New blueprint for Scotland's rural economy: recommendations to Scottish Ministers
The National Council of Rural Advisers' report detailing their final recommendations to Scottish Ministers.
Appendix 1: NCRA Member Biographies
Lorne Crerar (Co-Chair)
Lorne is a founding partner and chairman of leading Scottish
commercial law firm Harper Macleod
LLP. Lorne
has wide experience of the operations of the public sector and has
been appointed by the Scottish Government to undertake a number of
independent reviews including the Enterprise and Skills Review in
2017 and his Review of Regulation, Audit, Inspection and Complaints
handling of public services in Scotland in 2010. Lorne joined the
board of Highlands and Islands Enterprise (
HIE) in
April 2008 and was appointed as chair in March 2012.
Alison Milne (Co-Chair)
Alison is a self-employed consultant, currently representing
the Scottish Tenant Farmers Association on matters relating to
agricultural policy. Alison also farms a mixed arable and livestock
business, in partnership with her husband, mother and
father-in-law. In this role Alison was a driving force in hosting
the Fife
HGCA arable
Monitor Farm from 2013 to 2016.
Jackie Brierton
Jackie Brierton has been
CEO of GrowBiz
since 2012 – a community-based enterprise support
organisation in rural Perthshire. She is also chair of the Rural
Perth and Kinross
LEADER
Local Action Group, and founder and vice-chair of Women's
Enterprise Scotland
CIC. She has
more than 30 years' experience in business, enterprise and policy
development, including a period as adviser in the
DTi's
Small Business Service between 2002 and 2006. She developed the
UK government's first
'Strategic Framework for Women's Enterprise' in 2003 and managed
two centres of enterprise expertise for young people and women in
the West Midlands between 2007 and 2010. Until recently, Jackie was
chair of Community Enterprise Ltd, and is passionate about the role
of local enterprise development in the strengthening of the rural
economy in Scotland.
Willie Cameron
Willie was the founding director of the 'Cobbs' Group of
companies and is now their business development director. He had 25
years' experience in financial services before establishing Loch
Ness Marketing – a service company to film,
TV and media. Willie went on
to be the director of the Highland Feast Food and Drink Festival of
the Highlands for 10 years, and director of the Highlands and
Islands Tourism Awards. He also sat on the board for the University
of the Highlands and Islands – Inverness College. In 2005,
Willie was voted Highland Ambassador of the Year for services to
tourism, and in 2016 was voted Highlands and Islands Food and Drink
Ambassador.
Archie Gibson
Archie Gibson is a director of the James Hutton Institute
and former chair of the Food & Drink Federation Scotland. He is
also the managing director of Agrico
UK Ltd, a subsidiary of a
Dutch farmers' cooperative with 800 members. Archie gained
experience in a variety of land management roles producing store
lambs and cattle before joining the food industry in 1999. He
represented Scottish supply chain interests in a far-reaching
review on food defence and resilience led by the Centre for the
Protection of National Infrastructure (
CPNI)
and British Standards Institute (
BSI). He is
a director of the James Hutton Institute.
Henry Graham
Henry Graham runs a 450-acre mixed farm in Midlothian in
partnership with his wife and is an experienced figure from the
world of rural banking and agriculture. He has held senior roles in
the Royal Highland Agricultural Society, Quality Meat Scotland,
Scottish Agricultural College and banking, specialising in
agricultural business. Henry is also a member of Forestry
Commission Scotland's National Committee and is a trustee of Lantra
(U.K.) acting as national chair for Scotland.
John Kinnaird
John Kinnaird is a partner in 240 hect. family arable and
beef farm and was president of the National Farmers' Union Scotland
from 2003 to 2007, representing Scotland's farmers at a time of
significant change. Since then John has taken on other challenges,
including committee member of AgriScot, local director of
NFU Mutual,
director of the Moredun Research Institute, chair of the Scottish
Government's Scottish Appeals Procedure Panel, chair of
RSABI,
and Guardian member at Scotland Food and Drink. John also chaired a
review of veterinary surveillance and is the vice-president of the
RHASS,
Deputy Lieutenant – East Lothian and a Fellow of Royal
Agricultural Societies.
Alan Laidlaw
Alan Laidlaw is chief executive of the Royal Highland and
Agricultural Society of Scotland (
RHASS)
– a registered charity with a remit to promote and protect
the interests of rural Scotland. Alan was appointed to the role in
August 2016 after spending 11 years with the Crown Estate Scotland,
latterly as head of property. He is rural practice surveyor,
founding director of a community woodland, former director of the
Oxford Farming Conference and an Associate of the Royal
Agricultural Societies (
ARAgS).
Lynn Mann
Lynn Mann is the co-owner of Supernature Oils. The company
is based in Midlothian and is a farming enterprise (cereals) which
has diversified into a food product. Supernature Oils specialise in
cold pressed rapeseed oil, which is the fastest growing sector of
the oils category in the
UK. Lynn is the driver
behind the company and has recently been successful in getting
listings in the
UK and opening several
export opportunities. Lynn is also an ambassador for Women's
Enterprise Scotland and on the board of Interface.
Marion McCormick
Marion MacCormick previously worked for ALDI (Scotland) and
was responsible for growing and developing a comprehensive Scottish
fresh meat range, capitalising on a comprehensive local network to
develop a fresh meat and with quality, freshness and the local
customer at its heart. Marion also developed the strategy for
marketing the Aldi brand in Scotland and building confidence in the
brand.
Jim McLaren
Jim McLaren was appointed chairman of Quality Meat Scotland
in April 2011. He runs a mixed arable and livestock business in
Perthshire. The main arable enterprise is the production of spring
malting barley, with the livestock side of the business including a
pedigree Simmental herd. Jim was
NFU Scotland
President from 2007 to 2011.
Sarah Millar (formerly Allison)
Sarah Allison comes from an agricultural background having grown up and worked on her family's organic farm and food business. She worked with farmers in England and Scotland before joining the Soil Association Scotland in 2017. Sarah is a keen member of the Scottish Association of Young Farmers Clubs ( SAYFC), recently retiring as chair of the SAYFC Agri and Rural Affairs Committee.
Sarah Simpson
Sarah Simpson is a director of a dairy farm at Garlieston,
near Newton Stewart in Galloway, together with her husband Peter.
She also works as a consultant to a group of dairy farms within
Dumfries and Galloway providing benchmarking advice and
information. Prior to farming, Sarah was director of policy with
NFU Scotland.
David Sulman
David Sulman is executive director of the United Kingdom
Forest Products Association (
UKFPA)
which represents the technical and commercial interests of
processors of British-grown timber and secretary to the Scottish
Timber Trade Association, the trade association which represents
the interests of timber importers and merchants in Scotland. He is
a member of various Forestry Commission expert groups/committees,
is involved in skills development matters, is a member of the
Timber Transport Forum and chairman of its Technical Working Group
and also chairman of the Scottish Strategic Timber Transport
Scheme's Assessment Panel. David is involved in the work of the
Forest Industry Safety Accord.
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