New Institute of Directors chairs for Fife and Tayside

Douglas Millar, a business consultancy co-owner, director and trustee has been appointed chairman of the Institute of Directors Fife Branch while Andy Doig, managing director at Arthurstone Management Limited has taken on the new chairmanship for IoD Tayside.

Mr Millar, the co-owner of Accelerating Business, a business consultancy in Dunfermline, succeeds Stephen Westwood from Stephen Westwood Consulting ltd. to continue his legacy in developing and nurturing entrepreneurial talent and help businesses in Fife grow and succeed.

He said: “I am thrilled to take over from Stephen, he has done some tremendous work to develop and grow the Fife branch in recent years and I realise that I have big shoes to fill – but I am looking forward to the challenge. Fife’s business community represents a diverse region for the IoD in terms of activities and geography where key business activities include tourism and education as well as the renewable energy sector, life sciences and engineering.”

Mr Millar is also a non-executive director of Fife’s local radio station, Kingdom FM, a director of College Development Network, an educational charity based in Stirling, and a trustee of a £400m pension fund in Edinburgh.

He added: “Having a range of roles can be challenging at times but it is surprising how often the knowledge gained in one business can be used effectively and profitably in another, and it is one of the reasons why I am always keen to share best practice and learn from others.”

The IoD said Mr Miller is already working with his colleagues on the IoD’s Fife committee to ensure that the institution plays its part in helping to develop Fife’s young workforce, creating stronger links between schools, colleges and employers, to ensure school leavers are more ‘job ready’. The Fife committee further aims to provide a platform for high-level discussion and over the coming year plans to organise inspirational and valuable events in the area, to allow directors to share knowledge, ideas and best practice.

Andy Doig, the new IoD chair for Tayside, is the managing director at Arthurstone Management Limited and founder of TheInterpet, an innovative start up that serves pet owners globally by acting as a consumer focused hub for pet services.

He succeeds John Macmillan, managing partner of MacRoberts, Solicitors and brings to his role a wealth of business transition, transformation and consulting expertise, having held various management and consulting positions and serving global and multinational clients in recent years, including senior management roles at leading global professional services company Accenture.

Commenting on his appointment, Mr Doig said: “This is a great time to be in business in Tayside. We have a mixed economy with some very large enterprises such as Stagecoach; world renowned universities and a thriving SME sector and working with my committee we aim to further improve our economy and to create better business by increasing the quality of the directors working here.

“We will lead a strong focus on engaging our membership on topics related to how we operate our businesses and the regional, national and global economic contexts within which we operate. We will do so by a mixture of expert led discussion, workshops and opportunities to influence key political and business leaders.

“Other focus points will be to rebalance our membership to be better represented in, e.g., manufacturing, media, and emerging technologies and to increase our participation and reach by holding some of our discussions and meetings online.”

David Watt, executive director of the IoD in Scotland, said: “We welcome both Douglas and Andy as they come on board to grow the IoD network, to connect businesses and business leaders, and to champion best practice in the boardroom as well as drive positive development across Tayside and Fife’s business sectors.”