SMART Recovery UK is a registered charity, no: SC 037968 and Company Registration no: 318729 (registered in Scotland). The organisation has a board of trustees, as required by charity law.

Here is a short introduction to each of the current board members.

Ian Smillie - Chair

Ian’s experience within the Army had given him significant experience of alcohol use and the harm associated with this. This experience encouraged Ian to start working as a volunteer alcohol counsellor with Aberdeen Alcohol Advisory & Counselling Service in Aberdeen in 1993 when he was working as a prison officer in Aberdeen Prison. At this time an opportunity arose to work with a local Drugs Agency in the prison as Drugs Contact Officer. Ian took up this voluntary role which meant working with drug users in the prison. Ian took a significant role in designing and implementing the detoxification and education programmes for the prison at this time. This led eventually to taking on the role of Drug Strategy Co-ordinator which entailed working with external agencies and local DAATs to ensure that services were provided to the prison. During this time Ian and the Prison Drug Team were nominated for Butler Trust award for innovative work within prisons.

Ian left the prison service in 2002 to become the DAAT Coordinator for Perth & Kinross. During his time with the DAAT he has been involved in national and regional initiatives he has also undertaking a wide range of university distance learning courses to develop his skills and knowledge base. Ian was part of the original group who develop SMART Recovery UK and took on the role of Chair of SMART Recovery UK and has been involved with SMART Recovery UK from this period. Ian has been on secondment to the Scottish Association of Alcohol Drug Action Teams (SAADAT) since April 2009 and continues to be engaged in ensuring that individuals have the opportunities and choices.

Joe Gerstein

Joseph Gerstein, MD, FACP, a specialist in Internal Medicine and Pain Management, has been involved with the movement to make free, science-based addiction recovery programs universally available since 1990. All of his activities have been on a volunteer basis. He was a Professor at  Harvard Medical School for 28 years.

Dr. Gerstein was the Founding President of SMART Recovery(TM) Self-Help Network in 1994 and has been instrumental in its spread throughout the world. He and his wife Barbara Gerstein, RN have facilitated over 3000 SMART Recovery meetings in prisons and communities and have been major financial supporters of the network.

Currently, Dr. Gerstein is a Board member of 8 non-profit organizations, including SRUK and SR Australia. He has lectured widely about the importance of choice in addiction care and the elements and experience of the SMART Recovery 4-Point Program(TM).

David McCue

David McCue has been a volunteer trustee of SMART Recovery UK since May 2009.  David is the Director of PSMR Ltd Consultancy Services which he established in 2008. PSMR aims to support key legislative, policy, planning, practice and other initiatives associated with maximising opportunities for 'recovery' from problem substance use.  David has 20 years experience within the substance misuse sector, gaining valuable understanding as practitioner, junior, middle and senior manager; trustee; policy maker and policy implementer in statutory and non-statutory environments.  David was instrumental in the development of prison addictions policy and practice; the Scottish government's integrated care agenda and the delivery and expansion of drug and alcohol services for a national charitable organisation.  David is qualified in management and alcohol/drug studies.

David has never lost sight of the key values necessary to facilitate change in people and organisations who need and desire such. He understands the complexities and challenges facing the substance misuse and related sectors related to funding, quality, performance, accountability, regulation, workforce competence and competition.  SMART Recovery UK faces all of these challenges, of course.  Working with trustees, volunteers, contractors, partners and other supporters, David is committed to ensuring the long term sustainability of SMART Recovery UK; enabling individuals who are dependent on a substance or activity to recover and rebuild their lives.

Charles Steel

I began working with people with alcohol and drug problems in 1972 as a volunteer with the Simon Community in a Glasgow night Shelter for homeless men. After studying Theology for 3 years and being a founding member of the Stauros Foundation, I was employed by the organisation to establish groups to work with people with addictions and their families. Following my ordination in 1984, I worked with people in socially challenged areas, again working primarily with addictions. I spent some time working for the Church of Scotland, Social Responsibilities Dept, deputising and counselling in residential units around Scotland.

I was then employed by Strathclyde Regional Council, Social Work Dept as an Addictions Officer in the early days of harm reduction. I was trained and worked as an addiction counsellor with an ongoing caseload. In 1999 I was employed by Alcoholics Anonymous to establish, manage and administrate the A.A. Scottish Service Office working with five Regions, twenty eight Intergroups, and almost one thousand groups. I worked with the public, the professional communities and often deputised for the General Secretary. I was invited to join the Scottish Ministerial Advisory Committee on Alcohol Problems at it's inception in 2000 and have served for the past ten years (Mind The Gaps, report. I have worked in a voluntary advisory capacity over the past decade with the Health Technology Board for Scotland, The Public Health Institute for Scotland (Alcohol And Ageing, report), the Scottish Prison Service and various other national, regional and local initiatives.

In the past few years I have been a member of the Addaction Council for Scotland. I was Chairman of the Board for Community Ability Network (Edinburgh), a disability advocacy service. Earlier this year I was invited to become a Trustee of Smart Recovery UK with a remit to help the organisation through a difficult transitionary period. As a volunteer, I run a group in Craigmillar under the aegis of CAN (Discover Recovery) for people with alcohol and drug issues who are considering Recovery. I continue to mentor people in recovery as I have done for 38 years.

Terri Semple

As a Community Councillor, Terri developed an interest in working with young people.  She became an active youth leader, specialising in working with young people with behavioural issues.  This led to a career in youth training and progression to management of a specialist unit of Inverness College of Higher Education which delivered special Educational needs training.  Terri was responsible for leading a team who developed recognised and validated SQA Training Awards for young people.   This centre became the focus of new and innovative ideas and was widely acclaimed for promoting and facilitating change in behaviour within the lives of young disadvantaged people challenged by their environment.

Terri became aware of the increasing number of young people presenting with addiction and homelessness issues.  Terri undertook additional training and attained qualifications in these areas.  With her knowledge, skills and experience in dealing with addictive behaviour, Terri became an integral member of a multi disciplinary/agency forum which influenced policy and practice for disadvantaged young people in Highland.  Terri’s most rewarding work has been working with young adults who turned their lives around to live addiction free; enjoying lives of positivity beyond their expectations as contributing members of their communities.

Terri spent a further year studying at Newbattle Abbey College before taking up her current post as Manager of a disabled and disadvantaged charity in East Edinburgh.   This has been an interesting journey and has reinforced Terri’s commitment to working with people who experience addictions and often associated mental illnesses.  Recently, Terri developed the conception for a pilot project entitled, ‘Discover Recovery’ following consultation and feedback from local community members who are in the pre-contemplative stage of recovery from substance dependency.  Implementing ‘Discovery Recovery’ within a local community at grassroots level, is already demonstrating that people can, do and will continue to recover from addictive behaviour and related problems.  The influence of peer support cannot be underestimated; a factor which led to Terri’s appointment as a Trustee of SMART Recovery UK in June 2010 where she hopes to continue to reach out and help disadvantaged members of our society.

Carl Cundall

Carl works as the manager of a project set up five years ago by Sheffield Alcohol Advisory Service to provide a development pathway and aftercare service for clients leaving treatment. He is committed to providing choice, opportunities and peer led services for people in recovery and recently launched Alcohol Recovery Community.

Carl first attended a SMART meeting in Manchester in 2008 and was keen to start one in Sheffield. SAAS were selected as a site for the Alcohol Concern/DH pilot project and after training Carl first facilitated a meeting early march 2009 and became involved in delivering training in other sites across England, helping to start SMART meeings across Northern England and has facilitated over 100 meetings.

Carl sees his role as a trustee as an opportunity to help SMART Recovery establish meetings in every city across the UK and will use his extensive network of contacts to achieve this goal.