• Audio recording of the interview, Alan Kay.mp3, 2:26:08 hours, 81MB
• Transcript of the interview, Alan Kay_Approved Transcript.pdf, 34 pages, 476kB

This item is an interview with Alan Kay recorded by Dr Gillian Murray in November 2014 as part of the CommonHealth history project. It is the oral history of Alan Kay's involvement in the social enterprise movement in Scotland from the late 1980s to mid 2010s. It includes his reflections on the sector and his work with John Pearce and others for Community Business Scotland, Community Enterprise Lothian, and latterly through freelance work. Click on the URL link in the metadata section below. This will take you to the Glasgow Caledonian University edShare page where the items can be previewed and downloaded.

Alan’s background is in overseas development and he lived and worked in East Africa and South-east Asia before returning to Scotland in 1988. He joined forces with John Pearce, and worked with community-owned enterprises and social enterprises, firstly for Community Business Scotland as a researcher and then in 1991 for Community Enterprise Lothian, initially as a Training Officer. He moved to Indonesia to work with VSO as their Country Director from 1994 until 1997. On returning to Edinburgh he carried out numerous commissions for a wide range of clients in the statutory, charitable, public and third sector in the UK and abroad. He helped to found the Social Audit Network and continued for many years as an active Board member, acting as its Chair at one stage. In 2009 he became an Associate Lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) and assisted in the establishment of a Diploma and MSc in Social Enterprise. He then went on to become a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health at GCU where he advised on the 5-year CommonHealth research project. He was an active tutor with the Social Enterprise Academy for over 10 years and specialised in ‘social impact’ measures, working abroad for them on several occasions. He was also is on the board of the Community Development Journal for over 20 years, much of that time as the CDJ Treasurer. Alan was a long-standing Member of the
Institute for Economic Development. Alan retired in 2018.