Our People

Martina has worked in the third and public sector for 25 years, as a frontline worker, manager, tutor, trainer, and volunteer. Threading through all the work is a passion for social justice, providing space for citizens and communities to reclaim the power that is rightfully theirs and in making sure that those people whose voices are easier to ignore are heard and recognised.

She has worked in most areas of Glasgow alongside communities to carry out change, firstly as part of the GCC Poverty Leadership Panel and then with North West Glasgow Voluntary Sector Network, working on the GCC Participatory Budgeting Pilot.

She worked for ten years in Homelessness in many different roles including training, managing advocacy and mentoring programmes, supporting hostel closure, and managing a long running multi agency Tenancy Sustainment learning project. She currently works as the manager of North West Glasgow Voluntary Sector Network, supporting the work of third sector organisations and providing support, advocacy, training, representation, and latterly an IT recycling project. She is keen to ensure that the voices of the organisations are heard, and they share equal power with those statutory sectors they work with.

She is also an active volunteer, has been a literacy & ESOL tutor, volunteered to run a library in her son’s nursery, is current chair of her son’s school Parent Council, and is a member of Glasgow City Parents Group.

Her passion is the citizens of Glasgow; to serve them, to have the honour to work alongside them, and to fight for the rights of those are not yet able to fight for themselves.

Antony is a “retired” forensic ethicist and consultant in liability and risk management who has devoted much of his personal life to the service of others. He is a published author, an educator, and a National Panel Refereeing Coach for the Scottish Rugby Union. He is an alumnus of Strathclyde University and of Canadore College and St Francis Xavier University in Canada. He is an emeritus member of the Board of Advisors of the Institute for Insurance Ethics at Illinois State University and a member of the Institute for Global Ethics. He is also an elected member of the Board of Directors of the West of Scotland Regional Equality Council. He is a life member of the Glasgow Academical Club and of McCrae’s Battalion Trust and an Honorary Life Member of the Toronto Watsonian Club. He is a member of the Scottish Parliamentary Cross-Party Group on Poland, the Kelvin Foundation, Wooden Spoon, the British Cold War Veterans, the Royal Canadian Legion, Royal British Legion Scotland, and is secretary of the (Polish) Combatants Memorial Group in Scotland and a volunteer researcher for the In From The Cold Project.

He served for five years on the Council of the College of Nurses of Ontario. He has also served as Chair of the National Professional Registry sub-committee of the Compliance Committee, the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association; a committee member of The Insurance Institute of Canada; a member of the Ontario Ministry of Education Liaison Committee on Student Retention and Transition; a member of the Education Committee of the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Toronto and of its sub-committee on Literacy, Numeracy and Basic Learning Skills and on Dropouts; a member of the Professional Development Accreditation Panel, Ontario Society for Training & Development; Chair of the Examinations Panel for the Insurance Brokers Association of Canada and a member of the Examinations Marking and Review Panel for the Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario; a member of the American Educational Research Association; and as an Independent Assessor for the Insurance Marketplace Standards Association in Washington, DC.

Antony is married to Rena MacMillan, a retired orthopaedic nurse and a cancer and transplant survivor, originally from Benbecula in the Western Isles of Scotland. Antony and Rena worked for seven years for the University Health Network in Toronto as volunteer counsellors for Canadian women and their families facing the traumatic choice of transplantation as a last-ditch option for terminal breast cancer.

Peter Kelly has been active in campaigns for social justice for more than 25 years, both as a worker and activist. He joined the Poverty Alliance, Scotland’s anti-poverty network in 2002, and has been Director since 2004.  He is responsible for the overall day-to-day management of the organisation, as well as leading on the policy and campaigning goals of the network. He has a strong interest in issues around labour market inequality, including in-work poverty and low pay, and civic and community activism. 

Peter also represents the Alliance in a variety of forums and networks including the Scottish Drugs Forum, the Scottish International Development Alliance and others. He was Vice President of the European Anti-Poverty Network from 2012-2018.

Manira has had a varied career history spanning both private and public sectors. She has worked across the financial industry, involved in global workforce planning and investment in offshore trading. Manira joined the public sector in 2015, and was appointed to lead the deployment of Local Intelligence across Health & Social Care. Supporting Integration Authorities in Scotland in co-designing linked data across multiple care sectors to support improved decision making for health and well-being.

Manira has been part of the design and development of Public Health Scotland, to deliver an organisation equipped to meet Scotland’s future public health challenges and developing a nation where everyone thrives.

Manira has been learning and sharing with Health and Care colleagues internationally, seeking opportunities to collaborate with different nations in order to bring innovative solutions using data and intelligence to support communities across Scotland as we emerge in a “new world” post this pandemic

Manira is very passionate in supporting the well-being of individuals and working closely with communities to build local resilience through story-telling by shifting our thinking and the conversation to “what really matters”.

In her personal time Manira sits on the Board for a number of local charity and community organisations.”

My name is Hayden Atkin, I am a Glasgow Youth Councillor and I am the Chairperson of Canal Youth Forum.

My drive to help people has made me want to change and improve people’s lives from a very young age. When I was just 14, I was appointed as a Glasgow Youth Councillor and joined Police Scotland Youth Volunteers. These allowed me to allow the voices of young people to be heard and build a positive image of young people in society. I then had the amazing opportunity to attend a course at Glasgow University about community empowerment. Where I was able to learn the skills to make my community a better place and giving a voice to local people. This allowed me to work closely with local organizations and establish a Youth Forum which champions the voices of young people and allows them to be heard. I have also built these relationships with elected representatives of all political parties and alliances through my work as the Chair of Canal Youth Forum working to achieve the best of my community.

I’m currently the CEO at FARE Scotland where I have worked since 2003.  Prior to that I was in the Armed Forces which I joined to get away from gang violence, drug and alcohol misuse and other issues I found myself in, by being brought up in poverty.

I am passionate about reducing poverty and the symptoms, such as food and fuel insecurity, unemployment, poor health and lack of community engagement which cause and effect poverty. I have worked with local communities for many years to encourage, support, enable and empower people to be connected to their communities, to act on their ideas, issues and interests. I am also a trustee at The Poverty Alliance as well as GCVS.

Stewart Macgregor has more than almost 20 years of experience working and volunteering in the Third Sector.  He joined the Robertson Trust in 2014 and has been a Funding Manager since 2016.  Having spent most of his career working to improve outcomes for young people and communities, prior to joining the Trust he worked as a Social Enterprise Capacity Building Advisor in Glasgow.  He currently is a member of the Third Sector Governance Forum and has a particular interest in third sector capacity building, as well as Asset Based Community Development.