Our Board

Jane Wood has enjoyed a varied career most recently as Head of Public Affairs for a major blue-chip company. She currently chairs Essential Edinburgh, the city's first BID company. Her additional roles include; Chair of North Lanarkshire Regeneration Company, Vice-Chair Scottish Retail Consortium, Board Director Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, Member of Ministerial Working Group for BIDs.

Educated abroad, and latterly at Madras College in St Andrews, Jane attended Napier University and was previously Director of Communications for GJW Scotland. Prior to that she was Marketing Director for a Retail and Commercial Property Company. Jane has four children and lives in East Lothian with her husband, Scottish contemporary artist Christopher Wood.

Robert Carr, Chairman, Anderson Strathern; Partner, Dispute Resolution Department

Robert heads up Anderson Strathern's Healthcare, Regulatory and Public Law team.   He qualified as a Solicitor-Advocate with extended rights of audience in Scotland's highest civil courts in 1994.  He is accredited by the Law Society of Scotland as a specialist in personal injury and medical negligence.  He is Vice President of the SSC Society.  He is a member of the International Bar Association, the Society of Writers to the Signet and the Association of Regulatory and Disciplinary Lawyers.

Susan Rice CBE, a Chartered Banker, moved from Managing Director, Personal Banking at Bank of Scotland to Chief Executive of Lloyds TSB Scotland plc in 2000 - the first woman to head a UK clearing bank. A director of Lloyds TSB Scotland and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers, she is a non-executive director of Scottish and Southern Energy. Susan chairs the board of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, is a member of the board of Charity Bank and currently sits on HM Treasury’s Financial Inclusion Taskforce.

Born and brought up in the United States, she lives with her husband and three children in Aberdeen, where she is Burgess of Guild of the City. Susan was SBC’s HRH Ambassador for June 2005-June 2006.

John Elvidge has been Permanent Secretary of the Scottish Executive since July 2003. Prior to that he was Head of the Scottish Executive Finance and Central Services Department from 2002-03 and head of the Scottish Executive Education Department from 1999-2002. During 1998-99 he was on secondment to the Cabinet Office, as Deputy Head of the Economic and Domestic Secretariat, where he was responsible for co-ordination of domestic policy, the planning of the legislative programme and civil contingencies. The remainder of his career was spent in Scotland, mainly with various Departments of the Scottish Office, but involving a period of secondment to Scottish Homes (now Communities Scotland) 6 months either side of its setting up.

John was educated at Sir George Monoux School, a state comprehensive school in north London, and at St Catherine’s College, Oxford. He is married to Maureen McGinn, Chief Executive of the Laidlaw Youth Project, which funds innovation and integration in voluntary and statutory sector services to disadvantaged young people across Scotland. He received a Knighthood in 2006.

Peter joined the Wood Group in March 2002 with over 10 years senior level experience. Peter Has global functional responsibility for Human Resources. Formerly Officer and Vice President of Human Resources for Smith International Inc. Served as Chairman of the Human Resource Committee of the Petroleum Equipment Suppliers Association in Houston, Texas. Peter's current appointments include; Chairman of the Scottish Business in the Community, Grampian, and a Non Executive Directorship of Cornerstone Community Care.

16 years in the industry in England before joining Oracle in Scotland 4 years ago as business manager. Progressed to senior director of Education. Established the Oracle Certified Professional Programme and helped grow the education offering around Oracle’s e-business applications suite. Previously worked in management for a leading construction materials company. Graduate Civil Engineer and has subsequently achieved his MBA at Kingston Business School.

Jim has worked for Laing O’Rourke for 10 years and has been in the Construction Industry for 25 years. He formerly worked for both the Chemical and Nuclear Industries and has been employed worldwide in Sri Lanka, Greece and Australia. Jim chairs the Edinburgh Construction Academy, Construction Industry Training Centre, Glasgow Employers Coalition and the Glasgow Construction Forum. He has helped refugees and immigrants obtain work through his involvement with initiatives such as: Newroots Scotland, Bridges Project, Overseas Training & Re-skilling and Pathways to Employment for Professional Engineers.

Terry worked for British Steel Corporation where he held a range of middle management positions. He then worked for British Steel [Industry] Ltd for three years. The main task was to help regenerate areas, which were adversely affected by steel plant closures. He was originally Manager of Clyde Workshops Ltd and latterly the Regional Co-ordinator for the Lanarkshire Area. Over the last 20 years he held a number of positions in the field of economic development. In 1987 he was the founding Executive Director of Monklands Enterprise. 1991-2000 he was Business Development Director and latterly Director Operations at Lanarkshire Development Agency [now Scottish Enterprise Lanarkshire.] Since 2000 he has held the position of Director Small Business Services at Scottish Enterprise National. His responsibilities include Business start-ups and the provision of support services through Business Gateway. Terry has a Master of Science Degree in Entrepreneurial Studies [Stirling

University]. He has three grown up sons and lives with his wife in Motherwell. He is a Board Member of New Lanarkshire Ltd [a private/public partnership] which runs the Lanarkshire Civic Pride campaign, a member of the Board of Lanarkshire NHS and Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Lanarkshire. He was appointed Director Small Business Services in the year 2000. Following a five year stint in that position, he was appointed Senior Director-Growing Business in February 2006.

His prime responsibilities are to oversee the day to day operations of BT in Scotland and develop BT’s strategic programmes with government, enterprise agencies, business and community organisations, focusing on the exploitation of broadband and new wave technologies.

Prior to the creation of BT Scotland, Brendan’s entire career since graduating from the University of Edinburgh has been in Information Technology.

Outside of work, Brendan is Chair of the International Teledemocracy Centre and on the board of the Scottish Council for Development and Industry, Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, Edinburgh International Science Festival and Electronic Scotland. He is a member of the Edinburgh Business Assembly and a graduate of Common Purpose in Edinburgh, also serving for several years on it’s advisory panel.

Currently Human Resources Manager in Dell Glasgow, having joined in April 2006. Dell Glasgow opened in June 2005 and now has grown beyond 500 jobs and heading towards its initial goal of 850 jobs by 2007/8 creating a business centre offering careers in Sales, Technical Support, Software Development, Finance, Procurement and Human Resources. In September/ October 2006 Dell Glasgow invested time and resources during its Global Community Involvement initiative to a number of projects including providing a Development Grant of £15k to a local charity, providing careers seminars to Cumbernauld High School, and fund raising for NCH. Prior to Dell Allan Miller worked with the Oracle Corporation, Philips Electronics, and Chrysler Linwood in a variety of different Human Resources and Management positions, and also as a part-time Management Consultant working with clients such as Virgin Atlantic, Aon Ltd, and the Walt Disney Corporation.

Allan is married to Fiona, a physiotherapist, and has two sons pursuing Higher Education, Euan and Alastair. His passions and interests include Music, Arts, Films, Novels, Food, and Sports especially Golf - handicap 11. Previous collaboration in the voluntary sector includes work with The Muslim Youth Helpline, Motor Neuron Disease Association, and Reading Blind Persons Society.

Marcia Campbell is the Group Operations Director, Standard Life, responsible for Strategy and Planning, Joint Venture Operations in China and India and 1,500 staff in Group Shared Services such as HR, IT, Estates, Facilities and Legal.

She was previously Company Secretary and Head of Corporate Services, and Deputy General Manager of Customer Services. Before joining Standard Life in 1990, Marcia worked for a major international consultancy.

Marcia is a director of the Financial Services Skills Council and a member of the Governing Body of Queen Margaret University College.