Ordained in 1975, Doug served in parish ministry, before joining BBC Highland as a news/general programmes producer, covering most of what is now CEI’s area. His professional communications career then took him to Caithness, then England, with UKAEA and Nuclear Electric. On privatisation, he became British Energy plc’s communications director, based back in Scotland.  Throughout his comms career, he continued to exercise a preaching ministry, within the Presbyteries of Inverness, Sutherland, Caithness, Ross, Fife, and Hamilton, and in England through Methodist circuits in Oxfordshire and Gloucester. His career included significant international work in Europe and North America, and chairing a global industry news agency based in Berne, Switzerland.

With children departing for university – one to become a minister and another a church youth worker – Doug returned to full-time ministry in Keith in Moray, and then Malta, where he launched the Out of Africa… Into Malta refugee mission project, now a key part of Malta’s refugee infrastructure. He also played his part in central Kirk committees – particularly in Communications. Now retired and living in Inverness with his wife Lesley, he’s an active preacher, was Moderator of Inverness Presbytery 2019/20, and has been a key member of the Transition Team bringing CEI into being; he presented the Overture to the General Assembly of 2023.

On learning he had been designated as CEI’s first Moderator, his first thought was “Help, please!” He adds, “This is a step of faith – new ways of ministering and mission. It’s not Presbytery as we know it – so those who seek legal or procedural precedents will continue to worry. I get that. But it is where Christ is calling us, and he’s doing so for a purpose. As your Moderator, I will seek always to be faithful to this call – and my final thought is still: help, please!”