The John Smith Centre Board oversees the conduct, leadership and management of the Centre and includes members of the Smith family, University of Glasgow alumni, public service practitioners from across the political spectrum and academic staff.
The Board sets the priorities; benchmarks best practice; and reviews performance to enable the Centre to achieve its aim to promote trust in politics and public service and to empower and attract more people to contribute to public life.
The Centre operates under the University of Glasgow’s charitable status. A record for the John Smith Centre’s Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO) is available to access via the Scottish charity regulator’s website. The SCIO exists as legal entity in order to contract with the University of Glasgow to produce a Memorandum of Association which details our governance arrangements. The SCIO files zero sum accounts as the funds we raise and spend are held by the University of Glasgow.
Our current Board members are:
Iain Anderson – Chair
Baroness Smith of Cluny KC
Catherine Smith KC is the Advocate General for Scotland, a UK government minister and one of the three law officers advising the UK government. She has particular responsibility for advising the UK government on matters of Scots law. Catherine is co-founder of the John Smith Centre. She has been an advocate practicing in Scotland since 2007, and also sat as a part time judge (Sheriff). Prior to becoming an advocate she worked in the law in Scotland and Australia; and internationally on conflict resolution and democracy building in the NGO sector, working particularly in the countries of the former Soviet Union. Catherine has been involved in numerous activities promoting the rule of law and human rights in the UK and in developing democracies, including travelling to Ukraine in 2023. She is a co-founder and former Vice Chair of JUSTICE Scotland, the Scottish representation of the UK organisation promoting justice and the rule of law. She sat on the Scottish Civil Justice Council, advising on the development of civil justice in Scotland; and was Counsel to the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the Investigatory Powers Tribunal. Catherine is John Smith‘s youngest daughter.
Rt Hon Ed Balls
Ed Balls is a broadcaster, writer and economist. A regular presenter on ITV’s flagship breakfast show, Good Morning Britain, Ed also co-hosts a weekly podcast, Political Currency, with former Chancellor George Osborne and has presented a number of documentaries for the BBC. He is Professor of Political Economy at King’s College, London, a Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School and co-Chair of the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation. He is a former member of Parliament, Shadow Chancellor, Cabinet Minister and Chief Economic Adviser to the Treasury. He cooks, sails, plays the piano, drums and is a Norwich City Vice-President and Club Ambassador. He is married to Yvette Cooper MP and they have three children.
Dr Matt Carter
Amy Fraser
Amy is a University of Glasgow graduate, where she achieved her MA in Politics and Theatre Studies in 2020. Whilst at University, she was accepted as a John Smith Parliamentary Intern and was placed with MSP Humza Yousaf in his Glasgow Pollok Constituency Office. Following a successful intern period, Amy was asked back to work part time in the office, gradually building up her experience there and also working with Fiona Hyslop MSP in her office.
Amy was appointed as a Constituency Communications Officer in Humza Yousaf MSP’s Office in 2021, achieving the senior position of Office Manager in April 2024. Although Amy is not affiliated with any political party, she was excited to accept Humza Yousaf’s invitation to join his leadership contest campaign team in 2023 and gained a valuable insight into campaigning and working with a successful leadership candidate. Amy loves her work as her passion is helping people and championing community initiatives.
Away from work, Amy is a passionate fundraiser, tentative Munro bagger, cinema goer and loves nothing more than spending time with family and friends. Coppafeel! (breast cancer awareness charity) and Seasons for Growth (supporting people through bereavements) are two charities close to her heart and she has fundraised extensively for both. She recently became an ambassador for CoppaFeel! which involves Amy educating local young people about breast cancer awareness through informative and empowering events.
Although Amy’s family roots are in Glasgow, she was brought up in the North East of Scotland and is keen to encourage real diversity within politics and political conversations. She is driven by her core value of wanting to help other people and her desire to involve as many voices as possible in caring about our communities, our country, and our world.
Rt Hon Lord Gove
Michael Gove was the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Minister for Intergovernmental Relations. He has held several Ministerial posts across Government, including as Education Secretary and Secretary of State for the Environment. Before entering politics, Michael worked as a reporter for The Press and Journal in Aberdeen, a researcher and reporter at Scottish Television and a reporter for BBC Television. He was later Assistant Editor of The Times. Michael Gove is a former Chairman of Policy Exchange, a centre-right think-tank which has come up with innovative policies on policing, local government and fighting terrorism. Policy Exchange’s plans to devolve more power over police priorities to local communities has been widely welcomed. Michael Gove was born in Edinburgh in 1967 and brought up in Aberdeen. Educated in England and Scotland, in the state and independent sectors, he is passionately committed to raising standards in state schools and helping children from less privileged backgrounds to maximise their potential.
Craig Harrow
Craig Harrow was an undergraduate at Glasgow University and graduated in Scottish History from Edinburgh University. He began his career as a parliamentary researcher at Westminster for the late Ray Michie, MP for Argyll & Bute.
Craig headed one of the first Scottish lobbying consultancies and has worked in house and as senior counsel to a range of businesses, charities and causes. He was convener of the Scottish Liberal Democrats and Vice President of the Liberal Democrats during the coalition government. He has been a successful election agent in Scotland on seven occasions and has been a Liberal Democrat candidate for both the Holyrood and Westminster parliaments including as a successor candidate in Charles Kennedy’s seat in 2019.
A board member of the Better Together campaign during the 2014 Scottish Referendum, he was a senior fund-raising adviser to the Remain campaign in the 2016 Euro referendum.
He runs his own strategic consultancy business and is co-founder of a production company that specialises in women’s sport. Craig is leading fundraising for two major capital projects in Scotland – one in Dundee and another in Edinburgh.
A Trustee of the Trust for Scottish Liberal Democracy, Craig has recently co-edited a biography of reflections on the life of the late Jim Wallace. Working with a BAFTA-nominated Executive Producer and Emmy-winning Director, he is currently producing a biographical feature film on a sixteenth century Scottish regent.
Fiona Hill
Fiona Hill CBE is the first female Chief of Staff to the UK Prime Minister and founder and CEO of Marsham Street Consultants. Born and raised in the west of Scotland, Fiona began her career as a journalist in Scotland before joining the Conservative party press office in 2006. She worked alongside Theresa May in the Home Office from 2010 where she played a key role in the introduction of the Modern Slavery Act in 2015. In 2016, she was appointed joint chief of staff in No10 when Mrs May became Prime Minister. She founded Marsham Street Consultants which offers relationship management to the business world. She also founded the annual Future Resilience Forum, an international security conference.
Resham Kotecha
Resham Kotecha is a strategy and policy specialist and is currently the Global Head of Policy at the Open Data Institue. As a former strategy consultant, Resham worked with senior leadership teams at blue chip tech companies such as Amazon, Facebook and Google. She has also been active in politics for the last decade. She stood as a candidate in the 2015 general election, where she was the Conservative Party’s youngest BME candidate, and also fought the 2017 election. Resham currently serves as the Head of Engagement for Women2Win – an organisation founded by the former Prime Minister, working to get more women elected to Parliament. Resham has written for publications and think tanks such as The Times, the Centre for Policy Studies and Huffington Post and regularly speaks at policy conferences. She is the founder of the Conservative Policy Network, designed to increase accessibility to policy-makers, and is a Trustee of the Fawcett Society, the UK’s leading charity campaigning for gender equality and women’s rights. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Cambridge University and has been recognised as as a ‘Global Shaper’ by the World Economic Forum for political work in trying to achieve a more representative Parliament.
Stewart McDonald
Stewart served as the SNP MP for Glasgow South from 2015 to 2024. After two years serving on the Transport Select Committee, he was appointed the party’s defence spokesman (2017 – 2023) and member of the Foreign Affairs Committee (2019 – 2023). Stewart was the Vice-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Ukraine, and in 2019 was awarded the Presidential Order of Merit by President Zelensky. He is also a founding member of the Interparliamentary Alliance on China and takes a keen interest in China policy. In 2022 Stewart was named ‘Best Scot at Westminster’ at The Herald’s Politician of the year awards, and again by Holyrood Magazine in the same year. Away from defence, security and foreign policy, Stewart has also campaigned against unpaid work trials and has previously introduced legislation to ban the practice. Stewart writes a weekly column on current and political affairs every Saturday in The Scotsman newspaper.
Adam McInnes
Adam McInnes is Head of UK Regional Public Policy at NatWest Group, one of the UK’s largest banking companies. In this role, Adam oversees the political interactions of the historic Royal Bank of Scotland brand, and has responsibility for NatWest Group’s relationship with devolved governments and MPs across the nations and regions of the UK. He provides advice to the bank’s senior leaders on UK-wide political and policy issues and sets the strategic direction of NatWest Group’s seven Regional Boards. Adam’s relationship with the John Smith Centre extends to the Centre’s early days. He was one of the first John Smith Centre parliamentary interns and subsequently joined the Centre’s team to support the expansion of its flagship programme. Adam is a graduate of the University of Glasgow, with MA (Hons) in Economics and Economic & Social History, and MSc in the Global Economy.
David Muir
Professor Graeme Roy
Graeme is Vice Principal and Head of the College of Social Sciences at the University of Glasgow. He is Professor of Economics and Chair of the Scottish Fiscal Commission, Scotland’s official independent economic and fiscal forecaster. Before joining the University of Glasgow in 2021, Graeme was Director of the Fraser of Allander Institute at the University of Strathclyde. Earlier in his career, he served as a Senior Civil Servant in the Scottish Government, where he led the First Minister’s Policy Unit. At Glasgow, he was formerly Dean of External Engagement for the College of Social Sciences and subsequently Head of the Adam Smith Business School. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Academy of Social Sciences and the Royal Economic Society. In 2024, he was awarded the Adam Smith Prize by the Royal Society of Edinburgh in recognition of his “substantial contribution to public policy and public life in Scotland”.
Baroness Smith Of Gilmorehill
Elizabeth Smith was created a peer in 1995 following the death of her husband, Rt Hon John Smith M.P. who was the Leader of the Labour Party at the time of his early death at the age of 55. Elizabeth is a member of the board of several organisations with interests in Russia and FSU countries. She also has interests in culture and the arts and was past President of Scotland’s national opera company, Scottish Opera and was Chairman of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for 16 years until 2014. Her other positions include being an Advisory Council Member of the Russo-British Chamber of Commerce; Vice Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Russia; Governor of the English Speaking Union; Board Member of the Centre for European Reform and a Trustee of the Mariinsky Theatre Trust. She has three children, Sarah, Jane and Catherine.