PCT Board

Michael was born and brought up in Peebles. He is a Rural Practice Chartered Surveyor, running his own business in the town, with extensive experience in mixed property matters, both locally and throughout Scotland, and a healthy knowledge of running a small business. He brings a strong property background to the Trust (previously acting for the Trust in a professional capacity) and an intimate knowledge of the local area with a desire to see it enhanced for the benefit of everyone. In his professional capacity, he has also acted for a number of other Community Trusts throughout Scotland on rural property matters, giving him an understanding of how some other Community Trusts work and an insight into other Community Trust projects. He has had previous involvement in other local organisations, holding posts as a Trustee of Borders Forest Trust, a River Tweed Commissioner, and Chairman of Venlaw Community Woodland

Malcolm was born in Peebles and grew up on School Brae. Unfortunately, in common with many of his generation, he left the town in the mid 1970’s to pursue a career as an Officer of Customs and Excise. Based in Scotland initially he spent a few years inspecting the accounts of businesses large and small for Value Added Tax purposes before joining the uniformed branch of his Department at Edinburgh Airport where he spent many happy years on the front line as a criminal investigator, dealing with commercial drug smuggling attempts as well as alcohol and tobacco smuggling and large scale VAT evasion. In his latter years he became a Financial Investigator specialising in tracking down and seizing the Proceeds of Crime from those convicted of tax evasion and smuggling offences till he retired in 2014, Malcolm and his wife Christine, who hails from West Linton, decided to move back to Peebles. He has since become immersed in town life as a volunteer driver and trainer for Tweed Wheels, a volunteer usher at The Eastgate Theatre, as Secretary of Peebles and District Men’s Shed and as a volunteer and committee member for the Peebles Christmas Lights Association. He is also a proud Callant and a member of the Guildry Corporation of Peebles. Most recently Malcolm was co-opted as a Community Councillor, and it is in this latter role that he has now joined the Board of Peebles Community Trust. Malcolm enjoys cycling, walking his local hills and golf when he gets a minute. 

Adrian is a Deputy Lieutenant for Peeblesshire. He is Chairman of The Borders Branch of SSAFA, The Armed Forces Charity and Chairman of Club Sport Tweeddale (formerly Sports Council). Adrian has served on a number of Boards. In addition to his 17 years as a Chief Executive he has served as a Non Executive Director with NHS Borders 2007 to 2014 and Social Investment Scotland 2008 to 2017. He was an independent Executive Coach, working with Senior Managers and Executives from the Public and Private sector until 2019.

Adrian spent his working life in the Ambulance Service working at all levels of the Service in several UK Ambulance Services. In 1990 he was appointed Chief Executive of the Greater Manchester Ambulance Service, serving a population of 4.1 million. In 1999 He joined the Scottish Ambulance Service as Chief Executive Officer, having accountability to the newly formed Scottish Parliament for all of Ambulance provision (throughout Scotland, its Islands including fixed wing and helicopter operations) retiring in 2008. He is pleased to join the board of Peebles Community Trust and offer whatever assistance he can to an already highly effective Board committed to improving facilities in Peebles as well the quality of life for residents and visitors of & to the Town. 

Andrew has had a career in Procurement, Supply Chain, Marketing and Strategy roles with major blue chip organisations. He currently holds a senior procurement role at Edinburgh University.  

Andrew is a Director of the Ettrick & Yarrow Community Development Company, an elder and Trustee of Ettrick & Yarrow Churches and a Director and Trustee of children's music charity Fischy Music. He is also a committee member of Peebles Highland Games Association. His wife runs the Peebles-based Fiona Henderson School of Dance and Stardust Performance Arts musical theatre so he therefore spends a large amount of time in Peebles and supporting activities within the local community. 

Susan came to Peebles from Edinburgh with her husband in 1999.

She worked for The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo for 39 years, retiring in August 2019.  As Head of Sales, and a member of the Senior Management Team, Susan was responsible for income generation from the sale of tickets, hospitality, merchandise and memberships for the world-famous event which takes place on the Esplanade of Edinburgh Castle and is attended annually by 220,000 people from around the world.

Susan joined the Board of Peebles Community Trust in May 2022 and assisted primarily in the setup of an online accounting system designed for not-for-profit organisations.

Susan is Treasurer of the Borders branch of SSAFA, the Armed Forces Charity.

David was born and grew up on a family farm in Suffolk. Moving to Dorset where he attended High School David then went on to Agricultural College. After completing an HND in Agriculture, David worked for a fertilizer company for 7 years in Gloucestershire and Shropshire before being re-located to Scotland and moving to Mid Calder. After meeting his wife, Gill, through “Young Farmers”, they married and then moved to Eddleston in 1991.

In the same year David also changed careers, going on to work in financial services in various companies and different roles, travelling all over the UK. In 2003, and with a young family to consider, David established his own financial services business in the Northgate, now providing Mortgage and Insurance services through Clockwork Mortgages.

Having been a member of Eddleston Community Council which he also chaired for 10 years, on moving into Peebles he joined Peebles Community Council, which he then went on to chair for a further 2 years.

Approached to become a Board Member of Scottish Borders Housing Association in 2006, David was elected to the Board of Management and subsequently remained for 13 years. In 2017 David was also approached and became a Board Member with Live Borders for 6 years.

David was a founding member and became the first chair of Peebles Community Trust in 2012.  Having been involved with many local voluntary organisations in addition to being  a community councillor, it had become clear that Peebles needed an organisation to act as a co-ordinating body for the many voluntary organisations in the town, which could then take on larger projects for the benefit of the whole community. In the last 10 years Peebles Community Trust has grown considerably and achieved much, but I believe that there is so much more that it can achieve in future for the community of Peebles.

Dominic Ashmole grew up in Peebles and is an environmental and community advocate with a professional background in research and development, intellectual property, and project leadership. Over more than two decades, he has worked in complex and highly regulated environments, supporting innovation, managing risk, and helping multidisciplinary teams turn ambitious ideas into practical outcomes.

His current focus is on supporting community-led responses to environmental and social challenges, with particular interests in ecosystem restoration, landscape-scale thinking, and long-term resilience. Dominic brings strengths in strategic thinking, partnership-building, governance, and clear communication, and is motivated by the belief that lasting progress depends on strong local ownership and well-run organisations.

Born and raised in Yorkshire, Emma has lived in Scotland for 23 years, moving to Peebles in 2017. Following university Emma started her professional career in the defence industry, as a technical project manager working in air systems and avionics. She left the defence industry to work as project manager in construction, gaining a post graduate qualification in construction management. Following periods in consultancy, for the last 14 years, as project director, she has been responsible for the delivery of capital projects for the hub programme in East Central Scotland. Over that time she has delivered projects in excess of £700m, in the education, health, leisure and conservation sectors. Emma has a real interest in heritage projects, particularly the preservation and repurposing of historic buildings for the benefit of the community. Emma is looking forward to working with the PCT to preserve our town's assets for the benefit of all. 

Graeme lives in Peebles with his wife Norma a former English and support for learning teacher. They have two children, Stephanie who is a Senior vet at a practice in Loanhead and Gregor who is a journalist and is now working in communications at the Scottish and Northern Ireland Plumbers Federation in Edinburgh. Gregor is also the Editor of their publications. Graeme has dedicated his working life to the Roofing Industry, originally training with the family roofing business Wm Millar and Sons in Edinburgh and then joining another family business as MD of Bain and Irvine Ltd in Peebles from 1987 until his retirement last May (2025). Graeme joined B&I into the National Federation Of Roofing Contractors (UK) in 1999 and went on to become their Scottish regional Chair and then President from 2012-14. In 2014 Graeme joined the Board of the International Federation of the Roofing Trade and became their President from 2019-24 only the second Scottish President since the formation of the IFD in 1952. His charity experience relates to joining Sports Aid Scotland as a Trustee in 2002-present and he has recently been appointed as Chair of the Board of Trustees of the NFRC hardship and education charity based in London.

Graeme and Norma are keen golfers and are both members of Peebles GC. Graeme has also just finished a 10 year stint as Captain of Swanston GC in Edinburgh and is a member of Archerfield GC in East Lothian.

His role at PCT will include working with local trades to renovate properties under the ownership of PCT all for the benefit of the local community and the built Heritage of the town.  

Before Joanna moved to Peebles in 2024 with her family, she worked in Peebles as a physiotherapist. She is currently lecturing in Physiotherapy after completing her PhD in frugal innovation and entrepreneurship. Joanna has an interest in community wealth building and the well being economy. Joanna is keen to be part of developing Peebles for families and making the most of multigenerational opportunities that present themselves through PCT.