Our people

Chair of the Board

Heather Kelman has been Chair of Food Standards Scotland since April 2022 and a member of the FSS Board since it was established in April 2015. Heather was a member of the FSS Audit and Risk Committee from April 2020 to March 2022 and has been a member of the Nutrition Programme Board since July 2018.  

Heather has 40 years’ experience of working in the public sector, the first 10 years as a dietitian, then as a strategic planner and senior manager within the NHS. Heather worked closely with Scottish Government and other Stakeholders on several health policy issues including the development of the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014 and Healthcare Associated Infection. 

Health protection, promoting positive health and wellbeing and addressing health inequalities were a particular focus throughout her career.  

Heather’s childhood in Scotland was closely associated with food manufacture, retail and agriculture and she continues to have a strong interest in these, alongside protecting the environment and doing conservation work. 

Deputy Chair

Christina Bichan was appointed as Deputy Chair of the Board in April 2026. She has over 20 years’ experience within the public sector, working both in a remote and rural island location and at a national level. 

With a Masters degree in Public Health and experience of leading performance, planning, quality improvement and governance functions within the NHS, Christina is based in Orkney and involved in a family-owned food business.  

Her interest lies in protecting and improving people’s health and wellbeing, and in the sustainability of remote and rural communities.

Board member

Aileen Brown has held Finance Director positions in a diverse range of sectors working with multi-disciplinary leadership teams. She had executive oversight of other disciplines such as HR, IT, legal, risk, compliance, and a detailed understanding of governance from working in regulated businesses, and as an auditor and risk management consultant at Ernst & Young. 

Board member

Phillip Couser MBE has worked at senior levels in the NHS in Scotland since 2013 and is currently a non-executive director on the Board of NHS Lanarkshire. Until July 2021 he was the Director of Data Driven Innovation in Public Health Scotland (PHS) and prior to this he was Director for Public Health and Intelligence in NHS National Services Scotland. From both of these roles he brings a strong interest in public health and a passion for data driven and digitally enabled transformation. 

Phillip’s NHS career started in 2008, gaining experience working in the Northeast of England and London. 

Prior to this, Phillip had an Army career, retiring as a lieutenant colonel. Highlights included regimental command and the award of an MBE for leadership in national logistic planning for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.  

Board member

Dr Paula Charlesworth is a registered dietitian with a PhD in nutrition and physiology. She has worked in frontline NHS services, research and academia and brings regulatory experience, having served terms as a professional partner for the Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service, sitting on their Fitness to Practise, Investigatory Committee and Appeals Panels. 

Dr Charlesworth is currently a lay member and director of the Scottish Solicitors Discipline Tribunal and Lead Visitor for the Health and Care Professions Council, Education and Training Committee, reviewing academic programmes for education providers.

Board member

Alban has been involved in many of Scotland’s food businesses over the past 30 years and has held a range of Director and Managing Director roles in Kettle Produce, Grampian Food Group, Eden Esk Group, Warburton’s and, until he recently retired, he was the Managing Director of Loch Duart, one of Scotland’s salmon farmers. Alban was also a Director of the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation and Chair of Scottish Quality Salmon. 

Board member

Dr. Carol Evans has over 20 years’ experience of strategic leadership, organisational development, leading and driving transformational change. She worked at a strategic level in AstraZeneca, Kellogg’s, PepsiCo, Reckitt Benckiser, Royal Pharmaceutical Society, a national start up and currently Bield Housing and Care. 

Within her senior European roles in PepsiCo and Kellogg’s, she was instrumental in improving food quality and re-design across Europe. With her combined chemistry/biochemistry PhD, food industry experience and 10 years' pharmaceutical experience and personal research, she understands food components, additives, and their effect on the body. Her present commitments include non-executive roles at Skills Development Scotland and Accounts Commission for Scotland, along with her chairmanship at Friends of Cedarbank Charity. 

Previously she was a member of pharmacy and health related boards and government advisory groups and supported the development of regulations, policies, and procedures nationally. As a member of global executive teams, she has been responsible for audit, risk, finance and ensuring the highest standards of corporate governance, compliance, and performance improvement. 

Board member

Kate Richards has breadth and depth of experience of agriculture and food production in the public and private sectors. 

A farm vet in Aberdeenshire, she was also an Official Veterinarian to the Grampian Country Food Group and other commercial businesses. Leaving clinical practice, Kate provided advice on livestock health to the UK subsidiary of a global pharmaceutical company before joining Defra as a farm animal welfare veterinary advisor where she was promoted to Scientific Secretary to SEAC, the scientific advisory committee formed in response to the growing BSE crisis.

As well as veterinary expertise, Kate has extensive experience of communications and stakeholder engagement through her work in five Whitehall departments and as a Council member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS), the veterinary regulator, and elected RCVS President 2021/22. 

Kate is a Non-Executive Director of the Scottish Agriculture College (SAC), Commercial and the Moredun Research Institute Boards and has a passion for building connections and disseminating veterinary expertise for the benefit of public, as well as animal, health and welfare.

Chief Executive

Catherine is an accomplished public sector leader with significant experience in transformational change, corporate strategy and delivering public value. 

Prior to joining FSS, Catherine served as Chief Executive of the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) and Scottish Canals. She has also held senior leadership roles within the Scottish Police Authority and the Scottish Prison Service. 

Her wider career spans financial services, manufacturing, engineering and justice, bringing together commercial insight with a strong commitment to public service. She has also served as a trustee of Sight Scotland and Veterans Scotland, supporting inclusive services and communities. 

Deputy Chief Executive

As Deputy Chief Executive 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.  

Head of Food Safety and Standards Policy

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 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. 

Head of Food Protection Science and Surveillance

Jacqui’s career followed a PhD in environmental science and 5 years of post-doctoral research in molecular microbiology and biochemistry.  Throughout her career, Jacqui has developed extensive experience in all areas of food safety, particularly the microbiological safety of food and the prevention of foodborne illness. 

Having worked with Food Standards Agency in Scotland for 10 years as a senior scientific advisor in food safety, Jacqui now leads Food Standards Scotland’s science and evidence strategy and provides assurance over our research and risk analysis processes.

In her current role, she leads a team of scientific advisors who are responsible for all FSS’s research, surveillance and risk assessment activities relating to food safety and food authenticity. She also provides oversight for data science and social research support across all areas of FSS’s remit.

Head of the Scottish Food Crime and Incidents Unit

Ron was initially a consultant for Food Standards Scotland and became the Head of the Scottish Food Crime & Incidents Unit in 2016 after being asked to build a food crime capability by the Chief Executive. 

A former Senior Police Officer in Scotland, he retired from the Police in 2015, after 30 years’ service. During this period, he served in several operational policing roles. 

For the last 5 years of his police service, he was specifically involved in leading the investigation into serious and organised crime as Force Authorising Officer and Head of Intelligence for Tayside Police.  In that role he was responsible for all force covert activity.  

Chief Nutritionist

Dr Gillian Purdon is Chief Nutritionist at Food Standards Scotland (FSS), where she leads the Public Health Nutrition Division. In this role, she oversees a team of registered public health nutritionists dedicated to delivering a comprehensive national picture of dietary trends and translating scientific evidence into effective public health policy aimed at improving diet and nutrition across Scotland.

Before joining FSS, Dr Purdon served for ten years as a Senior Public Health Nutrition Advisor with the Food Standards Agency in Scotland. She holds an MSc in Human Nutrition and a PhD, with six years of postdoctoral research experience focused on energy metabolism and diabetes.