementia and run a couple of cafes, the most recent The Meeting Place which is open every Monday for those who need it.
My main focus is on health and wellbeing within smaller communities, fighting to get accessible services to the residents who need help the most.
Max Mitchell
Member of the EIJB
Max was first elected as a Scottish Conservative councillor in 2017 representing the Inverleith Ward in the City of Edinburgh Council. Following his appointment to the IJB in 2022, he chairs the Performance & Delivery Committee.
From 2017-2022, Max was a trustee of Capital Theatres, Honorary Treasurer of the Edinburgh Police Fund for Children, and was a board observer at LifeCare. He is a trustee of Merchant Company Endowments Trust. He has a degree in French and Sociology, and has worked in hospitality, events, and at Holyrood.”
Eugene Mullan
Citizen Representative
Eugene Mullan – FRIAS, RIBA, MScUD, ARTPI, FRSA
Eugene is originally from Belfast , worked in London for 5 years before locating to Edinburgh in 1991, where he has lived and raised a family.
He and his wife have provided respite care for a young man with cerebral palsy for 15 years on behalf of East Lothian Council. They were also registered Night Stop hosts for the Rock Trust for 3 years providing emergency accommodation for young people.
He is an architect and a qualified urban designer at Smith Scott Mullan, with a particular interest in the effective regeneration of neighbourhoods and creation of successful places. He has significant experience of residential design across a range of tenures, most recently in design for older people and those with dementia. Eugene has recognised expertise in stakeholder and community consultation having organised a number of programmes and lectured on the subject.
Eugene collaborated with Ryan Woolrych of Heriot Watt University to undertake research on Designing Places for an Ageing Population for the Scottish Government. This identifies emerging needs and best practice approaches to the design of cities, towns, neighbourhoods and streets in Scotland for an ageing population.
He completed a research project with Architecture and Design Scotland and Open Change on research into Town Centre Living – A Caring Place. A set of 8 people Personas were developed. He hosted a half day public sector workshop with a wide range of professionals in this field. 10 Principles of a Caring Place were identified which place the user needs at the heart of decision making, service provision and investment in our places.
He was Secretary of the Cross Party Group of MSPs on Architecture and the Built Environment from 2004 to 2016. This role enhanced his understanding of the workings of the Parliament and consideration of policy proposals.
Eugene was founder and first Convenor of the We Play Together charity and social enterprise which operates from the Crags Centre, Edinburgh, an existing sports centre acquired in 2011 as a Community Asset Transfer from City of Edinburgh Council. Eugene was actively involved in the bid to the Council, the application to form a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation and establishing the business plan for the organisation. He is currently a trustee of the organisation.
Councillor Alys Mumford
Member of the EIJB
Alys Mumford was elected as a Scottish Green Party Councillor for Portobello/Craigmillar in May 2022, when she became the Co-Convener of the Edinburgh Green Councillors and the national representative of Scottish Green Councillors on CoSLA. Before becoming a Councillor, Alys was the head of communications for a feminist policy organisation working on economic, social and political gender equality, and she was previously the executive director of a charity campaigning for global debt cancellation.
Alys is the Edinburgh Green Councillor group’s spokesperson on health & social care, and planning. With a keen interest in climate and social justice, she is excited about her role on the EIJB as an opportunity to improve how we consider the equalities impacts of the decisions we make around health and social care, and how we can make better connections with other activity happening in the city.
Vicky Nicolson
Member of the EIJB
Originally from Ayrshire I came to Edinburgh in 1995 as a student. I went on to have my family here and we have spent more than twenty happy years calling Inverleith Ward home. I love spending time with my children, gardening, holidaying in Scotland, being with family and friends, reading widely, enjoying live music and keeping up with politics. Being both connected with my community and a community connector is important to me.
Until recently, I worked for the Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership as a Local Area Co-ordinator. This involved helping people who experience barriers such as living with a disability or a long term condition to access their communities. I connected people with their community, helped them to develop supportive networks and live as full and independent lives as they possibly could. Where gaps were identified in what the community offered, I worked with individuals, communities, and organisations to fill the inevitable gaps. I have enjoyed my role advising people on welfare rights, helping people navigate the complex systems within the Health and Social Care Partnership, organising respite care and short breaks for unpaid carers and supporting people to find the resources they need. At the height of the Covid-19 crisis I left my job temporarily and volunteered in a Council run care home, I then went on to manage a Council Home Care team in North West Edinburgh for eight months.
My colleagues within the City of Edinburgh Council and the front line workforce responded to the pandemic with great courage and dedication. While working in the care home and home care team 2020/21 I was overwhelmed with admiration for the staff teams on the front line as well as in the offices. The staff kept services running when, at times, it seemed like we were running out of options. The ways in which the City of Edinburgh Council, residents, communities and agencies pulled together and worked through the situations imposed upon them makes me proud to have been part of that journey and makes me certain that I have a contribution to make to the EIJB.