Convener Ian Grant is a retired Consultant Intensive Care Clinician and Anaesthetist, based near Edinburgh, and life-long believer in Scottish independence. He was a member of the SNP for around 40 years, was Convener of Edinburgh Western SNP, held other offices at branch level and was twice election agent.
Ian was a founder member of the Scottish independence Foundation (SIF) which raises and distributes money to pro-Indy campaigners and groups. With John Brown he co-wrote a small handbook on the case for independence, which has been distributed widely (100,000 copies). Through the Independence Forum, Ian hopes that we can produce an inspiring yet fully credible prospectus for an independent Scotland, and help establish a National Convention to let people discuss the future governance of their country.
Vice Convener Carole Inglis has been politically active for over 50 years and closely engaged within the Yes movement since 2012. She has worked in the private and public sector and ran her own business for 15 years. Her areas of expertise are communications and facilitation.
She has experience of seeking and maintaining consensus within Yes Highlands & Islands and, as Yes Skye & Lochalsh Coordinator, has brought together differing political allegiances. Carole sees herself as a listener, reflective and pragmatic, always keen to resolve conflict before it escalates. She is keen to support people to find common ground and help reach agreement, to achieve a common vision with the aim of securing Scottish Independence.
Secretary John Brown is a retired civil servant based in Edinburgh. He spent his long career working in Scotland for DHSS / DWP, then latterly for the Cabinet Office, London. As an administrator, inspector and office manager he has worked in and visited most of Scotland’s poorest and most deprived areas.
An active supporter of independence since 2014, now not aligned to any political party, John is a member of the Scottish Sovereignty Research Group and a member of the Liberation Movement’s SNC Steering Group. He is motivated by a desire to improve the lives of ordinary people in an independent Scotland.
Meetings Secretary John Hutchison has been a lifelong independence supporter though not a member of any political party. A chartered civil engineer and retired senior Council official, John is now a community advocate and has been active in the community land movement, democracy, and environmental organisations. He chaired the first Scottish Rural Parliament in 2014.
He has been involved in political campaigns and the justice system. John was a founding member of Yes Lochaber. John has chaired several bodies, including his local community council and is currently chair of Constitution for Scotland. His main approach is to encourage collaboration and hopes that can be achieved through the Forum.
Treasurer David Younger practised as a qualified architect in Milan and London from 1978 to 1998. Now he lives in Argyll. He was EU SPRINT Commission event organiser from 1992-6, and a FCO Contract specialist from 1992-8. A UNPO participant from 2001-3, he drafted protocols for the determination of stateless minorities for presentation to the ICJ in 2003 which were adopted into the UN Charter 2003. He has been a campaigner for Kurdish rights.
David contributed to a report on the EU Commission on Scotland’s rights within the EU post-independence and has been a contributor to Network for an Alternative Quest. He made an assessment of Swiss e-voting and comparison with secure DLT voting, presented in Zurich in 2023 and has examined UBI systems in Finland, Ontario and Kenya, 2018-2022.
Management Committee Member Dr Tim Rideout was born on the Isle of Man and moved with his parents to South Africa in 1975 aged 13. He graduated from the University of Cape Town in Geography and Economics. He was required to leave South Africa in 1984 due to being anti-apartheid, then started a Ph.D in Edinburgh. Tim joined the SNP in 1988.
He joined the Edinburgh map makers, Bartholomew, in 1991 then founded XYZ Maps in 1998 with business partner Mark Fairbairn. He founded the Scottish Currency Group in 2019 to ensure Scotland has its own currency as soon as possible after Independence. Tim lives near Edinburgh.
Management Committee Member Leah Gunn Barrett is a dual US/UK citizen who worked several years in London for Data Resources (DRI) Europe, The Economist and Tetra Pak. Leah returned to the US after her older brother’s murder in 1997 where she led gun control groups in Maryland and New York, and was a dean at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA).
After moving to Edinburgh in 2017, she became active in the Scottish independence movement, seeing how the UK’s exploitation of Scotland has held it back. She started a letter writing group to counter unionist propaganda. She’s a member of the Scottish Currency Group and former member of the Liberation Movement’s SNC Steering Group.
Leah holds degrees in economics, international affairs, Russian and teaching from Carleton College, Columbia University and Johns Hopkins University.
