Meet Sarah!

Sarah Macrae joined East Lothian Council as a Principal Accountant in May.

Prior to joining the council, she worked for seven years as Finance Manager at Edinburgh Children's Hospital Charity and a year working for the Global Alliance for Livestock Veterinary Medicines (GALVmed), which works to get vaccines for animals in Africa to improve food production, and as a result, relieve poverty.

Moving from the voluntary sector to a local authority has presented some new challenges, but also similarities: “I came from a small charity, they raised about £1.5 million a year whereas each [council] department's budget is more than that.”  

Sarah’s focus is currently on Health and Social Care, but her role will eventually cover all the areas of Health and Social Care, Communities and Development.

“It's just working with people. Even though you're behind a spreadsheet, you still need to build relationships. I recently had a tour of East Lothian Community Hospital with General Manager Leslie Berry, which was helpful. Sometimes you need to see it to understand it.” Sarah goes on to say, “the council structure is quite complex, it's just totally different from anything I've ever done before.”

In her spare time Sarah enjoys exercising in her home-gym and spending time with her family: “I don't have any exciting hobbies, I'm afraid. I've done a skydive, I used to be quite adventurous, but now that I've had kids, I feel like I just see the danger in everything!”