DIRECTORS
An entrepreneur and chartered accountant. Qualifying with Deloitte & Touche, he has worked in London, Africa and France for Shell International before returning to the Highlands in 1988 to start up and build a number of businesses.
Robert was chairman of his local school board and is currently also a member of the Ardmore Partnership set up in 2004 to pioneer social enterprise activity in the Highlands.
One of his passions is to see the rekindling of an enterprising ‘can do’ culture within Scottish communities. He believes that engendering the spirit of economic self reliance through work and ambition are the building blocks to move from a position of social difficulty, to a state of spiritual, as well as, material well being. Day1 is a modest attempt to help young people kick-start their adult lives
Robert R. Murray, M.A. (Hons); C.A.
With a working background of farming, manufacturing and service business in the north west coast of the Highlands, Ed is now a self employed businessman who, together with his wife, runs a niche Recruitment Consultancy business based in Inverness but operating throughout Scotland.
Ed’s voluntary activities have included acting as Chair of the Stratherrick & Foyers Community Trust, of a local Environmental charity and of a highly proactive and successful Highland School Board. The latter included founding and chairing a group of 80 Highland School Boards who came together to win extra funding for Highland Education from the Scottish Executive. He has also worked extensively with using the outdoor environment for young people’s personal development.
He is a firm advocate of Mentoring as an effective tool for helping young people to help themselves. With ten years of DAY1 experience to date, his focus remains on ensuring Scotland’s disadvantaged young people have opportunities to fulfil their potential, to get into work and to become net contributors to society.
Ed Ley-Wilson, B.A. (Hons) Anthropology;
Margaret Davidson
Margaret was elected as Highland Councillor in 1995 and as Council Leader in 2017. She has held senior positions in education, social work and housing for 10 years. She has been chair of the Joint Committee for Children and Young People and has contributed to the transformation of services for vulnerable children within the Highland region. She is proud of the fact that Highland is now a national leader in this area of community service.
Margaret’s family run the Abriachan Gardens on the north shore of Loch Ness and she played an active part in the purchase of Abriachan forest, one of the first Scottish community land purchases in 1998.
This community forest has been run as a recreation and education resource for 12 years which includes the setting up of a pioneering rural skills SVQ and forest school. Much of education work is targeted at youngsters struggling with school and involved with crime.
In the 1970s and 1980s Margaret and her husband lived in New Zealand and in the Falkland islands where they ran a sheep farm, a market garden and a hotel. They still visit the southern hemisphere as often as they can.