Meet The Team

Craig took over role of Chief Executive of Inspired Community Enterprise Trust (The Usual Place) in August 2024 having previously been a key player in the organisation since its establishment in 2015.

Prior to his current role, Craig was Chief Operating Officer and has led the Business for Social Good model including development of the systems, processes and procedures required to ensure high standards are maintained throughout the whole organisation’s operations alongside facilitating the flexibility and agility to enable development and responsiveness to its strengths-based needs.

Craig is a values-led leader with a strong financial and business background having started his working a career in the Royal Bank of Scotland where he took several regional leadership roles including Branch Manager and Controls Champion. Before moving to The Usual Place, he also worked in a variety of socially deprived communities developing outreach services.

Craig has taken over the leadership of The Usual Place at a significant time. This thriving organisation is not only providing a skills-based academy and environment which enables the training, education and employability skills of young people with additional support needs, empowering young people to flourish, it is also growing and making a significant contribution to the wellbeing of the whole local community through a variety of activities, events, modelling possibilities and providing an excellent venue for people of all ages and backgrounds to gather socially and meet professionally.

Craig is now setting a course to strengthen links and alignment with the region’s food, drink and hospitality businesses to create supported pathways into employment for young trainees at The Usual Place. Through Autism Awareness Training, Employer-Ability and as a Disability Confident Leader, under Craig’s direction there is a key intention also for The Usual Place to provide support to employers in creating and enabling successful, working environments for the benefit of all.

Amy Wright Chairs the Board of Trustees of Inspired Community Enterprise Trust (ICET)/The Usual Place.
She is disabled and neurodiverse and also has experience as a young carer. Amy graduated in 2018 with an Honours Degree from the Open University and currently works as a Civil Servant within Social Security Scotland.
Amy has been involved with The Usual Place since its inception and was a huge supporter throughout the years when this unique concept was brought to fruition from 2011-2015. She joined the Board in July 2014 and has been Chair since January 2015. Amy is an ambassador of for ICET and brings understanding and insights from the perspective of a young person with additional support needs.

Karen is the parent of an adult son with additional support needs. Karen was also manager of PIN (Parents Inclusion Network) before her retirement. Karen has experience advocating for families and young people particularly around education and transitions. Karen now represents The Usual Place on the Scottish Governments Autism Panel. Karen joined the Board in 2015.

Alex Banwell is an accountant working at a local housing provider giving him insight into the challenges of poverty and housing issues in particular for young people with additional support needs. Alex has also trained as a primary school teacher with a sound understanding of the exclusion of disabled children experience from an early stage in their educational career and what this means to them in terms of low levels of expectation and aspiration. Alex has been a director with us since 2013.

Maureen is an HR specialist who supported us during our start up and has remained a trusted adviser ever since. She joined the Board in 2018 and has a wealth of experience in HR across multiple sectors. She has an understanding of the challenges faced in employment for those who have additional support needs and their employers. Maureen believes passionately in equality of opportunity for all.

Sue comes to us with a background of social work in which he has a qualification in this field. Sue is also a social entrepreneur who was one of the first people in Scotland to develop and deliver a Self-Directed Support Brokerage which enabled people to access this service at it’s launch and further on. Sue joined the Board in 2014.

Catherine Alexander was born in Glasgow, educated in Lanarkshire, going on to work with Clydesdale Bank for twenty one years, the last ten years in the Private Client Investment Management Department. Catherine moved to Edinburgh to work for Aegon Asset Management (latterly Kames Capital) with responsibilities for managing key relationships between the Investment Management team and the Insurance Companies within the Aegon UK Group. She later assumed additional responsibility for the client service teams for the Institutional and Retail operational business.

Catherine worked for Inspiring Scotland for two years before her retiral, managing portfolios of charities focussed on early years public social partnerships and survivors of childhood sexual abuse. She remains active as a specialist volunteer with Inspiring Scotland.

Catherine was Chairman of the Church of Scotland Investors Trust, serving as a trustee for fourteen years. She is an active member of Greyfriars Kirk as an elder, member of the Finance Management Group as well as singing in the choir.

Catherine’s hobbies include travel, cooking and choral singing. She joined the Board in 2026.

Rachel’s focus throughout her career has been split between economic regeneration and working within the third sector. Until recently, she was the Chief Operating Officer for The Crichton Trust, an 85acre heritage estate in Dumfries.  Prior to that she was the Programme Director for Children’s Neighbourhoods Scotland housed within the University of Glasgow – leading an evidence led, context informed place-based approach focussing on children and young people.

Prior to that Rachel lead on the design and implementation of the Thrive Outdoors fund and the Rural and Islands Fund at Inspiring Scotland, the Thrive fund focussed on improving childhood health and wellbeing through access to and engagement with our outdoor and natural world. She was a leading voice in helping to change and shape attitudes towards outdoor play and outdoor learning at a national policy level in Scotland and on the ground, which has gained international recognition and cooperation with similar programmes and leading academics in the field in Canada and Europe.

Rachel joined the Board in 2026.

Lainey joined the Board of Trustees in 2026, bringing extensive experience from her role as a Principal Teacher within an Edinburgh secondary special school. With a career dedicated to supporting young people with additional support needs, Lainey is a passionate advocate for creating genuine, high quality employability training and real-world work opportunities. She believes that by breaking down barriers to the workplace, we can empower every young person to realise their full potential. Lainey is deeply committed to The Usual Place’s mission of ensuring young people have the chance to contribute, grow and be recognised as valued members of their communities. She is delighted to help The Usual Place achieve its mission, enabling a successful transition to greater independence and employment opportunities.

Irene joined the Board in 2026, having worked with our team for many years in her role as CEO of Re-Employ in Fife on the organisation's Disability Confident Journey.