Alan Hannah
Alan is one of the foremost curling coaches in the UK with nearly 40 years of curling experience and is passionate about developing and promoting the sport from grassroots to international levels. Prior to becoming a full time coach with British Curling, Alan spent over 25 years in Property & Construction delivering a wide range of projects in many sectors from Peterhead to Brighton. The first project he worked on as a quantity surveyor was Perth Ice Rink which opened back in 1990.
Since moving to Glasgow in 2008 Alan has been a very active curler at both Braehead and Greenacres and is currently the Chair of the Braehead Curling Development Group and leads on many of its development and competition responsibilities.
Margarita Sweeney Baird BEM
Margarita is the Founder and Chair of Inclusive Skating.
Inclusive Skating is a charity that has created new formats for skaters with additional needs. She has led and organised over 25 national and international Inclusive Skating events over the last decade, and has grown this charity to become recognised on a global level. As a result of this work, she received a British Empire Medal in 2020 for her services to skating.
Margarita has been competitive in ice skating and curling. She is a former Scottish Ladies Ice Skating champion, and has represented Ireland in the World Mixed Curling Championships.
She also brings significant legal experience to the project with a Masters in Law from Harvard.
Margarita is passionate about inclusion in sport and believes that everyone should have access to skating and opportunities to be active.
Lauren Gray
Lauren is a professional curler as part of Team Muirhead and is supported by British Curling. She has a degree in English Literature and has experience in working in Executive Recruitment Research. In her current role, outside of training and competition, Lauren manages the Team Muirhead social media channels and works closely with their sports management company on sponsor relations.
Lauren was born in Glasgow and has lived there since starting at the University of Glasgow in 2009. During her studies, she frequently practised at Braehead Ice Rink and continued this during her preparations for the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi. Lauren now desires to give back to the sport she loves. She feels enthusiastic and motivated to give the next generation of ice sports athletes a world-class venue to discover their own dedication to sport, as well as providing a new home for the established curling community in Glasgow.
Liz Burton King
Liz is a club curler, qualified Level 1 Coach and elected Director of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club (Scottish Curling’s governing body). As a freelance Production Manager, Liz makes some of the country’s most watched television programmes for major broadcasters, and was a Lead Stage Manager for the opening and closing ceremonies for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow 2014.
Liz was born and bred in Glasgow and threw her first stone at Crossmyloof Ice Rink. She has a passion to create a new ice rink for Scotland’s largest (and arguably best!) city, and is looking forward to introducing a lot of new people to the joys of ice sports.
Eleanor McDougall
Eleanor came late to curling but quickly developed a passion which drove her to be more involved, becoming a Level 1 coach, secretary of her local Curling Development Group and President of her mother club, Cawder House CC for Season 2020-21. Eleanor is also a member of Glasgow Ladies and Maxwell Ladies and organises the annual Janie Glen Bonspiel for Glasgow Province.
She was a professional Senior HR Consultant and worked in Siemens IT Solutions as an HR Change Manager before moving to an international role with them as the European HR SAP Implementation Manager focussing on change management and communication in a multi-million-dollar global project. Following the successful delivery of this project Eleanor returned to Glasgow and worked for some time as an HR/Change Consultant to small and medium size enterprises.
Carol Crawford
Carol started curling over 35 years ago, however put it on hold while she brought up her family. Both of her daughters decided to take up curling and play alongside their father and grandfather – “If you can’t beat them then join them” was how she managed to get involved in the sport once again. Carol started playing again 5 years ago, however had to put it on hold once again due to sustaining a shoulder injury. She helped amalgamate the 2 junior Clubs at Braehead (Braehead Young Curlers and Brahead Rockers) forming Glasgow Young Curlers, which was launched September 2019. Carol is a level 1 coach and helps with GYCC and coaches at Corporate events.
Carol is a qualified nurse, however, she has been working within industry for the past 32 years. She is presently a Business Consultant within the Medical Device Industry as well as Secretariat for Surgical Dressing Manufacturers Association.
Aileen Neilson
Aileen is a qualified primary school teacher and taught in South Lanarkshire for 16 years. Coming from a curling family, she tried curling in her teens but due to a degenerative condition following surgery and radiotherapy aged 2, she was unable to continue to play. In 2004 she took up Wheelchair Curling, becoming a member of Braehead Wheelchair Curling Club and was soon selected for the Scottish squad.
She has represented Scotland at 9 World Championships gaining 2 bronze and 2 silver medals and represented Great Britain at three Paralympic Games, being the first female to skip at a Worlds and Paralympics and returned from Sochi with a bronze medal.
She is a level 1 coach and sport has enabled her to travel the world and has enhanced her physical and mental well-being and wants to encourage everyone, not matter what their age or ability to try curling and other ice sports.