Morag Alexander has been convener of the Scottish Social Services Council since 2001 and is also a board member of the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care and of Skills for Care and Development. In addition, she is a member of the Court of Scotland's newest university, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh.

Morag was chair of the Early Years Advisory Group of Children in Scotland from 1995 to 2003, chair of Fair Play Scotland from 2001 to 2006 and a trustee of Turning Point Scotland from 1998 to 2006. She was a member of the expert panel on procedures and standing orders in the Scottish Parliament (1997 to 1998) and of the Scottish Inquiry into Student Finance (1999 to 2000). She was also director of the Equal Opportunities Commission, Scotland from 1992 to 2001.

Roger is the current head of optometry at Ulster University. He is also head of their vision science research group and teaches ocular anatomy and visual optics. Roger’s research interests include visual psychophysics, age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma.

He is a member of the research committee of the College of Optometrists, the College of Experts of the Medical Research Council (MRC), and the life sciences committee of the Royal Irish Academy. Roger is also a visiting fellow at the school of optometry at Indiana University, USA.

Rosemary Bailey currently practices as a contact lens optician, and is a senior contact lens optician at Moorfields Eye Hospital. She lectures and examines in contact lens practice, and is involved in the organisation of contact lens training courses and CET events. 

Rosemary is the Association of British Dispensing Opticians (ABDO) director of contact lens examinations and is also a member of several ABDO committees.

She is a former British Contact Lens Association (BCLA) president (from 1980 to 1981).

Moira Black is currently chairman of the North West London Hospitals NHS Trust. She is also a non executive director of Octagon Healthcare Ltd and the Defence Logistics Organisation, and a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Former appointments include director of the Financial Services Authority, a trustee of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, chairman of the National Lottery Commision, and vice chairman of the University of North London. In 1998 Moira was awarded a CBE for services to consumers and healthcare.

Moira is married and lives in London. Her interests include tennis (formerly as an umpire), garden design, listening to music and travel.

Jennifer works in independent practice and The Hospital Eye Service as a dispensing optician and low vision practitioner. She is low vision adviser to the Association of British Dispensing Opticians (ABDO) and an examiner for the ABDO low vision honours diploma. 

Currently a member of the ABDO board of directors, Jennifer is also chairman of the ABDO low vision committee, ABDO London area and ABDO benevolent fund. She is a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers. Jennifer writes and lectures regularly on low vision, and, in 1999, was awarded the Hamblin Memorial Prize for services to dispensing optics.

Jennifer is married to an optometrist and practises in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire.

Donald is a practising optometrist and owner of a private house practice in Edinburgh. He has a special interest in cosmetic and therapeutic contact lens practice.

Donald was elected to the General Optical Council (GOC) in 2001. He is a past chairman of the board of the Association of Optometrists (AOP) and has been instrumental in shaping the relationship between optometry and the NHS in the intervening years. Donald joined Optometric Educators Ltd as a lecturer 1998 and since then has lectured internationally on a range of clinical and non-clinical topics related to optometry.

He is married to Dorothy with two grown-up children, Lorna and Ian, who works as an optometrist in the family business. As a keen musician, Donald has an active interest in church music and is the director of music for a large baptist church in Edinburgh.

David graduated from City University in 1979 and qualified as an optometrist in 1980. He has since worked in all spheres of optometric practice and is currently Professional Services Director for Boots Opticians. A former president of the College of Optometrists, David is a College examiner and assessor for the pre-registration year.

He is married to Yvonne, also an optometrist, and they have two children aged 20 and 18. David’s hobbies include golf, tennis and triathlons.

Keith is currently working as an independent locum contact lens optician and consultant. Until May 2006, he was a part time lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University, teaching contact lens practice. Previous positions include Professional Services Manager at Indigolighthouse Group, Contact Lens Product Manager at Dollond and Aitchison, and Contact Lens Services Manager for Boots Opticians.

He is a past council member, education team leader and dispensing section chairman of the British Contact Lens Association (BCLA). Keith is also an Association of British Dispensing Opticians (ABDO) contact lens practical examiner, and a member of both their Continuing Education and Training (CET) and contact lens committees. In addition, Keith is a member of the ABDO board of directors.

He has published articles on rigid lenses, presbyopic contact lens fitting and contra-indications, and lectures regularly on contact lens issues.

As a City University alumnus, Bob has served as chairman of convocation and as a member of the City University Council. He is a member of both the University and the Institute of Health Sciences Advisory Committees.

In the 1995 Queen's birthday Honours he was awarded an OBE and, in 2001, the degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) was conferred on him by City University.

Bob’s other interests include collecting optical antiques, skiing, cooking and travel.

She is currently a contact lens examiner, and a visitor to practices that provide training for contact lens opticians. Kim also lectures on professional conduct and related matters, and chairs the Association of British Dispensing Opticians (ABDO) working groups on advice and guidelines, and advanced dispensing. She is a member of the ABDO contact lens committee and trustee of the ABDO benevolent fund.

James Dunne is consultant ophthalmic surgeon and clinical director for ophthalmology at Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre Hospitals NHS Trust. He is also their divisional director for surgery. Currently council member of the Oxford Ophthalmological Congress, James has held numerous positions; he was president of the North of England Ophthalmic Society from 2001 to 2002, and served for six years as a member of the professional standards committee of the Royal College of Ophthalmology, where he also served as a council member.

James has also previously worked as a national orthoptist examiner, and continues to work as a lead clinician of the Diabetic Eye Screening Service. James’s specialty interests include corneal disease, corneal graft surgery, medical retinal disease and diabetic retinal screening.

Ian Hamer OBE was appointed as lay member for Wales in 2007. Formerly the Chair of the Air Transport Users Council, Ian brings experience of representing the interests of consumers in a regulated environment. He is Managing Director of an international group of companies in the plastics industry and sits as a magistrate in the Vale of Glamorgan.

Geoff has served as a non executive director and chairman of Buckinghamshire Mental Health NHS Trust. He is a former member of the Public Health Laboratory Service and, until April 2003, was a non executive director of Stoke Mandeville Hospital NHS Trust, covering both the general hospital and the National Spinal Injuries Centre. His specialist interests are corporate and clinical governance.

Married with four children, Geoff lives in Buckinghamshire and is a magistrate on the central Buckinghamshire bench.

Stuart Heatherington is currently a magistrate for the Sussex (northern division) magistrate’s courts service, where he sits in both the youth and adult courts. Since 2003 he has also served as an appointed member of the General Medical Council.

Stuart began his career designing and supporting technical software for road and railway design. He later established and ran his own international software company. In recent years Stuart has been fully committed to the health service, serving for two years as chairman of a mental health trust, followed by a further six years as chairman of the Worthing and Southlands Hospitals NHS Trust. He has also undertaken voluntary work for both the British Red Cross and Samaritans of Tyneside.

In his spare time, Stuart pursues an interest in art history and aims to keep fit by going for the odd short run.

Peter is a former examiner for the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons (Glasgow and Edinburgh), the College of Optometry, and was an undergraduate examiner for the University of Glasgow.

During his career Peter has authored papers on orbital disorders, fluid movement in the eye and orbital surgery.

A former chairman of the Essex Optical Society and the British Association of Young Optometrists, Kevin was elected as president of the College of Optometrists in 2006.

He is a keen golfer and lives with his wife and two children in Langdon Hills, Essex.

An education advisor to the General Optical Council (GOC), David Pyle began his career teaching in primary schools, before entering teacher education. He headed the Leeds Polytechnic School of Education in 1986 before becoming pro vice chancellor of Manchester Metropolitan University in 1989.

Since taking early retirement in 1997, David has worked part time as chief inspector for an open college network in the northwest, as well as heading a number of consultancy projects for the Universities and Colleges Staff Development Agency. He has also undertaken work as an adviser to the Teacher Training Agency, and currently chairs a schools partnership committee for Leeds Metropolitan University.

David is a keen gardener and DIY enthusiast, and is a pianist for a local choir. He enjoys spending time at his apartment in southern Spain and in his part-owned house in Normandy.

Since 1981 Stuart Roxburgh has been consultant ophthalmologist for the Tayside Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. He is honorary senior lecturer at the department of ophthalmology, University of Dundee, where he was head of department from 1991 to 1996. Stuart served for one year as senior vice president of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, and was former vice president and chairman of their examinations committee from 2000 to 2004.

His areas of special interest include medical retinal disease and macular disease, ocular electrophysiology and ophthalmic ultrasound.

Stuart is married to Christine and has two children, aged 26 and 24. His hobbies are travel, golf, hillwalking (almost completed the Munros!) and painting.

Nicholas (Nick) is managing director of a large independent practice in Hereford that won the Optician Speciality Practice award in 1995. In 1996 he was joint winner of the Optician EyeCare Contribution to Optics award. Nick also works as a consultant to Topcon UK Ltd.

He was the first UK optometrist to complete an MScOptom at the University of Melbourne, and the first optometrist to sit the College of Optometrists’ Fellowship examination in partial sight.

Nick’s main clinical interests are in visual impairment, optometric primary care and optometric jurisprudence.

James Russell is a contact lens optician and lectures regularly on contact lenses and dispensing. In addition, he is an examiner for the practical qualifying Association of British Dispensing Opticians (ABDO) examinations.

A long serving member of the British Contact Lens Association (BCLA), James was elected as ABDO vice president in 2002, before becoming president the following year. He served for three years and, in June 2006, was appointed as associate and advisor on optics to the Healthcare Commission. He has previously worked as a practice manager for Dollond and Aitchison. He is the current ABDO area chairman for Scotland.

James lives in Chartham, near Canterbury, Kent and enjoys writing and playing music, keeping fit, reading and cooking.

Mike Salmon is a lay member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society disciplinary committee. He was formerly chairman of the Essex Rivers Healthcare NHS Trust and former vice chancellor of Anglia Polytechnic University, from which he retired in 1995.

Alan has published over 100 papers in refereed journals and has lectured extensively throughout the US, Europe, South America and Australia. In 1976, he was awarded the Research Medal of the British Optical Association and the Shapero Award of the American Academy of Optometry in 1999. He is author of the textbook, Complications of Contact Lens Wear.

Joan (Jo) is currently principal of the Association of British Dispensing Opticians (ABDO) College of Education. She lectures and examines both in the UK and abroad, and is principal examiner in contact lens visual optics and a practical examiner in contact lenses and dispensing for ABDO.

Jo also serves on numerous ABDO committees, and is a member of the International Association of Contact Lens Educators.

She was previously appointed as head of contact lenses and senior lecturer in ophthalmic lenses at the City and Islington College.

Rosie Varley was appointed by the Privy Council as chairman of the General Optical Council (GOC) in January 1999. She represents the GOC on the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (CHRE) and is currently its vice chair.

Rosie holds a number of other roles in the fields of health and constitutional affairs. She is one of the NHS Appointments Commissioners (until April 2007), Chair of the Public Guardian Board, Chair of the East of England Skills for Health initiative, and a member of the Mental Health and Disability Living Allowance tribunals. Formerly she was an NHS Trust chairman and then an NHS Regional chairman. Rosie is closely involved with a number of voluntary bodies working in the field of mental health and substance misuse. She is President of West Suffolk Mind and former Chairman of West Suffolk NSPCC.

Rosie is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, a freeman of the City of London and liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers.

In 2007 she received an OBE for services to the NHS and healthcare.

Sheila Wild is director of employment policy at the Equal Opportunities Commission, where she has worked for over twenty-five years. Sheila has a background in both regulation and policy analysis, and in 2003 was awarded the Wainwright Trust award for her contribution to equal opportunities.

Sheila has a visual impairment and is a member of the Macular Disease Society. She is a lay member of the General Assembly of the University of Manchester, and an alumna of HRH the Duke of Edinburgh’s Commonwealth Study Conferences (class of ‘86). Her previous appointments include advising the government on work-life balance and the trusteeship of a small charity.

Sheila is divorced, with two adult children and lives in Manchester. Her interests include music and she is a published poet.