The John Smith Centre Board oversees the conduct, leadership and management of the Centre and includes members of the Smith family, University of Glasgow alumni, public service practitioners and academic staff.
The Board sets the priorities; benchmarks best practice; and reviews performance to enable the Centre to achieve its aim to promote trust in politics and public service and to empower and attract more people to contribute to public life.
The Centre operates under the University of Glasgow’s charitable status. A record for the John Smith Centre’s Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO) is available to access via the Scottish charity regulator’s website. The SCIO exists as legal entity in order to contract with the University of Glasgow to produce a Memorandum of Association which details our governance arrangements. The SCIO files zero sum accounts as the funds we raise and spend are held by the University of Glasgow.
Our current Board members are:
Catherine Smith KC is the co-founder and Chair of the John Smith Centre. She is an advocate practicing in Scotland as a KC, and also sits as a part time judge (Sheriff). Prior to becoming an advocate she worked in the law in Scotland and Australia; and internationally on conflict resolution and democracy building in the NGO sector, working particularly in the countries of the former Soviet Union. Catherine is involved in numerous activities promoting the rule of law and human rights in the UK and in developing democracies. She is a co-founder and former Vice Chair of JUSTICE Scotland, the Scottish representation of the UK organisation promoting justice and the rule of law. She sits on the Scottish Civil Justice Council, advising on the development of civil justice in Scotland; and is Counsel to the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the Investigatory Powers Tribunal. She sits on the board of the John Smith Trust which runs programmes in good governance and social justice for emerging international leaders. Catherine is John Smith‘s youngest daughter.
Michael Gove was the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Minister for Intergovernmental Relations. He has held several Ministerial posts across Government, including as Education Secretary and Secretary of State for the Environment. Before entering politics, Michael worked as a reporter for The Press and Journal in Aberdeen, a researcher and reporter at Scottish Television and a reporter for BBC Television. He was later Assistant Editor of The Times. Michael Gove is a former Chairman of Policy Exchange, a centre-right think-tank which has come up with innovative policies on policing, local government and fighting terrorism. Policy Exchange’s plans to devolve more power over police priorities to local communities has been widely welcomed. Michael Gove was born in Edinburgh in 1967 and brought up in Aberdeen. Educated in England and Scotland, in the state and independent sectors, he is passionately committed to raising standards in state schools and helping children from less privileged backgrounds to maximise their potential.
Resham Kotecha is a strategy and policy specialist and is currently the Head of Policy & Government Affairs, EMEA at Wise. As a former strategy consultant, Resham worked with senior leadership teams at blue chip tech companies such as Amazon, Facebook and Google. She has also been active in politics for the last decade. She stood as a candidate in the 2015 general election, where she was the Conservative Party’s youngest BME candidate, and also fought the 2017 election. Resham currently serves as the Head of Engagement for Women2Win – an organisation founded by the former Prime Minister, working to get more women elected to Parliament. Resham has written for publications and think tanks such as The Times, the Centre for Policy Studies and Huffington Post and regularly speaks at policy conferences. She is the founder of the Conservative Policy Network, designed to increase accessibility to policy-makers, and is a Trustee of the Fawcett Society, the UK’s leading charity campaigning for gender equality and women’s rights. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Cambridge University and has been recognised as as a ‘Global Shaper’ by the World Economic Forum for political work in trying to achieve a more representative Parliament.
Stewart served as the SNP MP for Glasgow South from 2015 to 2024. After two years serving on the Transport Select Committee, he was appointed the party’s defence spokesman (2017 – 2023) and member of the Foreign Affairs Committee (2019 – 2023). Stewart was the Vice-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Ukraine, and in 2019 was awarded the Presidential Order of Merit by President Zelensky. He is also a founding member of the Interparliamentary Alliance on China and takes a keen interest in China policy. In 2022 Stewart was named ‘Best Scot at Westminster’ at The Herald’s Politician of the year awards, and again by Holyrood Magazine in the same year. Away from defence, security and foreign policy, Stewart has also campaigned against unpaid work trials and has previously introduced legislation to ban the practice. Stewart writes a weekly column on current and political affairs every Saturday in The Scotsman newspaper.