Ian Francis

Born 1946. Educated at Exeter (BA Hons, PhD) and Keele (MA) Universities. Joined the University of Dundee in 1980 after ten years of work experience as a social worker (National Gypsy Education Council, Richmond Fellowship), teacher and lecturer in higher education (Exeter and Bayero University, Nigeria) and stints in the manufacturing and transport industries.

Initially at Dundee, Secretary to the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences and then added the Faculty of Environmental Studies (DJC departments of Architecture and Town & Regional Planning, pre-merger).

Became Academic Secretary in 1989 and Director of the Centre for Learning & Teaching in 2001. Following reorganisation in 2007 became Director of the Division of Academic Affairs. Have been involved at a strategic level in the University since 1989 particularly in relation to academic issues: examples are the merger with DJC, establishment of the CLT, originator of the quality assurance processes of the University in 1992, establishment of the Registry, creation of the Access Centre and Disability Services, and modularisation and semesterisation. From 1997 until 2002 was also Director of Student Support Services – Access Centre, Disability Support, Student Advisory Service, Counselling, Health Service.

Current main responsibilities are Secretary to the Senate and its academic committees, academic policy in general, student debt, appeals, complaints and discipline, teaching issues, quality assurance and the student experience. Has also had a close relationship with DUSA Executive for many years and acted as the Returning Officer for DUSA elections since 2004.

Alison Burns

Alison Burns is the co-founder, director and in-house solicitor for the company P3 Music Ltd as well as being a professional singer and actress.

P3 Music is an international music company specialising in the commercial ownership and exploitation of intellectual property through its music publishing, production and records business. P3 Music’s record label was set up in 2001 and its CDs & DVDs are now distributed in over 26 countries around the world while both Sony and Universal have recently signed exclusive agreements with the Scottish based company. Award winning artists such as Bryn Terfel, Martin Taylor, Ricky Ross, Deacon Blue, Justin Currie, Sacha Distel and YES guitarist Steve Howe have all recorded for the company’s two labels (P3 and The Guitar Label) while its successes with music publishing include the hit children’s TV show Balamoray and the 3million selling “Image” album series in Asia.

As a young girl in Dundee Alison’s dreams were of singing and acting in Hollywood and the soundtrack was Peggy Lee, Lena Horne, and Bessie Smith among many others.

The road to her recording career has been an inspiring one. From being the first female apprentice engineer in the famous Timex watch factory at the age of 16 (complete with curls and a full face of make up!) to being sacked from a bingo calling job. She then went on to have successful careers as a professional actress and singer during which time she studied law at Dundee University. However throughout her time studying law she continued with her lifelong love of music which started at home, with an early education in the Great American Songbook from a father who played guitar and a mother who would carry the guitar case into his gigs!

Her debut album, Kissing Bug, released in March 2007 was received with universal acclaim and became the first album by a Scottish jazz singer to reach the Jazz Top 10. So far she has packed her bag to perform in far-flung destinations such as Tokyo, Nashville, New York, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Australia, Cannes, Italy and Shanghai as well as being invited to play by Michael Parkinson, who welcomed her off stage with a huge hug and the comment "wonderful, wonderful!".

Alison has played jazz festivals and venues across the country, with her own group and also guesting with international award winning jazz guitarist Martin Taylor at a number of concerts. It was at these concerts that the idea for her new album 1:AM came about. The recordings of Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Pass were the inspiration, stripping back the songs to just vocal and guitar. Since then Alison has toured Australia, Thailand and Sri Lanka and has recently been nominated for a prestigious jazz award.

Alison continues to work as a practising solicitor for her company as well as touring the world singing jazz and she regularly gives talks on the art of “spinning plates”.

Shona Main, Chairperson

Brought up in Shetland she moved to Dundee to train as a journalist with D.C. Thomson’s where she worked on teenage magazines: she was fashion, beauty and pop editor of Jackie, the iconic teen ‘zine.

In 1993, she left D.C.’s to study law at Dundee University. From 1995-99 she was also a councillor at Dundee City Council, representing a constituency in the West End and holding responsibilities for the arts, drugs policy and licensing.

After graduating in 1997 she then studied for her bar exams – she had intended to go straight to the bar - whilst working in the law faculty as a tutor in Jurisprudence and a researcher in family law with the late great Professor Bissett Johnson. Together they published a number of articles in legal journals and carried out research for the then Scottish Office. In 1999 she completed her Diploma in legal practice. However she did not go to the bar.

She began a part time PhD (exploring class and governmental attitudes to opium in the 19th century as reflected by literature) with Professor Ian Ward at Newcastle University, whilst working in the Scottish Parliament as a researcher. However, the need to pay off her student debt meant earning took priority and in 2001 she began a consultancy, carrying out parliamentary liaison for social work and freelancing for newspapers and journals.

She has contributed to and authored a number of books over the last few years, mainly about Venice, the Veneto and Naples, where she spends a lot of her time. She has also written for Holyrood Magazine, the Herald and the Independent and in the summer of 2010 she completed her first novel based in Shetland. She is currently writing a documentary about David Petrie, a Dundee graduate and lecturer at the University of Verona who been fighting the Italian state for over 20 years with guts and style as he tries to secure EU nationals their rights to the same pay and conditions as their Italian counterparts.

In 2000 until 2003 she sat on University Court as Fred MacAulay’s Rector’s Assessor. She joined the board of DUSA to help further develop the excellent support, opportunities and social spaces it offers for all students at Dundee University whilst making sure that the student voice and its contribution to University life is what makes the difference.

One day she hopes to be a full-time student again and to finish her PhD.

Stuart Cross

Degrees
LLB (Hons), Glasgow
Dip.Pet.Law, Dundee
Solicitor
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Biography
Stuart Cross joined the then Department of Law in 1994 and has been a Senior Lecturer since 2002. He is a graduate of the University of Glasgow and a qualified solicitor.
After postgraduate study at the University of Dundee he had twelve years' experience as a practising solicitor specialising in corporate law, latterly as a partner in a commercial firm in Glasgow. Since moving to Dundee he has linked his interests in company and commercial law with activity in relation to charities. Under the aegis of the Law School's Charity Law Research Unit he has participated in major research projects commissioned by the Scottish Office/Scottish Executive (1997-2000), and in 2004 advised the Scottish Executive's Bill Reference Group for the then Charities and Trustee Investment ( Scotland) Bill in relation to proposals for a new charitable incorporated body in Scotland.
He Continues to advise the Scottish Government in relation to the development of the Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation.

Teaching
Undergraduate:- Intellectual Property Law, Mercantile Law
Postgraduate:- Intellectual Property Law, Principles of E-Commerce Law
I offer postgraduate supervision in the field of company law, corporate governance, copyright related issues and charity law.

Research
Publications range across the areas of company law, charity law, corporate governance and the interface between law and technology. Much of the research focuses on the evolution of new legal forms and the relationship between those legal forms and existing legal structures and developed bodies of law. Recent work has focussed on charity law and, in particular, the passage of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 which has substantially changed charity law in Scotland. I am also involved in the AHRC 'Rewind' project at the University of Dundee which involves the digital archiving of early video material.

Charles Doeg-Smtih

Charles started his career in advertising; initially in London but moving to Scotland in 1979 to help to set up a new advertising agency in Edinburgh.

After a brief spell of self employment running his own marketing consultancy and retail business in the early 1990’s, Charles joined the Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust as regional manager in 1995. In 2007 Charles joined Business Gateway as a business adviser. Voluntary/out of work activities have included a spell as chairman of Kinross High School board, chair of Fife Mentoring Network, and as a director of Scottish Mentoring Network. Charles has two grown up children and lives in the west end of Dundee with his wife, Karen. He has been a trustee of DUSA since September 2009.