Five new Board Members inducted at ESW during January 2025

We are pleased to welcome a group of new Board Members to ESW as Nicola Anderson, Eric Mackay, Maryam Ohadi-Hamadani, Nicky Thomson and Michael Trainor start as voluntary Trustees of the charity.

Recruited through a process started in 2024 with analysis of the current Board skills and creation of an open call for Notes of Interest, the new Board Members underwent induction with the Chair of the Board, Eddie Frizzell in January 2025 and will attend their first full Board Meeting in February.

The new Board Members all individually come with a mix of skills and knowledge which are ideally suited to helping the organisation meet it’s aims.

Nicola Anderson is a senior HR Professional with over 20 years experience in the public sector, including the NHS and the civil service.

Eric Mackay worked in Scottish Government civil service specialising in policy formulation and implementation of key strategies and is now active as an artist and writer.

Maryam Ohadi-Hamadani is an art historian, academic and lecturer based at Edinburgh College of Art with extensive previous research and curation projects including at Yale Center for British Art and Tate Liverpool.

Nicky Thomson is an architect and design tutor, with a practice in nearby Leith, coming with a high degree of understanding about current pressures and innovations in terms of creative buildings.

Michael Trainor is an artist who has undertaken several large-scale public art commissions and run arts organisations, CICs and projects.

You can read more about the new Board Members and our existing team and Board on this page.

Images:

Above: l-r, Eric Mackay, Michael Trainor, Maryam Ohadi-Hamadani, Nicky Thomson and Eddie Frizzell look at primary children’s work made with Curator for Research Debi Banerjee.

Below: Michael Trainor, Nicky Thomson and Eric Mackay in our Wood Workshop.