Our Team

Ali originally hails from Dundee settled in Meigle with his family in 2003. 

Along with his wife, he has always been a keen participant in community activity and joined the Board of Trustees in 2020, taking an active role in many of the Trust’s functions and projects, particularly the Community Shed and the Resilience Team. 

He is a firm believer in the importance of relationship building and working in partnership with other groups and organisations to make a positive difference locally. 

Ali works as a technologist at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design at Dundee University, and spends his spare time playing music and indulging in his passion of astrophotography. He also loves a good quiz. 

Steve moved to Meigle from Glasgow several years ago. 

Originally from Northern Ireland, Steve retired recently after a career spent in the charity sector, particularly focussed around homelessness and addictions. He was chief officer in a homelessness charity in Glasgow for 17 years and latterly was an associate director in a national addictions charity, supervising contracts across Scotland. 

Steve has extensive experience of serving on a variety of national and local boards of trustees, and enjoys playing golf. 

Kate is from near Glasgow originally, but has lived in the Meigle area since 2020, joining MACDT as a Trustee in 2022. 

A Chartered Accountant by profession, she has a long-term interest in history and is in the process of completing a part-time history degree with the University of Highlands and Islands. 

Kate keeps an eye on all the MACDT projects from a financial perspective, and is creatively involved in the MACTrail, along which she enjoys walking with her very energetic dog. 

Bob was a councillor for Perth and Kinross Council for 22 years, representing Blairgowrie and the Glens. 

Through his role as an elected member of the council, he met people of all ages, abilities and gender, helping them with whatever they needed advice or support on. 

This experience set him in good stead for when he set up Meigle and Ardler Community Council and then went on to establish Meigle and Ardler Community Development Trust. 

His role with MACDT is looking after all the greenspace areas that the Trust is responsible for, including the Meigle and Ardler Community Trail, and ensuring it is kept in good condition. 

In his spare time, Bob relaxes by walking the many trails and paths throughout east Perthshire, including the Cateran Trail, which he is one of the founders of.

Raised in Blairgowrie, Lesley has strong connections to the land locally - from picking berries to spending time at her grandparents’ farm at Mains of Arthurstone – and feels privileged to have put down roots with her own family in the area, continuing to benefit from its beauty and bounty. 

Committed to seeking out ways to preserve community, Lesley joined the Ardler Village Green Committee. 

Having begun her career as an events manager for a medical research charity, Lesley trained to become a teacher and has since invested more than 20 years in the Scottish education system, from classroom practitioner to delivering professional learning nationally, and is currently supporting schools with their improvement agenda with a specific focus on inclusion.

Wanda is a mental health nurse, award-winning writer and qualified forest therapy practitioner. 

She pursued her dream of becoming a writer in 2019, graduating from the University of Dundee with an MLitt Writing Practice and Study (Distinction) in 2020. Wanda writes fiction, non-fiction, poetry and literary reviews and her work has featured in print and online literary magazines, anthologies and public and online exhibitions. 

Wanda moved to Meigle in 2017 with her husband and two dogs, Luther and Cailleach. Passionate about community and connection to land and place, Wanda’s main area of responsibility with the Trust is culture and heritage.

Clare has worked in media and communications for some 30 years at local, regional and national levels and firmly believes in the importance of giving people a voice both in their communities and beyond, and in fostering good community connections and relationships. 

She grew up in Glenisla and returned to live in east Perthshire in 2010. 

A keen music-lover and responsible campervanner, when not working Clare can often be found at music festivals or walking her three dogs.