Our Board Members
Become a Trustee
Since 1963, Hansel has been focused on breaking down barriers faced by people with additional support needs, creating inclusive environments, opportunities, and choices to enable people living in Ayrshire to live independent and fulfilling lives.
Our mission is to ensure we deliver empowering support so every person feels included and experiences equality, choice, dignity, compassion, and respect. We are a leading social care charity with a unique organisational structure placing innovation and passion at the forefront of delivering real change through a range of services and opportunities for the people that we work for.
We are recruiting four new Trustees to join our board and are looking for people with a range of skillsets such as: legal, social care, employability, social enterprise, marketing, public sector commissioning, investment management and fundraising. We welcome applications from individuals with experience of being a carer in any capacity.
Chief Executive Officer Gerry Lindsay said “The non-executive director team at Hansel make a significant contribution to the organisation’s success, bringing a breadth of knowledge and experience that is invaluable to our journey as a local charity. Although the primary responsibility of our charity trustees is to oversee Hansel’s governance and strategy, we welcome the commitment from them to proactively engage with our people; members of our management team, front-line team members, and most importantly, people accessing support through our services.”
From Trustees and management to front line team members and people who use Hansel services, everyone shares a common vision: to give people of all abilities the freedom to live the life they choose.
If you are interested in working alongside like-minded people looking to enhance life choices for individuals, this could be a great opportunity for you. For more information please email gerry.lindsay@hansel.org.uk or call 01563 830340 to request more information.
Our Board Members
Dr Robert Reekie
Chair of Hansel Foundation
Dr Robert Reekie is Chair of Hansel Foundation having joined the Board of Directors in 2020. After working in the NHS as a medical practitioner, he joined the pharmaceutical industry before moving into senior management, ultimately as Chief Operating Officer of large international organisations developing new medicines.
Jim McIntyre
Chair of Hansel Alliance
Jim has lived in Ayr for the past 30 years and has 40 years’ experience in the banking industry. He was Regional Director for Royal Bank of Scotland Corporate & Commercial Banking in the West of Scotland for the past 15 years until he retired. He joined the Hansel Board in 2019 and became Chair of Hansel Alliance in December 2020.
Other Board Members
Stephen Croke
Board Member
Stephen has 25 years of experience working in technology services and transformation and has directed and managed a mix of Business Development, Sales and Marketing functions for large technology and cloud services organisations as well as international technology vendors. He has lived in Ayr all his life and joined the Hansel Board in 2022.
Ruth Dorman
Board Member & Vice Chair
Ruth is an accomplished and experienced Chief Executive and a health and social care professional who has worked in both the public and not for profit sector. She has contributed to several third sector and statutory agency boards and committees including The Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland and Scottish Rural Health Partnership Steering Group.
Catherine Lawson
Board Member
Catherine is currently a freelance writer and wellbeing advocate following a career which spanned education, government and business. During her time in education she specialised in additional support needs and pupil wellbeing and in her government role she worked nationally to shape policy and develop professional guidance in both those areas of Scottish education. She is now bringing her experience and values to Hansel to support the work of the Board.
Gerry Lindsay
Chief Executive Officer
Our Chief Executive Officer, Gerry Lindsay, is the sole executive member of the Board.
Coral McIntosh
Board Member
Coral is a current Chief Officer of a health and social care organisation specialising in supporting vulnerable young women and previously enjoyed a career in education supporting young people with a variety of additional support needs. Coral lives locally and was keen to join the Hansel Board to support a local organisation that provides excellent support to individuals and has values closely aligned to her own.
Suzanne Reid
Board Member
Suzanne is currently a portfolio manager within a public sector organisation. She has over 22 years public and private sector procurement experience and is also a carer to her 12 year old son who has complex needs and a variety of diagnosis. Suzanne was keen to join Hansel to bring her lived caring experience to the Board.