Board of Trustees
Meet the Board
The Board of Trustees is collectively responsible for the governance and strategic direction of Garvald. It is responsible for receiving money from local authorities and donors, safeguarding it and ensuring that it is used for meeting Garvald objectives as stated in its articles of association. The Trustee Board must always act in the best interests of Garvald. The Trustees must act as a group and not as individuals. Although the role is unpaid, Trustees have the opportunity to significantly contribute towards an important and well-regarded service for people with learning disabilities.
Steven Whalley, Chair of the Board
Steven Whalley has been on the Board of Garvald since August 2021.
Steven worked in Financial Services for over 40 years, mainly for large life, pensions and investments companies like AEGON, Prudential and Standards Life. In these companies he has worked in Marketing and Risk roles.
Steven is a volunteer Board member of another charity, Equal Futures, and is the the Vice Chairperson of the Scottish Police Pension Board, which is part of the Scottish Public Pension Agency.
Steven lives in West Linton, in the Scottish Borders. He is married to Kate and has three children. Steven is involved with his local Church being an Elder and leading services. His interests include watching football (he is an Oldham Athletic fan being originally from Oldham), learning to play bridge, playing backgammon and reading.
Gillian Learmonth
Gillian Learmonth joined the Garvald West Linton Board of Trustees in August 2010.
Gillian is a passionate and committed tourism professional who has worked at VisitScotland since 2006. Gillian’s current role builds strong relationships with industry and key public sector agencies, to support a collaborative approach to responsible and inclusive growth in the sector, across Scotland. Previous roles within VisitScotland have allowed her to develop strong mix of experience and skills across a number disciplines, including marketing and digital, partnership development and management of funding programmes.
Gillian lives just along the road, in Dolphinton, in the same beautiful valley as GLW. She is married to Andrew and has two young children. When free time allows, she loves exploring the outdoors and travelling, has been learning to play golf, and loves cooking and baking for family and friends.
Vincent D’Agostino
Vincent D’Agostino has been on the Board of Garvald since November 2019. Vincent lived and worked at Camphill School Aberdeen for over 45 years as a career volunteer in a progression of roles: as a carer, house manager, craft instructor, teacher, staff educator and mainly as an SSSC Registered Manager and member of the school’s management team and Board of Management. From 2009 -2014 he was the Camphill Director for the BA programme in Curative Education and Social Therapy run in partnership with The University of Aberdeen and from 2013 -2017 the Deputy Executive Director Responsible for Operational Support.
Since retiring in 2019 and moving to Penicuik he and his wife Anni enjoy being close to their two daughters’ families and active as grandparents. Having always enjoyed outdoor activity he currently volunteers weekly at Leadburn Community Woodland Trust and assists a friend’s self-build extension work. He and Anni have recently joined the U3A in Penicuik and are members of The Penicuik Community Development Trust and the Anthroposophical society in Edinburgh and enjoy meeting friends old and new.
Sophie Pilgrim
Sophie joined the Board in May 2024.
Sophie is CEO of Kindred Advocacy and has been in post since 2009. Kindred provides support to families of children with complex needs. Before joining Kindred Sophie was Policy & Campaigns Manager for MS Society Scotland. In a voluntary capacity she has been a trustee of Enable Scotland and Chair of Shakti Women’s Aid. In the more distant past she worked as a researcher for Bristol University on a survey of health of people from Black and Minority Ethnic Groups. Sophie is a parent of a young man with learning disability and autism.
Mike Casey
Mike has been a member of the Garvald Board since 2018 and has three grown up children.
After leaving school Mike completed an apprenticeship as a Mechanical and Electronic Engineer and subsequently spent 15 years as an Engineer in Ferranti in Edinburgh before leaving to train and qualify as a nurse. After two years of Nursing, he moved to work with Barony Housing Association in Fife setting up and managing a House supporting adults with a learning disability and enduring mental health challenges who were moving from long term institutional care.
In 1998 he took up a post as Day service Manager with Garvald Edinburgh. He later took over running of the Garvald Accommodation and Supported Living services. In 2008 Mike took up the role of CEO with Garvald which he remained in until his retirement in December 2023. He also is a founding member and volunteer Board member with Get2gether, a charity that support capacity building and social opportunities for adults with a range of disabilities.
Mike is also involved in regular pilgrimages supporting groups to travel to and spend time in Lourdes. Mike also volunteers supporting education projects in Malawi, volunteering with classrooms for Malawi.
Hannah Cairns
Hannah Cairns joined the Garvald West Linton Board of Trustees in April 2024.
Hannah is a state registered Occupational Therapist, qualifying from Queen Margaret University in 1998 and has since worked in the Health and Social Care sector in a range of clinical, management, and professional leadership roles. Hannah is employed by NHS Lothian and works as a Senior Manager within Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership and is the Allied Health Professions (AHP) advisor on Edinburgh Integration Joint Board. This experience has enabled Hannah to develop a substantial knowledge and experience to work with a range of service users, user groups, clinical and non-clinical individuals, and teams.
Hannah is passionate about the planning, design and delivery of person-centred, safe, and high-quality care and is committed to the improvement and development of services to meet the changing needs of the people she serves and the environment in which she functions.
Hannah has lived in Dolphinton for over twenty years and leads a very full and active family life with her husband and three teenage children. She enjoys spending leisure time with her family and friends in the beautiful local countryside, including walking/hiking with her two dogs, mountain biking and road biking.
Rennie Gardner
Rennie has been a member of the Garvald Board since February 2023. He qualified as an accountant with Ernst & Young and spent the bulk of his career in Financial Services, mostly in Risk, restructuring distressed debts. Born in Glasgow, he moved east because his wife Susan told him to and has lived locally for approximately 24 years, enjoying mountain biking, gym classes, clay shooting and trying to golf better.
