Highland Council appoints five Chief Officers

Fiona Duncan, Fiona Grant, Fiona Malcolm, Alison Clark and Finlay MacDonald have been appointed as Chief Officers with The Highland Council.

Convener of the Council Cllr Bill Lobban said: “Congratulations to all three Fiona’s, Alison and Finlay on their appointments to Chief Officers. They will make excellent additions to the new senior management structure of the Council.”

Leader of the Council, Cllr Raymond Bremner added: “With these five appointments I am pleased to see the second phase of the new senior management structure progressing with pace. The new structure will initially deliver savings of £310,000, as part of the budget savings agreed by Council in February, and it is anticipated that savings will eventually equate to around 20% of senior management team costs as part of a more streamlined management structure.”

Under a new Council structure consisting of three service clusters ‘People’, ‘Place’ and ‘Corporate’ – Fiona Duncan, Fiona Grant and Fiona Malcolm join the People service cluster under the leadership of Kate Lackie, Assistant Chief Executive – People.

Fiona Duncan has been appointed as Chief Officer – Health and Social Care (Chief Social Work Officer) – she was previously the Council’s Executive Chief Officer Health and Social Care since 2021.

Fiona Grant has been appointed as Chief Officer - Secondary Education. Fiona was previously Head Teacher of both Thurso High School and Wick High Schools. She is currently Head of Service for Secondary Education in Highland with responsibility delivery of education across 29 secondary schools.

Fiona Malcolm has been appointed as Chief Officer - Integrated People Services. Fiona is currently Head of Integration Adult Social Care and has held that post since 2019 prior to which she was a legal manager for the Council.  She has worked for the Council for 23 years.

Alison and Finlay meanwhile join the ‘Place’ service cluster under the leadership of Malcolm MacLeod – Assistant Chief Executive – Place.

Alison Clark has been appointed as Chief Officer - Housing and Communities. Alison is currently Head of Community Support, Contact and Engagement, responsible for customer services, community planning and engagement, a role she has held for the last 8 years.  Alison is from Inverness and has worked for the Council for over 20 years, starting as a research officer in children’s services.   

Finlay MacDonald from Inverness has been appointed as Chief Officer - Property and Assets. Finlay has been the Councils Head of Property and Facilities Management for the last 10 years and has worked in various property management roles across the Council since 1996.