Our Board
ALIenergy Board Members
- Ian Macfarlane (Chair)
- Ailsa Close
- Ewan Jures
- Barbara Atterson
- Di Alexander`
- Martin Clayton
- Cllr Dougie McFadzean
- Cllr Mark Irvine
- Mandy Sheridan
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Ian has had an extensive career in fish farming, building and operating fish farms in over 20 countries on 4 continents. Later becoming a technical consultant to the agricultural insurance industry, a start-up specialist & technology counsellor, and advisor & non-executive director to Scottish university commercial developments. He joined the board in 2014 to help with income diversification and has been chair since 2016.
After service in the Royal Navy Martin retrained in building and construction. In 1985 he established one of the country’s first community-based projects ‘East Derbyshire Heatsave’ delivering energy saving measures into fuel poor and low-income households. In the past 25 years Martin has been with GTi Direct, developing and supplying new and innovative solutions for energy efficiency and carbon reduction throughout UK and Ireland.
Ewan is a Chartered Energy Engineer with over thirty years industry experience. An expert in district heating and sustainable decentralised energy, he has been a member of our board since 2018. His motivation lies in finding genuinely sustainable solutions for energy in rural communities whilst tackling the climate crisis. Ewan and his family live in the Highlands.
Ailsa orginally from Islay, now lives in Dunoon, where she is Director of Finance for UHI Argyll. As a chartered accountant, she has worked mostly for charities - as well as the college, she has worked in economic development with businesses in deprived communities, and has been on the Board of a number of local charities since moving to Dunoon over 20 years ago.
Di Alexander has been closely involved in tackling affordable rural housing problems in the Highlands for over 40 years, with a particular interest in fuel poverty issues not least those affecting off-gas households. He lives in Sutherland, sits on various fuel poverty committees and joined our board in 2023.
Dougie is a Councillor with Argyll and Bute Council living on Islay. As a retired Police Officer, he has always served communities in one way or another. Dougie is passionate about community wellbeing and wealth building, and believes in everything Alienergy does to improve the lives of people in Argyll and Bute.
Mandy had a 40 year career in social work and social work management, the last 16 years of that in Argyll and Bute. Her last post was as a Service Improvement Officer working on challenging child poverty, children's rights and violence against women and girls. She is passionate about all of these and is delighted to be part of ALIenergy, an organisation that is working to tackle poverty and improve the lives of people in Argyll and Bute.