Everyone at Inspire was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Board Member Stuart Brown recently, following his brave battle with stomach cancer.
Stuart was a great supporter of the organisation for a number of years, initially volunteering his precious time to assist our fundraising team in various ways - including lacing up his running shoes and donning the purple of Inspire on more than one occasion - before officially joining the Board of Inspire Ventures in 2016. As Head of SME Banking for Barclays Bank, he brought a wealth of business knowledge, contacts and support to the organisation.
Stuart was pivotal in the outsourcing of our social enterprise venue, Cafe Coast, which enabled us to fully focus our business interests firmly on the people we support. He then joined the Board of Inspire PTL Ltd in 2017 where he supported the Property and Finance Committee, and more recently the Resources Committee, with his financial, business and strategy expertise.
In addition, Stuart represented Inspire's interests in the Project Search programme, our joint employability venture with the University of Aberdeen. He was always thinking about how he could further assist the organisation and throughout his tenure he introduced many great people and brought so much valuable support to Inspire.
Everyone who was lucky enough to know Stuart will agree that he was truly one of the good guys, able to get along with everyone and always focussed on making a positive difference to people's lives. It is those qualities that made him such an asset to Inspire and also why he will be missed by so many of the people involved with the organisation.
Our thoughts are with Stuart's wife Morag, daughter Alex, son Cammy and all of his family and friends at this time. He will be sorely missed by all those who knew and loved him.
