Deputy chair and members appointed to the Accounts Commission

John Swinney, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth has today announced the appointment of Ronnie Hinds as a Deputy Chair and Tim McKay and Stephen Moore as Members of the Accounts Commission.

These appointments will see changes in the membership of the Accounts Commission from October 1.

Ronnie Hinds has over thirty years’ experience in local government, culminating as Chief Executive of Fife Council. He is a former Chair of the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and currently chairs the Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland. He is a qualified public sector accountant and has held senior positions including Director of Finance for North Lanarkshire Council and Head of Financial Services for the City of Edinburgh Council. He also served as Controller of Audit and Deputy Auditor General from 2000 to 2003.

Tim McKay has over thirty years’ experience in finance and academia. He started his career as an accountant with Coopers and Lybrand followed by a variety of financial services jobs. before moving to an academic post at Napier University as Head of Accounting and Finance. He also lectured internationally. He also served as a Liberal Democrat councillor in City of Edinburgh Council and had several roles including Vice Convener of Economic Development, Vice Convener of the Regulatory Committee, a director of the City's property development company and Chair of Lothian Pension Trustees. During his career Tim has provided advice to a number of large UK investment institutions, both in the public and private sectors.

Stephen Moore has 34 years’ experience working in health and social care both nationally and internationally with his work in America and Romania where he advised on the welfare of children with disabilities within orphanages. He started his career in health and social care in Northern Ireland before taking up a number of senior management posts in England and Scotland, including 14 years as Director of Social Work in Fife and in East Ayrshire and most recently as Interim Director of Health and Social Care Integration in Fife.

These appointments will be for four years and will run from 1 October 2014 to 30 September 30 2018.

Two members of the Commission will see their appointments come to an end on 30 September. Mike Ash and Bill McQueen have been members since 2008.

Douglas Sinclair, Chair of the Commission, thanked Bill and Mike for their term on the Commission.

He said "Bill and Mike have brought much useful experience and skill to their roles, which have added much to the Commission’s work. We all wish them well in any forthcoming ventures.

"I’m also delighted to welcome on board Ronnie, Tim and Stephen, who bring to the Commission an impressive and diverse collective experience, which will undoubtedly prove an asset in our work as the public spending watchdog for local government in Scotland."