People

Alison Douglas, Chief Executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland

Alison joined AFS in December 2015.  Her commitment to and experience of preventing and reducing alcohol harm stems from her time as Head of Alcohol Policy and Delivery at Scottish Government from 2007 to 2012. In this capacity Alison was responsible for developing and implementing Scotland’s national alcohol strategy, "Changing Scotland's Relationship with Alcohol".

Alison previously worked as a policy adviser to Scottish Ministers, advising on issues ranging from prostitution, to GM crops, and the marine environment. From April 2012 until she joined AFS she was Head of Public Bodies and Public Service Reform with responsibility for advising Ministers on reform and ensuring the effectiveness of public bodies.

Before joining Scottish Government, Alison worked for the UK Research Councils, including seven years in their European Office in Brussels, latterly as Director.

She has served as a member of Edinburgh’s Children’s Panel and is a former Poverty Truth Commissioner. 

Alcohol Focus Scotland team

• Laura Mahon is Deputy Chief Executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland
• Aidan Collins is Involvement and Policy Manager
• Nicola Merrin is Policy and Research Manager

The AFS team work across policy, communications, learning and development, income generation and administration.

Alcohol Focus Scotland Board

Andrew Fraser, Chair of Alcohol Focus Scotland

Andrew Fraser recently retired after a career in local government, latterly holding Head of Service and Monitoring Officer posts in North Ayrshire Council, and before that in West Dunbartonshire Council. He was the 2013/14 President of the Society of Local Authority Lawyers and Administrators in Scotland (SOLAR) and  served as Clerk to the Licensing Boards of North Ayrshire and West Dunbartonshire. In that latter role he was heavily involved in the development of West Dunbartonshire's innovative and data-led overprovision policy. Originally from Dumfries, Andrew qualified as a solicitor in 1984 and joined the AFS Board in 2016.

• Tom Bennett is the is the Rights in Recovery Development Officer with Scottish Recovery Consortium, with a background as a Cognitive Behavioural Addiction Therapist in residential rehabilitation centres.
• Professor Jeff Collin is Professor of Global Health Policy at the University of Edinburgh.
• Neil Hunter became Principal Reporter/Chief Executive of the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration in April 2011. He is currently a member of the Ministerial ‘Partnership for Action on Drugs in Scotland’.  
• Colin Hutton has held a number of senior communications roles at public sector organisations over the past 10 years. With a background in journalism, he is currently a Senior Communications Officer at East Renfrewshire Council.
• Tim Ross is a retired police officer with more than 30 years of police service during which he held a variety of roles leading on licensing, violence reduction as well as Director of Community Safety for North Ayrshire Council.
• Dr Joy Tomlinson is currently the Director of Public Health for NHS Fife and took up post there at the end of May 2021. Joy previously worked for five years in Ayrshire & Arran with four of those years in a joint role as Interim Director of Public Health.