APRS Board
President of APRS
Patricia Macdonald
BSc PhD FRSE FSA(Scot) FRSA HonFRSGS HonFICS
Patricia is an environmental/cultural-landscape researcher, writer and academic (Honorary Fellow, University of Edinburgh) and an award-winning artist-photographer whose powerful, boundary-crossing environmental aerial imagery is commissioned, exhibited and published, and held in public and private collections, internationally in both fine-art and editorial contexts. She has authored/co-authored more than ten books and her work is widely discussed in other publications. She also has considerable experience in the museum/gallery and natural-heritage sectors, both as a staff member and at board level (Main Board and Scientific Advisory Committee, Scottish Natural Heritage; Trustee, John Muir Trust; Board Member, Stills Gallery).
Our Board
Bob Reid (Chairman)
Bob Reid has been a Town and Country Planner for 45 years. He has studied and worked in all aspects of planning, from new towns, through Glasgow’s East End to its bustling City Centre. He has experience at planning directorate level with Grampian Region and then with Aberdeen City Council where he was Director of Planning. Bob moved to the private sector in 2004 as Director of Planning at Halliday Fraser Munro. He has been involved in a wide range of consultancy work across the whole of Scotland, in England and Northern Ireland. He was Convenor of the Royal Town Planning Institute in Scotland 2012. Since 2016 Bob has taken on the role as Development Director for Wildland Limited, managing development projects across 11 Estates in Scotland ranging from Braeroy in the west to Kyle of Tongue in the far north. He retired from professional practice in 2022 – but continues to be involved in landscape and conservation work across Scotland.
Iain Harrison (Treasurer)
Iain was born and educated in Glasgow attending Hillhead Primary School and Hillhead High School before joining Royal Bank of Scotland in 1974. He qualified as a Chartered Banker (MCIBS) at Glasgow Caledonian University and in 1981 was transferred to Head Office working in the Bank’s Inspection and Fraud Department. and subsequently the Sponsorship and PR Department, where he was responsible for setting up the Bank’s Community Fund, heading up Internal Communications, responsibility for RBS’s commemorative banknotes and managing a multi million pound budget.
After early retirement Iain once again joined RBS for a further 2 years as a Senior Manager before finally retiring to enjoy more golf. He is currently Finance Convenor of Linlithgow Golf Club as well as an NTS volunteer and has been a member of APRS since 1994.
John Esslemont
BSc MPhil PG Dip UPA MRTPI
John grew up in rural Aberdeenshire and Angus before attaining a geography degree at Aberdeen University and a post graduate degree in regional planning at Glasgow University. He spent almost 40 years in local government as a strategic planner in the West of Scotland actively involved in strategic land use policy development within the Strathclyde area and latterly within Ayrshire where he managed the Ayrshire Joint Planning Unit. John is a chartered member of the Royal Town Planning Institute and a past convener of RTPI Scotland. He is married and lives in Rutherglen. He enjoys hill walking and skiing. John is a chartered member of the Royal Town Planning Institute and a past convener of RTPI Scotland. He is married and lives in Rutherglen. He enjoys hill walking and skiing.
Graeme Purves
Graeme has many years experience in the development of strategic planning policy, development management and the environmental assessment of policies and proposals. He led the national and territorial planning team at Scottish Government and was responsible for the preparation of Scotland’s first and second National Planning Frameworks. Graeme brings to APRS experience in urban regeneration and rural development and has been actively involved in encouraging community participation in land and environmental management. He has served on many advisory committees and boards including being part of a group of international experts advising on good practice in spatial planning in the Celtic and Baltic countries, Chair of the Built Environment Forum Scotland, a Director of the Sir Patrick Geddes Memorial Trust and a member of the RSPB’s Scottish Advisory Committee. Between October 2019 and November 2020 he was an expert advisor to the Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee of the Welsh Senedd. Between 2018 and 2021 he was a member of the UK2070 Commission examining regional inequality across the United Kingdom.
Andy Dorin
Andy is an ecologist who has worked across Scotland. He began his career as an Area Officer for the Nature Conservancy Council and then Scottish Natural Heritage in the Cairngorms and Orkney. He was the first Sustainable Development Officer for The Highland Council, promoting Agenda 21, and led a community budgeting project across Ross-shire. Andy also has an MBA gained at Napier University and has employed this working for SNH on policy and business strategy before holding a number of more operational roles in the last few years. He was Area Manager for Forth, the Programme Manager for People and Nature and finally as Head of Protected Areas and Surveillance. Andy retired in January 2020 and has been finishing a house renovation, near Cromarty in the Highlands, since then. He is passionate about more people enjoying Scotland’s countryside, improving the management of Scotland’s Protected Areas and about a more sustainable approach to land management. He is a keen canoeist and a kayak coach and he loves nothing better than a night spent under canvas.
Suzie Saunders
Suzie is currently a Senior Planning and Environmental Policy Analyst at ScottishPower Renewables, focusing on securing sustainable development that protects and enhances the natural environment. She previously worked in Policy and Public Affairs at the Woodland Trust Scotland, where she led their campaign on the National Planning Framework 4, achieving protection for Scotland’s precious ancient woodlands. During this time, she also held the role of Vice-Convener of the Planning Committee at Scottish Environment LINK. Although her work focuses on the terrestrial environment, she studied marine biology at Aberdeen University and holds a master’s degree in biological sciences. Suzie grew up next to the Peak District National Park but discovered her love of walking later in life. Most weekends, she can be found in Scotland’s hills and countryside and feels passionately about ensuring all people have access to the natural world.
Eric Baird
Eric has recently retired as Head Ranger on Glen Tanar, in the Cairngorms National Park. From its inception, Eric, as a Ministerial Appointee, served as Vice Convenor of the Cairngorms National Park Board for its first 7 years. He subsequently became Chair of the Macaualy Development Trust for several years. Eric was awarded a Churchill Fellowship for his study of the Access/Conservation interface in protected areas of Northern Europe, and has undertaken conflict resolution work, at the invitation of the Portuguese Minister for Environment, in the Tejo protected area. Eric was, for several years, a co-opted member of the Council of the European Federation of National Parks and Protected Areas, giving him valuable international experience. Eric is co-author of the original ‘Cairngorms Forest and Woodland Framework’, and was a member of the editorial board for ‘A Sense of Place’.
The Mayhew Committee
The Mayhew Committee is named in memory of John Mayhew, former Director of APRS, and former Chair of Scottish Campaign for National Parks. John is a much missed advocate for National Parks and Scotland’s Landscapes, he authored many reports including ‘Unfinished Business’ – See our reports here by scrolling down the page.
The Mayhew Committee is made up of expert members from both APRS’s membership/supporters and from members of SCNP. SCNP was initially conceived as an APRS subcommittee and has had various incarnations since, existing as a separate organisation from the 1980s until 2026.
The focus of the Mayhew Committee will include the continued promotion of existing National Parks in Scotland, and ensuring new National Parks stays on the Scottish Government agenda, as well as the protection and development of other protected landscapes.
John Thomson (Mayhew Committee Chairman)
MA MSc FRSA
John studied history at Cambridge and economics at Bristol University. His long-standing interest in the environment and rural life took him from an early career in HM Treasury to senior posts in the Planning Inspectorate of the Department of the Environment and the Countryside Commission (England & Wales). After a spell as Head of the Town & Country Planning Policy Division in the then Scottish Office, he spent almost twenty years as a Director in Scottish Natural Heritage, leading its work in the fields of landscape, land and freshwater use, and planning and development. For much of this time he also led on recreation and access issues and oversaw SNH’s operations in the west of Scotland. He was for several years chair of the UK Countryside Recreation Network and the UK environmental agencies’ Land Use Policy Group. He also served as a Council member of Europarc, the Europe-wide network of National and Nature Parks. John served as Chairman of the Scottish Campaign for National Parks. He and his wife also run a small farm near Kirkcudbright, breeding and rearing black Galloway cattle. John is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Rebecca Hughes
BSc MPhil CMLI FLI
Rebecca is a Chartered Landscape Architect who has worked as a landscape and environmental consultant and botanist across the UK and abroad. She spent 14 years as Head of Landscape and Restoration at Scottish Natural Heritage, leading its national landscape team and landscape character assessment programme. She acted as landscape expert witness for various public inquiries, including the proposed Harris superquarry. Rebecca graduated from Durham University in Botany and Geography and from Newcastle University in Landscape Design. She worked for The National Trust in Northumberland, the Lake District National Park and the Nature Conservancy Council, then set up a landscape consultancy, forestry and furniture making business in the Borders. She spent five years as Senior Lecturer in Environmental Design at Newcastle University. Rebecca has developed landscape and visual impact assessment methodology for various developments including the renewable energy industry, and has recently worked on biodiversity management planning and landscape restoration both in the UK and New Zealand.
Beryl Leatherland
BSc MSc
Beryl’s first degree was in Zoology with Botany, and her subsequent MSc was in Marine Biology. She spent most of her professional career in Scotland in the delivery and development of biological education, and then administration in a variety of secondary schools assisting with the Duke of Edinburgh Award. For many years she was very active in her climbing club and served as Secretary and then President on two separate occasions. After retirement, she was a volunteer on the Council for the MCofS [Mountaineering Council of Scotland, now Mountaineering Scotland] and was vice-president for two terms, and chaired the Access and Conservation Committee. During that time she represented the MCofS on several bodies including the NTS Council and Scottish Environment LINK. She also responded to many consultations and development proposals at a time when wind farms were proliferating extensively across the landscape of Scotland. She has always been an advocate for landscape, wildlife and responsible access, and is a long standing member of the Fife Local Access Forum. Beryl was the Convenor of the Scottish Wild Land Group for many years and represented them at LINK where she was a Trustee for 3 terms, and also co-convenes the Hilltracks campaign.
Eric Baird
Eric has recently retired as Head Ranger on Glen Tanar, in the Cairngorms National Park. From its inception, Eric, as a Ministerial Appointee, served as Vice Convenor of the Cairngorms National Park Board for its first 7 years. He subsequently became Chair of the Macaualy Development Trust for several years. Eric was awarded a Churchill Fellowship for his study of the Access/Conservation interface in protected areas of Northern Europe, and has undertaken conflict resolution work, at the invitation of the Portuguese Minister for Environment, in the Tejo protected area. Eric was, for several years, a co-opted member of the Council of the European Federation of National Parks and Protected Areas, giving him valuable international experience. Eric is co-author of the original ‘Cairngorms Forest and Woodland Framework’, and was a member of the editorial board for ‘A Sense of Place’.
Charles Strang
Charles Strang, Community Council Secretary, is a retired architect and town
planner. Conservation management, planning and policy have been his
specialisms, particularly in local government planning and as Director of
Buildings & Gardens at NTS. He continues to take what some think is an
unhealthy interest in planning policy.
Previously Charles has served on St Boswells Village Committee, Earlston
Schools Council, and St Boswells Tennis Club. He wrote Borders & Berwick: An
Illustrated Architectural Guide in the popular RIAS series.
Charles has been a Director of the Edinburgh Royal Choral Union, the Southern
Uplands Partnership, Director and Vice-President of APRS, and Vice-President of
the Edinburgh Architectural Association (where he is Honorary Librarian). As
Secretary of the Sir Patrick Geddes Memorial Trust, he is proud that Geddes was
the originator of Think Global, Act Local, watchwords which are essential for our
present and future.
Rob Lucas
Rob has spent almost all his career in environmental understanding, including running a national charity which operated in nine of the UK’s national parks, so gaining experience of the many benefits a National Park brings.
He chaired the Forest Education Network for 9 years and has recently stood down from being Vice-President for Expeditions and Fieldwork at the Royal Geographical Society. Having first visited Galloway on holiday over 50 years ago, Rob now lives there and was Chair of the Galloway National Park Association. Over recent years during the campaign for a new National Park in Galloway, Rob worked with the inspiring young people of the area who felt having a National Park in their area would be important for their futures.