About The Board of Management

David Newall

Chair

David Newall has been Chair of the Board of Management at Glasgow Clyde College since July 2016. In that capacity he is also a member of the Glasgow Colleges’ Regional Board and of the Colleges Scotland Good Governance Steering Group.

David is a history graduate and an accountant (CPFA). He has held management positions in local government and higher education, most recently as University Secretary & Director of Administration at the University of Glasgow (2004-17).

Jon Vincent

Principal and Chief Executive

Jon Vincent is the Principal and Chief Executive of Glasgow Clyde College and he commenced this position in September 2017.

He has substantial experience of both further and higher education sectors having held a variety of teaching, management and leadership positions at colleges throughout the United Kingdom. Prior to commencing his current role, Jon was Principal and Chief Executive of Tyne Metropolitan College in the North East of England. At the time of appointment, Tyne Metropolitan was struggling with poor financial health, declining student recruitment and success rates. Under Jon’s leadership, the College recovered its financial standing, student numbers grew and success rates dramatically improved, leading to highly complementary reports from both Ofsted and QAA. Over this period the College became one of the first in the UK to achieve the coveted STEM Assured and Investors in Innovation accreditations.

A qualified teacher, he initially taught sport studies/science before becoming involved in initial teacher training and quality management roles. Jon has held a variety of non-executive and trustee positions outside of the education sector including involvement with a family poverty charity and economic development organisations. He is currently the Chair of a large secondary school and a Fellow of the Institute of Knowledge Exchange.

Sandra Heidinger

Vice Chair

Sandra Heidinger is the Special Advisor to the Principal at the University of Strathclyde. Prior to that, Sandra was the Director of Human Resources at the University of Strathclyde from 2009 until July 2020 where she was responsible for the strategic and operational leadership of human resources, organisational development, safety, and corporate risk and business improvement. Sandra has worked at the University since 2001.
Sandra previously worked at Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow Colleges of Nursing and Midwifery, and InterCity Scotland. She has also held a number of non-executive director roles.

David Watt

Until retirement in October 2014, David spent 36 years in professional practice with KPMG, where his clients included publicly-funded and not-for-profit bodies in further and higher education, central and local government and the NHS.

Current appointments include membership of the trustee boards of the Church of Scotland and Quarriers, alongside independent membership of the audit committees of the University of Glasgow and Scottish Canals.

David is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy.

Ros Micklem

Ros spent most of her working life in colleges, starting as a lecturer in English and Communications in North Oxfordshire. She was Principal of Cardonald College from 1997 to 2007. Still driven by her commitment to equality and the fulfilment of potential for individuals and communities, she then became Scotland Director of the newly-formed Equality and Human Rights Commission. Since 2012, Ros has undertaken coaching and mentoring for leaders in the education sector and in Scottish charities, and has developed her skills in governance through membership of various boards, including Shelter, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, and the Scottish Legal Aid Board.

Fergus Brown

Fergus has been a people professional for over 20 years, and having spent time in the defence and engineering sectors, has worked in higher education since 2005. He has been in his current role at University of Glasgow, as Head of People & Organisational Development for the College of Medical Veterinary & Life Sciences, since 2015. His wider roles have included leading a UK higher education pay and reward professional network and representing Scottish universities on the employers association committee for clinical academic employment.

Clare Walker

A Senior Student Adviser based at the Langside campus, Clare has held a number of positions throughout her 10 years with, first Langside College, and now Glasgow Clyde College - from project management to teaching and now advising.

Clare has a considerable amount of experience with students, teaching staff and support staff, all of which helps her play as full a part as she can, as the support staff member of the Board.

Kathleen Sweeney

Kathleen is a qualified accountant (ACCA) who has worked exclusively within Charity and Education. She spent 21 years working in Higher Education in posts with Glasgow Caledonian University and Glasgow University. The last 16 years was in the Independent School sector as both Bursar and Company Secretary. Having also served as a Trustee on the Board of the Scottish Council of Independent Schools, she is experienced in Governance and operating at Board level. Her most recent appointment is Regional Secretary for the Independent Schools Bursars Association.

Michael Payne

Michael is a qualified actuary with around 25 years of post-qualification experience and around 35 years of experience of working in life assurance and pensions. Michael is currently working with KPMG, and previously he was the COO for Customer & Innovation at M&G plc where he held a number of senior Finance and Actuarial roles. In addition to this, Michael also held a number of Non-Executive roles at M&G, including Prudential International Assurance and Prudential Financial Planning Limited, as well as being a member of Prudential’s Independent Governance Committee. Before joining M&G (Prudential), Michael spent a number of years working at Scottish Widows now part of Lloyds Banking Group, Scottish Friendly, and Scottish Amicable, in a variety of senior positions.

Runa McNamara

Runa is the Company Director of Amethyst Global Ltd.
Runa has worked in Further Education Colleges in England and Scotland including Salford College, Stoke on Trent College, Kirklees College, James Watt College and Coatbridge College where she progressed from lecturing, through curriculum and quality management to senior management and directorate.
Runa led the national development of qualifications in Beauty Therapy for Scotland, Botswana and India. Runa was also a HMIe Associate Assessor for 9 years for hairdressing, beauty and complementary therapies.
Runa’s experience includes working as an Examiner, External Verifier, Regional EV, Technical Expert, Business Development Manager and International Sector Skills Consultant.

Alan O'Donnell

Board Member

Alan O'Donnell is the UK & Ireland Country Director for a Norwegian company which aims to shape the future of electricity with their innovation of both hardware & software for Electric Vehicle Charging solutions. Easee are now the fastest growing start-up in Scandinavian history.

Alan is one of the leading experts within electric vehicles in the UK thanks to over 4 years working as an Electrical Engineer for Tesla prior to joining Easee.

Glasgow Colleges have been pivotal in his career & personal development. He started aged 16 at Cardonald College as an apprentice electrician and pursued further education at colleges across the city, including Langside, City of Glasgow, Stow and Kelvin colleges.

Lindsey Paterson

Lindsey joined the Board of Glasgow Clyde College in February 2021. She is a politics graduate and a chartered accountant. She is a former partner of PwC, where she worked for some 27 years, prior to which she worked in local government. Her role at PwC primarily focussed upon leading the delivery of risk assurance services to a wide range of clients, with a focus on education, health and transport. In addition to her client facing roles, Lindsey also lead PwC’s Place and Purpose agenda in Scotland, with a key responsibility in relation to Inclusion, Communities and Wellbeing.

Margaret Swiderska

Margaret is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland having qualified with Deloitte. She spent over 10 years supporting clients from a variety of sectors including not-for -profit, pension schemes and a global investment bank.
In her current role as a senior finance manager she focuses on discretionary insurance, investments management and property. Margaret has a passion for process improvements and helping organisations thrive through ensuring that sound and ethical governance and financial management policies are adopted.

Stuart Porteous

Stuart works for the NatWest Group and has held a number of senior roles since joining in 2000. He currently works in Corporate Governance and is responsible for management level governance and implementation of the Senior Managers & Certification Regime. In this role he advises senior management across the Bank on their governance frameworks and individual accountability to promote good decision making. Prior to this he worked in Risk Management and was Head of Risk Strategy where he helped design and implement the RBS Group’s risk strategy in response to the 2008 financial crisis. Stuart started his career as an economist after studying economics at Glasgow and Edinburgh universities. He held a number of economics roles in the Scottish Government and in consultancy before joining the RBS Group where he led the Bank’s economics team through the financial crisis. Stuart was a Director on the Board of the Royal Bank of Scotland International for 3 years.

William French

A lecturer in accounting and economics for over 30 years and currently lecturing at Glasgow Clyde College-Anniesland campus. Bill has extensive experience of teaching and learning and remains in daily contact with both staff and students.
An active member of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), Bill has contributed to and supported local and other EIS branches throughout this period. He has also participated in EIS and EIS FELA ((Further Education Lecturers Association) developments and conferences and is conversant with current issues both locally and nationally in the Scottish further education sector. Bill is currently convenor of Glasgow Clyde College EIS FELA branch.
The teaching staff board member is appointed via an election held amongst all teaching staff colleagues.

Maureen McKenna

Maureen was a mathematics teacher in a range of secondary schools in the north east and west of Scotland.
In 2000, she joined Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education, where she inspected a wide range of schools as well as education authorities and child protection.
Maureen held a number of posts in HMIE, including national specialist for mathematics and District Inspector for Glasgow and North Ayrshire.

She joined Glasgow City Council in December 2007 as Director of Education and retired in January 2022. Under her leadership in Glasgow, exclusions dropped by 93% and attainment of young people increased significantly – the proportion of young people achieving five or more level SCQF 6 awards more than trebled in the same period.
Maureen received an OBE in 2015 for services to education in Glasgow and Malawi. She was awarded an honorary doctorate from Heriot Watt University in October 2021 for services to education and raising attainment of those in the most deprived areas.