Senior Management Team

Stephen is the Chief Executive of The Cedar Foundation, a position he has held since 1991. He holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. respectively, from the Universities of Ulster and Birmingham and is a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute. Stephen holds NVQ Level V in Strategic Management, and has over 10 years experience as an Investors in People specialist.

Stephen has previously been Chair and board member of CO3, The Association of 3rd Sector Chief Executives in Northern Ireland. He is an advisor to a number of grant giving charitable foundations including NI visitor for The Henry Smith's Charity. Stephen's professional interests include leadership development, strategic planning and performance management in the 3rd and Public Sectors.

Stephen has led The Cedar Foundation to wide recognition as an EFQM European Excellence Award winner, for the public and not for profit sector and Investor in People Champion organisation, both achieved in 2007. The Foundation achieved Investors in People Gold Recognition in 2009. Stephen was appointed OBE in the 2010 Birthday Honours for services to people with a disability.

Eileen Thomson, Deputy Chief Executive of Cedar, is a Queen’s University graduate with a Masters in Social Work (1978), Masters in Organisation & Management (2003) and NVQ Level V in Strategic Management.

Eileen's early career was in social work in the statutory sector in both practitioner and management posts. Eileen has a sister with cerebral palsy and had personal contact with Cedar before coming to work for the organization, initially as Senior Social Worker in 1984. She is a Lay Member of the Care Tribunal.

Linda joined the Cedar Foundation in February 2005 as Financial Controller and Head of Administration. Linda has 15 years experience in the financial and operational management of independent sector nursing home groups both in Northern Ireland and the UK mainland. She has also experience of European funding following a 2 year period of secondment to the Special EU Programmes Body as an N+2 Officer for both the Peace II and Interreg European programmes in Northern and Southern Ireland.

Linda is responsible for managing the overall financial operation of The Cedar Foundation and for the management of the administration function within Corporate Services.

Leo has been with The Cedar Foundation since 1997 and has a long background in charity work. Previous jobs have included 5 ½ years with Age Concern as Appeals Officer responsible for fundraising, 4 years as appeals co-ordinator for the Multiple Sclerosis Society. Recent projects have included raising funds towards Cedar's Resource Centre in Foyle.

Leo is Manager of the Marketing and Appeals team, which is responsible for raising awareness of Cedar throughout Northern Ireland via Public Relations and Marketing; and for the important task of raising funds for Cedar. Leo has also completed NVQ Level 5 in Operational Management.

After graduating from the University of Ulster, Stella joined The Cedar Foundation in 1989 as a Social and Life Skills Tutor, based within the Belfast Training Service. She remained in this post for approximately 3 years before leaving to work in the mainstream training sector and briefly managing a learning disability organisation, before rejoining Cedar in 1995 as a senior manager. Stella worked initially in Cedar’s Training Services before moving to Corporate Services and her current job role.  Within Cedar Stella has continued to update her skills through training and development including an NVQ Level 5 in Operational Management.  She has substantial experience of European Funding and the administration of a range of quality management systems including EFQM, ISO 9001:2008 and Investors in People.

Kieran has worked in the training and development field since 1990 having graduated from the University of Wales with a BSc degree in Mathematics.  He joined the Cedar Foundation as Employment Development Officer in 1996 before moving to his current position in 1998.

Kieran has operational management for a range of services across Northern Ireland aimed at helping people with disabilities to gain qualifications and develop the skills required to find a job or to get involved in the community.  These include Cedar's Vocational Services, Employment Services and Community Inclusion Programmes.  Since joining Cedar he has undertaken a wide range of professional development training and has achieved NVQ V in Operational Management, Advanced Diploma in Operational Management and Diploma in Supported Employment.  Kieran represents Cedar on a number of key strategic bodies including the Board of the Northern Ireland Union of Supported Employment.

Elaine graduated from the University of Ulster in 1993 with a BSc Honours degree in Applied Psychology and began working with The Cedar Foundation in June 1994. In 2002 she completed an MSc in Applied Psychology, which involved carrying out research evaluating the impact of our Vocational Rehabilitation Programme, a key part of The Cedar Foundation's Brain Injury Service.

Since 1994 Elaine has been involved in establishing the current Brain Injury Vocational Rehabilitation & Case Management services, launched in 1995. Elaine's experience involves having an active role in designing and delivering socio-vocational rehabilitation programmes aimed at promoting community integration after brain injury.

Elaine currently has Operational Management responsibility for The Cedar Foundation's Regional Brain Injury Services for Vocational Rehabilitation that exist in Southern, Northern, Belfast, South Eastern and Western Health Trust areas. She has also responsibility for the Regional Floating Support services. Since her management role has developed she has completed the NVQ V in Operational Management. Elaine is a member of the Northern Ireland Traumatic Brain Injury Forum.

Rosie McNaughton was appointed to Head of Children and Young Peoples Services in January 2007. A former Community Children’s Nurse, she joined the Children and Young People Service in 1999 as Area Fieldworker and was promoted to Deputy Manager in Jan 03 and Deputy Head of Service in May 04.

Rosie has been involved in the design of services for Children with disabilities within Cedar for a number of years and most recently has taken forward the development of an innovative service for children with complex health care needs (Inreach).

On the policy front Rosie currently sits within the Board of Children in NI and Fleming Fulton School and is a member a number of strategic groups including Children with Disability Strategic Alliance (CDSA) and the Regional Acquired Brain Injury Implementation Group (RABIIG).

She has recently completed an NVQ Level 5 in management.

Deborah Stevenson joined the Cedar Foundation in January 2009 as Head of living Options. Deborah qualified as a Registered Nurse in Surrey and worked for the NHS Learning Disability Services for a number of years before returning to Northern Ireland to work in both private and voluntary sector organisations, at senior management level since 1996.

In 2000 she graduated with B.Sc. (Hons) in Management from the School of Health Science (UUC) and additionally holds an Advanced Diploma in Management Practice with the Ulster Business School.

Deborah has been involved with the provision of residential care for over twenty years and has managed supported living options since 2003, working with people who have acquired brain injury, sensory impairment, physical and learning disabilities as well as those who have complex needs and Autistic Spectrum Disorder

Anne graduated from the University of Ulster in 1998 with a BA Honours degree in European Business Studies and, after a spell in the private sector in both Belgium and the Republic of Ireland, began working with The Cedar Foundation in October 2001.

Since joining Cedar Anne has held various roles within the Brain Injury Service and latterly as Deputy Head of Service, with operational management responsibility for the vocational training programmes across Northern Ireland. In 2006 she completed a Higher Diploma in Rehabilitation Studies and in 2009 an MSc in Rehabilitation Studies, both at University College Dublin. As part of her MSc she carried out research on measuring soft outcomes from vocational rehabilitation programmes.

Since October 2010, Anne has held responsibility for The Cedar Foundation's ConneXions service, a cross border project supporting people with disabilities to establish social networks. Anne has completed the NVQ V in Operational Management.

Anne also manages a voluntary respite project for adults with learning disabilities in the Southern Trust outside of her work with Cedar.