Scottish Business Network

If you only ever listen to one episode of the Scottish Business Network podcast, make it this one. To round 2021 off, Fraser Allen dips into the archive to unearth some wonderful contributions from guests over the past two to three years. In particular, we hear from people who have shown extraordinary resilience in the face of adversity, as well as others who have found ways to help. There is humo...

When Todd Walker was appointed Principal and Vice-Chancellor at the University of the Highlands and Islands in February 2021, he started the role in the strangest of circumstances. Based in Australia, lockdown prevented his relocation to Inverness, so he spent several months leading the university from a desk at his home on the other side of the world, having to cope with the huge time difference....

Building on a highly successful business career, Aberdeenshire-born Jackie Waring founded Investing Women, a Scottish community of women angel investors, women entrepreneurs seeking growth, and those who want to help both. Scott Dalgleish takes over the reins from Fraser Allen in interviewing Jackie for this fascinating episode, exploring the unexpected growth in angel investment during the pandem...

To mark the opening of Scottish International Week on 2 November 2021, Fraser Allen considers the global Scottish diaspora and interviews a fine example of this inquisitive and adventurous breed. When Argyll-bred Caroline Finkel first visited Turkey as a student in 1971, she fell in love with the country and has spent much of her life since then living in Istanbul, developing a career as a leading...

Aberdonian Iain Anderson began his career working as a journalist for the Courier and the Herald before becoming a founding shareholder of Incisive Media, a B2B publishing company that has evolved into digital media and events. It was a wise move as his shareholding grew considerably due to a subsequent sale and flotation. That enabled him to found Cicero Group, which rapidly established a reputat...

Honorary Scot Liz Barclay has a long history of campaigning for consumer justice and financial inclusion through her days at Citizens Advice, a distinguished career as a journalist and BBC Radio 4 presenter, and her seat on the Financial Inclusion Commission. Then in July 2021, Liz was revealed as the new UK Small Business Commissioner. The commission is an independent body set up by the UK Govern...

In 2012, a 21-year-old Aberdeen University student called Blair Bowman created a global celebration called World Whisky Day. Hundreds of thousands of people got involved, and the initiative continues to flourish. Meanwhile Blair has gone on to establish himself as one of the UK’s leading writers, experts and consultants on whisky. As we begin an occasional series of episodes exploring key sectors...

It’s often been said that, here in Scotland, we underestimate just what a wonderful place this is to live and work in – particularly compared to many people looking on admiringly from overseas. Take the fintech entrepreneur Gopal Hariharan. He was so impressed by the Scottish business eco system that he moved his Black Arrow app start-up from Sydney to Glasgow. Furthermore, he and his wife have mo...

Growing up on a Californian farm, Eric McAfee’s horizons were broadened by global travel, including extensive tours playing trumpet in a band. Yet running parallel to this, he and his brothers started a business at an early age called McAfee Farms managing agricultural properties. And at the tender age of 23, while he was still at college, Eric was part of a trio that staged a leveraged buyout of...

We now hear the phrase ‘mental health’ in the media just about every day, but it wasn’t always that way. People – and businesses – have become far more comfortable discussing issues such as stress, anxiety and depression – even more so in the wake of the pandemic crisis. And while a lot of people are understandably keen to throw themselves back into a more normal way of life, others are feeling an...

David Brown may well be Scotland's most successful fintech entrepreneur. However, in a Glasgow accent undimmed by many years of living in London and the Middle East, he self-deprecatingly describes himself as a 'lunatic'. Well, if that's the case, he’s the lunatic behind the hugely successful Oxygen Finance and now Hi55 Ventures, which is revolutionising payroll for the benefit of employees and em...

Dr Marie Macklin is on a mission. As the driving force behind the ambitious regeneration of the old Johnnie Walker bottling plant in her home town of Kilmarnock, Marie has developed a new model for creating vibrant communities for the benefit of everyone – and it’s a model she’s set on taking well beyond Scotland. The founder of HALO Urban Regeneration is a hugely energetic and charismatic busines...

In this special episode, entrepreneur and Scottish Business Network co-founder Russell Dalgleish quizzes podcast host Fraser Allen about seven key leadership insights that he's gathered from interviewing 60+ Scottish business leaders in the series to date. Recorded in front of a live audience as part of the Scottish Business Network's celebration of Tartan Day.

For rugby fans of a certain age, the abiding memory of David Sole is of the Scottish captain leading the team out for the 1990 Grand Slam triumph against England. Yet as well as an outstanding rugby career, that also encompassed a World Cup semi-final and a victorious Lions tour of Australia, David has built a highly successful business career. He is now Managing Partner of The School For CEOs, a...

At the age of just 23, Louise Worrall was a navigator in the Royal Navy, guiding a minehunter around the globe. It was her dream job. But just a year so later, her naval career was cut short by Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Previously undiagnosed in Louise, the effects of this disability rapidly escalated before she knew what was happening to her. Louise’s story about the impact this had on her, and how...

When Clare Wareing was growing up in Yorkshire, one of her friends lost her father to cancer at a very early age. The experience had a big impact on Clare and, when her grandfather was later diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia, she promised him that she would devote her life to cancer research. And that is exactly what she has done – while also proving to be an astute entrepreneur. Having found...

When British long-distance runner Mo Farah won his four Olympic gold medals, a key part of the team driving him forward was a Scotsman. Barry Fudge grew up in Fort William, obsessed with sport and with an increasing interest in the science behind it. This would ultimately lead him to the role of Head of Endurance at British Athletics, and those celebrated years with Mo. Barry is now applying his k...

Martin Perry was born with one leg and both of his hands missing. He’s now a world-class table tennis player who says his disability is one of the best things that have ever happened to him. Yet despite these extraordinary facts and his hugely charismatic personality, Martin has always seen himself simply as a normal guy – one of four competitive brothers who loved the rough and tumble of sports f...

When Dame Laura Lee left the Peterhead area at the age of 16 to begin her career as a nurse in Edinburgh, she could never have imagined that she would one day be the CEO of a major charity operating around the world, and having a hugely positive impact on the experiences of cancer patients and those close to them. Yet, after nursing Maggie Jencks, a writer, gardener and designer who had been diagn...

Any Scottish football fan of a certain age will remember the thrill of seeing Scotland line up against Brazil for the opening match of the World Cup Finals in Paris almost 23 years ago. Craig Brown was a key figure in a golden period for Scottish football, and a coach who was in many ways ahead of his time in the thoughtful way that he approached the game and led the players. And despite the steel...

Alison Walker was the first woman to report live on a football match for the BBC. That’s a significant moment looking back but it didn’t feel like it at the time for Alison – she was too busy focusing on doing a good job while navigating the hostilities of the male-dominated media pack. However, this achievement heralded an outstanding career in sports broadcasting that has included covering seven...

Claire Alexander swam for Scotland as a teenager before a life-threatening car crash wrecked her hopes of competing at the Commonwealth Games and London Olympics. After recovering, and playing football to a decent level, she travelled to South Africa and decided to make her life there. Her first job was washing dishes in a kitchen but she went on to establish Firecracker, one of South Africa’s lea...

Peter Proud fizzes with energy and passion for his business and his people. It’s not hard to imagine the young boy growing up on a council scheme in Dunfermline who would set off on a four-hour milk round every morning before school. Peter won an apprenticeship with Marconi and then a scholarship to Sandhurst. Then, after leaving the army, he embarked on a career with IBM, Microsoft and Accenture...

This time last year, Ruby Sweeney was busy running a successful events business called The Events Hub. Then COVID-19 arrived and the events industry was thrown into disarray. After taking stock, Ruby challenged herself to lead the way in online events management. She believes that, post-pandemic crisis, the future will lie in hybrid events and, despite the difficulties of the last eight months, sh...

As a boy growing up in Edinburgh, Chris Tolley liked nothing more than a quiet evening in reading Mozart sheet music. Music was his destiny and, after university, he landed a job with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group, rapidly progressing from photocopying sheet music to taking the lead on extraordinary events such as the Concert for Diana. Then, after a spell at Radio Two running am ambit...