Scottish National Investment Bank: Ministerial Advisory Group - member biographies

John Glen

John has had a long and very varied career across many sectors and countries. He recently stepped down as an NED to Orpea Group (Quoted in France) who are Europe’s largest Care Home operator, having helped to recapitalise the Business following their high profile difficulties. Prior to this he was an NED and ultimately Chairman of Bic S.A. the French quoted, eponymous maker of pens, razors, and lighters around the world. From 2008 to 2019, having returned to Scotland, he was the CEO of Buccleuch, which manages the commercial property, Rural Estates, and Renewable Energy portfolio of the Buccleuch family, during which time, over 120MW of wind, 200MW of Pumped Storage Hydro, and 40MW of Solar renewable energy was developed and consented.

Before returning to Scotland he was the CFO of Air Liquide the Global leader in Industrial Gases and champion of the Hydrogen economy, based in Paris from 2000 to 2008. Prior to this he spent 19 years with Unilever PLC in roles mostly overseas.

Roz Foyer

Roz Foyer has been General Secretary of the STUC, representing over half a million Scottish Trade Union members since March 2020 and is the first woman to hold this leadership role at a key time for trade unions and working people in Scotland.  Since taking on the General Secretary role at the STUC, Roz has been active in building the STUC's campaigning profile, pressurising both Scottish and UK governments to build an economy that works for working class people and demanding more radical solutions to the cost of living crisis. As part of her role, Roz serves on a number of Scottish Government key advisory groups and is a regular commentator across a range of print and broadcast media. 

Irene Graham

Irene Graham is the CEO and a board director of the ScaleUp Institute. A former senior banker at Standard Chartered Bank where she held both European and global managing director roles, she set up, ran and scaled several of the bank’s key client and product businesses across its corporate and institutional bank and led several global M&A activities. She led a host of strategic work across the industry from the regulatory and business perspectives, including leading the Business Finance Taskforce set up by the CEOs of the UK banks which resulted in the creation of the BGF, the Enterprise Research Centre, the SME Finance Monitor, and Mentorsme as well as being responsible for new export and business policy initiatives including the Small Business Act, expanded UKEF products and Open Banking which Irene advised Government and industry upon.

Maggie Craig

Maggie spent all her executive career in a variety of financial services roles with providers (Standard Life and Aegon), the Association of British Insurers and then the Financial Conduct Authority. She started as FCA Head of Insurance and Pensions Policy and later was appointed the first Head of Department Scotland, led the strategy for the development of the FCA Scotland's Office and went on to set up the FCA Devolved Nations team. 

Maggie was previously a guest lecturer on financial services regulation at Glasgow College and at Heriot Watt University, an external examiner for the Financial Services and Regulation Skills module of the Diploma at The University of Edinburgh Law School. She is currently Chair of Children 1st, Scotland's national children's charity.

Currently, she sits on the board of the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service where she chairs the Audit and Risk Committee, is a Non-Exec Director on the Phoenix Group’s Independent Governance Committees for workplace pensions and a Non-Exec Director on the Board of Glasgow Credit Union. Maggie is an honorary Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.

Nathan Elstub

Nathan has been an investor in high growth private businesses for nearly 30 years successfully backing companies across a wide range of sectors and from startups to buy-outs. As well as investing, Nathan has helped start two businesses in the creative sector. Originally an engineer, Nathan is a chartered accountant and previously worked at Arthur Andersen, Barclays Private Equity and Social Finance. Alongside Nesta, Nathan chairs Sporting Assets, was a founder investor and is a Director at Emerge, a leading edtech fund, and has sat on Investment Committees of a number of Impact Investment Funds. He is a Member of a Multi-Academy Trust group of schools and the Public Benefit Advisory board at Nominet and is actively involved in voluntary work in the criminal justice sector.

Emma Congreve

Emma Congreve is Principal Knowledge Exchange Fellow and Deputy Director at the Fraser of Allander Institute. Emma's work at the Institute is focussed on policy analysis, covering a wide range of areas of social and economic policy. 

Emma is an experienced economist and has previously held roles as a senior economist at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and as an economic adviser within the Scottish Government. 

Her particular area of expertise is economic policy relating to low income households. She also has a background in a range of policy areas, including local government finance and environment and agricultural economic policy.