Graham is a father, a husband, a son, a brother and a friend. For 30 years Graham was a Scottish Police Officer living his dream. The last 8 years of his career, Graham was a Chief Inspector working with the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit. It was in this role that he started to understand the previous years as a police officer.
The investigation of violence was something that Graham was good at; however, he was frustrated. He saw the cycle of violence that happens across communities and felt that he wanted to make more of an impact in the prevention of violence. Graham’s time with the violence reduction unit permitted him to do this.
Grahams passion is engagement with both individuals and in communities. He believes that the answer to many of society’s problems lie in our communities. He feels we simply need to activate them.
Graham has extensive experience working in a variety of settings delivering leadership and bystander training. These include; schools, universities, workplaces, with professional sports, the military, in prisons and in communities. He has also worked with different groups supporting them to become part of the solution when it comes to abuse and violence. He has worked with police officers, firefighters, bar staff, door stewards, security staff, baseball players, sports coaches, hairdressers, vets and a variety of medical professionals.
Since retiring from policing Graham has set up his own business ‘Cultivating Minds’. He works as a consultant for the violence reduction unit as well as working with local government and other organisations in England, Wales, the United States and in Sweden supporting the development of violence prevention programmes. Graham wants to use this new phase in his life to develop conversations that will permit people to be the friends, the work colleagues and the members of communities they really want to be. It is the ‘not knowing’ that often stops people from being the hero’s they want to be. Graham simply wants others to break free from this barrier to intervention.
Graham lives in a small village south of Scotland’s Capitol city Edinburgh. He lives with his wife Allie. He has two daughters Jenni and Alice. They both live and work in Glasgow.