The VABS Board

Rachel Avery

Rachel has a background in ecology, outdoor learning, youth work and facilitation. She has been personally and professionally involved in a wide variety of third sector and community-based organisations working on conservation, sustainability and social issues, locally, regionally and nationally. She has lived in the strath since 2011, moving to Kingussie in 2015.

Mary-Ann Connolly

Her professional journey took her from Tiller Girl and London West End dancer/TV actress to air stewardess, businesswoman, secondary school teacher, cultural project officer, Academy board member, as well as founding a site-specific theatre company and becoming a major award-winning producer.  Now retired, she chaired Strathfest Music Festival for five years and currently writes reviews for the Edinburgh Music Review.

James Dunbar

James’ involvement in the voluntary sector goes back to a time very shortly after he returned to his home in Strathspey back in the mid 1980s. Within a few months he became Secretary of the Boat of Garten Tourist Association and then its Treasurer as well. Thereafter he was elected onto the Boat of Garten Community Council, subsequently becoming its Chairman for a number of years. James was also a founding director of the Boat of Garten Community Company and having retired from that became a director of the Boat of Garten Community Hall and subsequently its Chairman. All of these of course meant being involved in many other bodies – not least the Cairngorms Communities Group under the aegis of the Cairngorms Partnership and after the creation of the National Park.

Nowadays there is a little less on his plate – VABS and eldership in the Presbytery of Abernethy. In his day job, he is a tour guide throughout Scotland and at the local brewery.

Graham Fraser

Graham was born in Fife and largely brought up in Clackmannanshire. After a flirt with accountancy for a few years, Graham moved to London in 1973 when he joined the Bank of England. There his career mainly focussed on financial and supervisory statistics and financial regulation. Latterly he was a member of various European committees, drafting and consulting on both national and international banking and insurance regulatory legislation. In 2005 he decided to return to Scotland and settled in Newtonmore (having holidayed in the Strath annually since 1990), commuting on a weekly basis to London until he retired in 2014. He has been a community councillor in Newtonmore since 2009, assuming the role of Secretary in 2013. He enjoys the outdoors (walking, gardening and bird-watching) and has become more actively involved in community and local heritage matters since retiring.

John Grierson

John is a native of Perth but having lived in Aviemore for over 30 years and worked throughout the Highlands, has a thorough knowledge of the area and its communities. Being retired has allowed him to get involved in the community. He is chairman of the Cairngorms Local Outdoor Access Forum and sits on the Upland Advisory Group. John is a passionate supporter of an evolving rural community, which provides a sustainable future for all the people and at the same time an environment we can all enjoy.

John Nethercott

John Nethercott has lived in Badenoch and Strathspey since 1990 and been a director of VABS since 2007. For 30 years he worked in primary teaching, working in schools from Hawick to Caithness, but on retiring from this, then decided to work with adults. He currently delivers courses through the Cairngorms Learning Partnership, where he also a trustee. John is also a trained counsellor and mostly works as a volunteer counsellor for CRUSE Bereavement Care Scotland in Inverness, Badenoch and Strathspey.

For John, the development growth of a sound Third Sector is essential and he believes very much in the important role of VABS in the community development of this area. His main interest in his spare time is sailing.

Mary Stewart