Board Directors
Graham Phillips - Chair
Graham is married to Scilla, lives in Cromarty and has been a KWEC Director since 2010.
He is a Director of local consultancy Phillips Aitchison, with experience ranging from international big business to locally based community projects. Graham previously worked at Ernst & Whinney, PWC and PA Consulting Group.
On the corporate side Graham has spent over 30 years consulting at Main Board level on a wide variety of topics. This means he can offer a broad professional background to the Kilbraur Co-op. Work has included corporate strategy, mergers and acquisitions, turning round a multinational manufacturing group, auditing an international bank, commercial tendering, and setting up systems for governance, risk management and compliance.
Community projects include feasibility studies for a new Community Centre, for a Community Sports Hub, and for a Visitor Centre in the NW Sutherland Geopark; training for voluntary organisations, chairing a Chamber of Commerce initiative to set up a CCTV scheme in an area suffering from street crime, and setting up the first community run housing for local needs scheme in the UK.
He was formerly Highland Councillor for East Sutherland & Edderton where he chaired the TEC Services Committee and the Fishery Harbours Board and was a member of HITRANS.
John Maclennan Whitfield
John was born in Malaysia in 1964, with family roots in Ross-shire. He graduated from Edinburgh University in 1987 with a degree in civil engineering and has designed and built many and varied facilities, including dams, roads, bridges and towers and been responsible for multimillion-pound projects both in the UK and overseas (Botswana and Abu Dhabi).
John has been a member of the Kilbraur Wind Energy Co-operative board since his election in June 2009. Based in Sutherland, John has been an active member of the board, serving as secretary, since 2010, taking a keen interest in the wind farm production figures.
John has a keen interest in promoting local small-scale renewable energy projects. He is actively working on domestic energy conservation and micro-generation and on the development of sustainable community projects in Brora and Helmsdale.
Malcolm Moss
Educated in Perthshire, with a love of the Highlands making frequent visits and a member of Bonar Bridge and Ardgay Golf Club. Malcolm has held Board appointments in the Chemical, Oil, Financial and Renewable Energy sectors including an active interest in wind and solar farms in India.
John Bogle
John has lived in Wick for the past 40+ years, all of this time was spent in a variety of posts with NHS Highland, latterly, before he took early retirement in 2015 he was Head of Capital and Property Planning with responsibility for a multi-million pound budget for major capital projects throughout the NHS Highland area. At one time he was Unit Administrator for Caithness & Sutherland and chaired the management committee, he was responsible for Catering, Domestic, Portering and Estates services. Most of his working life has been spent in the NHS apart from a couple of years with Dr Barnardos after he graduated from Edinburgh University with a degree in geology!
He is secretary of Wick Paths Group, secretary of the Seafarers Memorial Group and a trustee of the Friends of Newton Hill Community Woodland. In his spare time he is interested in gardening and in Scottish music, particularly pipe band music and was secretary of Wick RBLS Pipe Band for 18 years. He has also organised various traditional music concerts in Wick. He was secretary of the Royal Burgh of Wick Community Council for 3 years. Previously he served on Staxigoe Hall Committee and been a member of the Hillhead School Board. He is interested in the environment including renewable energy, improving access to the countryside and clearing litter!
Heather Barot
I moved to Inverness from London in 1992 with my husband and two children so that my husband could work as a dentist in Inverness.
I have a science background gaining a PhD in Cancer Chemotherapy in 1983. For many years I worked part time supporting our family dental practice. In 2002 I re-trained in Administration and Information Management at the Inverness College (now the University of Highlands and Islands) and since have been employed both in the oil industry and on the Energy Saving Trust helpdesk in Inverness. The aim of this organisation is to give advice to householders on how to save energy and reduce their carbon footprint. I have stayed in touch with my former colleagues at the Energy Savings trust. I have gained qualifications with the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers and have been a member since 2011.
I was elected to the Board of the Kilbraur Wind Energy Co-operative in 2017 and enjoy the work. I have been instrumental in setting up bank accounts with Santander, Nationwide, and Charities bank accounts, balancing accessibility of the money against rates of interest as well as maximising protection via FSCS. I have for several years acted as “Treasurer” Setting the Budget for Director’s Expenses and doing financial assessments for KWEC KWEL and E4A.
Since 2020 I have also been a Director for Highland Community Energy Society which operates within my residential area and enjoy the annual visits to the Hydro sites combined with the AGM.
James Holm
I am a semi retired farmer,having farmed at Er.Ferryton Farm,Balblair, in the Parish of Resolis on the north side of the Black Isle for nigh on sixty years. My family being associated with the farm and Parish since the seventeenth century.
In my younger days I was actively involved in Young Farmers,local committees of hall,community council and am a life member of The Black Isle Farmers Society. Also, in association with my farming business I am a member of Highland Grain Ltd. a farmers Co-op. based at Tore and served on the board for nine years.
Always an enthusiastic supporter of renewables ,I guess farming could be classed as the original, I have taken great interest in Kilbraur since coming across the initial offer at The East Sutherland Show, Dornoch some time ago now. I have always attempted to attend the AGMs,which are informative and relaxed.
Paul Morgan
I was born in Elgin, Morayshire in 1955. I graduated from Napier College Edinburgh in 1977 with an HND in Hotel and Business Management Studies. Thereafter I joined a large hotel business in Fort William in 1978 as a Sales & Marketing Manager subsequently appointed Company Director in 1980, before becoming owner in 1986. I sold my hotel business in 2002.
In 2003, I began working for the National Trust of Scotland (NTS), based in Glencoe, as a Visitor Centre Manager and part time NTS Countryside Ranger. Seeking new challenges and further education, I commenced BSc Degree studies with UHI in 2004 and graduated BSc in Environmental Sciences in 2009. I then commenced UHI Post-graduate MSc studies in Sustainable Development, graduating again in 2012. I retired from NTS Glencoe in 2018 before moving to Inverness in 2020.
I have many interests including motor homing and travelling, walking, mountain biking and skiing. I am also interested in Global Climate Change and its associated impacts as well as Renewable Energy Systems and their applications.
