How did you get started in the industry?

It’s been an interesting journey from Army Officer in my 20s, purchasing a business in my 30s and then branching out into consultancy in my 40s. I’ve delivered multiple projects across Scotland in leadership and development of SMEs and worked with Elevator during COVID to help transition businesses through the massive change required at the time.

Biggest professional achievement?

Becoming an Angel Investor – having the ability to give back and help support other female founded companies to grow and thrive.

Best advice you received?

When I was training at Sandhurst we were always taught there’s no I in team. People are any organisation’s greatest asset.

What do you like most about your job?

I love visiting our Elevator team in our offices across Scotland. Their ideas, enthusiasm and passion for helping people start and grow entrepreneurial businesses is always inspiring and it’s what gets us all about of bed in the morning.

And the least? 

Travelling in bad weather conditions.

What if any permanent changes have been made within your company in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic?

We have a really flexible attitude to working from home and the office. We have changed to a nine day fortnight and we encourage most employees to work at least 60% of their time in the office or with clients – just to get a balance between culture and productivity.

Which newsletters/bulletins do you receive? 

Scottish Rural Network, Scottish Business Insider, Pioneers Post, The Economist, MIT Sloan Management Review, McKinsey Start up and Scale Up Insights and Social Enterprise UK News and Reports.

How would you change Scottish Financial News?

It would be good to have more articles that follow the trend towards natural capital investment, sustainability and AI to appeal to the Gen Z readers of the future.

Do you read a daily newspaper? 

No, but I do like the Saturday Times in front of the fire with a glass of wine over the weekend.

Which social media sites do you use and which do you find the most useful?

I use LinkedIn to stay connected professionally and am old enough that most of my friends and family still use Facebook (except my kids!).

Hobbies and interests:

I love anything to do with food, drink and travel and will always seek out a local market wherever I go.

Favourite holiday destination:

We regularly go to Mull on family holidays. Anywhere on the west coast, but of course, I should be prompting our own family run hotel business on the shore of Loch Melfort as a favourite Scottish holiday destination.

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