Senior management

The Senior Management Team is supported by about 180 office-based staff working in Aberdeen and about 120 operations staff working across Scotland.

Senior Management

FSS staff are led by a Chief Executive and Senior Management Team.

Geoff Ogle – Chief Executive

Geoff Ogle was Director, Scotland for the Food Standards Agency from June 2014 to March 2015. Geoff has been a civil servant since 1984 and within that time has undertaken a variety of posts including policy, programme and operational work. His roles have included being Private Secretary to the Child Support Agency (CSA) Chief Executive and both Head of External Relations and Head of Internal Communications in the CSA.

He moved in March 2002 to the Pension Service in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), where he was a Pension Centre Manager and then Head of the International Pension Centre. Geoff joined the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in December 2008 as Head of GB Field Operations where he improved performance significantly, and was the Senior Investigating Officer during the horsemeat incident from February to May 2013.

He became the FSA’s Acting Director, Wales from May 2013 to February 2014, and was then Portfolio Director until he took his post as the Food Standards Agency’s Scotland Director in June 2014.

Ian McWatt - Deputy Chief Executive

As Deputy Chief Executive & Director of Policy, Science and Operations at Food Standards Scotland, Ian oversees food and feed official controls delivery and policy, FSS science teams, local authority enforcement, incident and intelligence response, veterinary audit and technical advice. He also has overall responsibility for food premises approvals, shellfish controls including service level agreement, contract and performance management and wine standards.

Ian joined the Food Standards Agency in 2009 leading on the creation of the Operations Directorate which brought the Meat Hygiene Service and Food Standards Agency together. He then led the Operations team in Scotland from 2012, working closely with Scottish Government to create Food Standards Scotland.

Ian worked with Environmental & Consumer Protection Services from 1990 until 2003 where he led a multi-disciplinary team delivering official controls in food, health and safety, environmental protection and public health.

Garry McEwan - Director of Corporate Services 

As Director of Corporate Services, Garry has overall responsibility for FSS’s Comms and Marketing, Corporate Support, Digital Transformation, Finance and Procurement and HR functions.

Garry joined FSS in April 2021 as the Head of Governance and Infrastructure. This role primarily has oversight and responsibility for Organisational Finance, Human Resources and Corporate Support. Prior to joining FSS, he worked in policing for 30 plus years, having been the Head of CID, Local Policing Commander with his final posting being National Policing Commander for Police Scotland with responsibility, management and leadership of Police Officers and Police staff across Scotland.

Garry Mournian - Director of Policy and Science

As Head of Food Safety and Standards Policy, Garry oversees our regulatory policy function which covers all aspects of food and feed safety and hygiene policy, general food law, official food and feed and import controls as well as relevant matters relating to food labelling, standards and regulated products.

Garry’s most recent role as interim Director of Policy, Science, Finance and HR meant he was responsible for our food safety, nutrition and regulatory policy as well as maintaining responsibility for finance and HR. He also acted as the Senior Responsible Officer for delivery of our EU Exit and Nutrition programmes.

Prior to this, he was the FSS Corporate Services Director a role which gave him overall responsibility in the development of Corporate Services for Food Standards Scotland, including securing the governance arrangements after the transfer of functions from when we were the Food Standards Agency in Scotland.   

Garry’s earlier career began in the Ministry of Defence in Westminster where he undertook a variety of different roles including project management, procurement, finance and business planning. He then moved to Scotland and was appointed as Head of Corporate Services in 2008 with the Food Standards Agency in Scotland.

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The Board

The members of Food Standards Scotland are informally known as ‘the Board’. They are appointed by Scottish Ministers through an open and public process.

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About Us

Food Standards Scotland (FSS) is the public sector food body for Scotland.