The Scottish Land Commission is a non-departmental public body established on 1 April 2017.
The Commission has five Land Commissioners and one Tenant Farming Commissioner, all appointed by Scottish Ministers.
The organisation is based in Inverness and has a small team of staff led by Chief Executive Hamish Trench.
Michael Russell, served as a Scottish Government Minister and Member of the Scottish Parliament at various times between 1999 and 2021. He has had a long term involvement with land reform having been Environment Minister from 2007-2009, a member of the Scottish Parliament Committee which scrutinised the Land Reform Bill in 2015 and an MSP for the South of Scotland Region for two terms before being elected in 2011 to serve the constituency of Argyll and Bute where he has lived since 1992. He retired from representational politics in 2021, but remained SNP President until 2023. He is the author of seven books and has worked as a columnist and commentator as well as a television producer and director. He was the founder of the Celtic Media Festival, now in its 45th year, was part time Professor in Scottish Culture and Governance at the University of Glasgow (where he is now an Honorary Professor in the College of Arts & Humanities) and is the trustee of a number of charities.
Rob Black runs North West Rural Consulting, offering tailored specialist support to rural businesses. Previous to this, Rob was a Development Manager for the Isle of Luing Community Trust, where he oversaw projects including the reactivation of Cullipool Slate Quarry, community housing, and net-zero carbon objectives to support economic growth and tackle rural depopulation.
Rob also worked as an Agricultural Consultant with SAC Consulting, providing technical advice on crofting agriculture, regulatory compliance, and funding applications.
Dr. Craig Mackenzie, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh Business School, brings over 20 years of experience in investment management, combining financial and sustainable investment roles. In his most recent position, he led strategic asset allocation and developed climate solutions and natural capital investment funds. Over his career, Craig has shaped good practice standards on corporate environmental and social responsibility, serving on advisory boards for the Global Reporting Initiative, the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) and FTSE. As an academic, he founded the Centre for Business and Climate Change (now BCCaS) at the University of Edinburgh and helped launch carbon management and climate finance MSc programs. He has a PhD in behavioural finance and has published on sustainability and corporate responsibility.
Professor Deb Roberts is Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Science at the James Hutton Institute. Deb trained as an agricultural economist and, prior to moving into her current position, her research focussed on understanding how agricultural and environmental policies affect economic development and social wellbeing in rural areas. She holds an Honorary Chair in Real Estate at the University of Aberdeen.
Dr Lucy Beattie started out working in agriculture and then began teaching and researching in the field of agricultural education. Having completed her PhD studies at the University of the West of Scotland. As a former Teaching Fellow in Science Communication at University of Edinburgh she is committed to understanding perspectives that integrating research with public engagement with science. Lucy is currently employed as researcher at The James Hutton Institute and manages a family farm enterprise in the North West Highlands. Lucy has managed training programs for the Scottish Crofting Federation and worked as a consultant and community development worker with a range of organisations on education and rural development.
Dr Calum MacLeod is Senior Policy and Public Affairs Officer for the Mental Health Foundation in Scotland and a freelance sustainable development consultant. In 2010 he led post-legislative scrutiny of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 on behalf of the Scottish Parliament. Formerly Policy Director of Community Land Scotland, Calum has a PhD in public policy implementation and has taught sustainable development and public policy courses at several Scottish Universities. He is a Board Member of MG ALBA (Gaelic Media Service) and was previously a Board Member of the Harris Tweed Authority, championing sustainable, community-focused development.
Hamish is Chief Executive and accountable officer of the Scottish Land Commission. He is a former chartered surveyor with experience of land policy, management and research in the public and private sectors. His previous roles include director posts at the Cairngorms National Park Authority and Deer Commission for Scotland, and working for a national firm of property consultants. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA).
Emma is responsible for the Land Commission’s work shaping change on the ground to ensure more people benefit from Scotland’s land by supporting the practical implementation of the Scottish Government’s Land Rights and Responsibilities Statement (LRRS).
Gemma’s work focusses on helping people to own, use and manage land responsibly in line with the principles of the Land Rights and Responsibilities Statement. She manages a programme of engagement, guidance, casework, and advice that supports key stakeholders across all sectors to strengthen their adoption of good practice principles in their strategy and delivery. She is particularly interested in community engagement, community ownership, Community Wealth Building, and Common Good. Gemma is a member of the KLTR’s Ownerless Property Transfer Scheme Panel and of Forestry and Land Scotland’s Community Asset Transfer Scheme Panel.
Uwe’s role as a Good Practice Adviser is to promote and support good practice in Landownership across Scotland. This often means working directly with landowners and communities, as part of a transparent, fair, and constructive casework service. In his role, Uwe deals with a wide variety of cases, issues and opportunities, including community benefits from natural capital investment. Originally from Germany, Uwe has lived and worked in Scotland most of his life. He has a background in land management, community engagement, nature conservation and restoration.
As a Good Practice Adviser, Karen works to help embed principles of fairness, transparency, balance and opportunity into land ownership, management and use in Scotland. This includes offering support in the form of training, advice and guidance, and working with landowners and managers in the private, public and community sectors, to increase understanding and alignment with the principles of the Land Rights and Responsibilities Statement. Karen has a background in ecology, agriculture, forest issues and climate change.
As a Community Benefits from Nature Adviser, Annabel has a particular focus on support to embed a range of benefits for communities local to nature restoration projects. Working in partnership with the Cairngorms National Park Authority to explore opportunities arising from investment in natural capital, Annabel works with land managers and communities across the Park to identify and agree benefits as well as developing national best practice alongside a network of advisers through the Natural Capital Partnership Project with Community Land Scotland. Annabel has a background in the third sector, with a focus on place-based systems change, building multi-stakeholder partnerships and facilitating community action, most recently from within conservation organisations supporting people to actively shape a more equitable form of rural development in the face of climate and biodiversity threats.
David’s main areas of work are on land, housing and place. His remit at the Scottish Land Commission includes work on land assembly, placemaking, and housing land markets.
David joined the Commission from the SFHA, where he led on new build affordable housing, planning reform, energy efficiency and regeneration. Prior to that he worked for housing associations and for Edinburgh City Council on housing and regeneration.
He is a board member of Rural Housing Scotland and was previously on the board of PAS, the planning and place charity, and a community based housing association in Greenock.
James leads the Commission’s work around land and human rights, governance, and ownership. This touches upon a range of land reform issues from developing policy and legislative proposals to reform Scotland’s land market, to articulating the nature of carbon rights and what ownership means, to modernising the Common Good property regime, to improving access to land for new entrants to agriculture. James hails from a family farming background and brings broad experience from the private, public, and third sectors to his role.
Andrew oversees the financial operations, develops and implements financial policies, and leads cybersecurity initiatives at the Commission. Andrew’s experience spans several sectors including higher education and financial services, and he has a strong background in financial planning, business systems optimisation and compliance. Andrew takes a strategic and analytical approach to improving operational efficiency and holds advanced degrees in business and management, investment and finance, and data analytics, supporting his data-driven financial decision making approach.
Hanna leads on the Commission’s delivery of high quality evidence and analysis by designing, conducting, and commissioning research on land reform. She previously worked as a senior researcher on land and housing for the New Economics Foundation think tank, and her academic background is in political economy and quantitative research methods.
Scarlett joined the Commission in 2024 as Communications and Engagement Manager and has a background in marketing. Scarlett is responsible for ensuring the work of the Commission is accessible to a broad audience across all the Commission’s platforms including social media, email, and our website.
Megan is responsible for supporting the Commission's finance functions, in the form of the budgetary processes and financial reporting. She has previously worked within the accounting and construction sectors, gaining knowledge and experience.
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