Ailsa has worked in community economic development, and employability for the past 30 years, founding Inspiralba as a social enterprise and charity in 2009. Inspiralba’s work covers employability and tackling child poverty, rural community led enterprise and collective leadership approaches to systems change. Through this work she has supported development, delivery and profit distribution from community energy since 2006, becoming a Director with Fyne Energy in 2018 when the three turbines at Glenbarr eventually came to fruition.

Ailsa comes from Argyll, a rural and remote community surrounded by renewable energy generation, with some of the highest levels of fuel poverty in the country. She is passionate about Community Energy from a social justice perspective, within a context of increasing inequalities and the impacts of climate change being felt more often by communities and individuals that are more isolated and vulnerable.

Ailsa brings learning from both grass roots and strategic contexts in social innovation and is an advocate for community energy to support a more inclusive and democratic economy.