William Roe OBE, chair

William Roe has led a highly successful career combining international business experience with public service for a number of government departments and influential organisations in the United Kingdom.

Willy, as he prefers to be known, has chaired the Board of Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) since 2004.  HIE is one of Europe's leading rural development agencies across an area which covers more than half of Scotland.

Willy has forged a strong reputation as a business consultant, specialising in the fields of economic development, lifelong learning and multimedia technology.  Highly regarded as an accomplished speaker and conference facilitator, he has worked with many government departments and public agencies in Scotland and England, and for financial services and technology companies in the UK and North America.

In 2005-06, he led a far reaching review of social work delivery in Scotland on behalf of the Scottish Government.

Currently, Willy also chairs Skills Development Scotland, the national training agency for training, development and career guidance.  At UK level, he is Deputy Chair of the Disability and Carers Service, part of the Department of Work and Pensions.
 
Willy was awarded the Order of the Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in the Queen's birthday honours list in 2010, for services to Highlands and Islands.

Willy Roe - Register of Interests - April 2010

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Alex Paterson, Chief Executive

Alex Paterson took up the post of Highlands and Islands Enterprise Chief Executive on August 2, 2010.Alex joined HIE in 2001 as Director of Developing Skills. In this post, he played a key role in modernising HIE’s approach to skills development and delivery and helping individuals gain or enhance their skills. Achievements included introducing the innovative LearningWorks online resource and integrating the national Careers Scotland service with the work of the enterprise agency.  Following the Enterprise Networks Review in 2008, Alex was appointed as HIE’s first Director of Regional Competitiveness. He led the organisation’s support for key national sectors – education, creative industries, energy, food and drink, life sciences, tourism, and financial and business services – as well as initiatives to develop UHI, improve the region’s infrastructure, enhance international trade performance, and promote business innovation, entrepreneurship and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).

Alex is a graduate of the University of Strathclyde and the University of Bath, and spent his early career in industrial marketing with Esso Chemicals and Volvo. After this, he joined the Scottish Development Agency and, on the formation of Scottish Enterprise, became Head of Small Business Development in Renfrewshire Enterprise. Before joining HIE, Alex was Managing Director of a consultancy and training organisation based in Glasgow and operating throughout the UK.

Alex Paterson - Register of interests - April 2010

Steve Thomson

Steve has followed a career in consulting and investment banking with Burson Marsteller, USB Philips & Drew and then latterly as Managing Director of Credit Suisse First Boston. Following a global career located in a number of countries, in 1999 he took over a small business providing international clients with intelligence and analysis of the Russian and CIS aviation sector. The business has employees on a global basis and relocated to Tiree with Steve and his family in 2004, where it continues to operate. Steve has become increasingly involved in a number of community ventures including Tiree Community Broadband and Tiree Renewable Energy Limited and Our Power based in Cairndow run by local charity 'Here We Are'. 

Steve Thomson - Register of Interests - April 2010

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Professor Mary Bownes OBE

Professor Mary Bownes joined the Board in April 2008.  She is Vice Principal and Professor of Developmental Biology at the University of Edinburgh with strategic responsibility for post graduate students, research training, widening participation, admissions and recruitment of undergraduate students, community relations and sustainability. She was previously Head of the Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Edinburgh and has undertaken research in Germany and California. She is a member of the University of the Highlands and Islands Millennium Institute Research Committee, a member of the Scottish Funding Council Skills Committee, is chair of the Young People's Committee, and on the executive committee of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and has, until recently been Chair of the Studentships and Fellowships Panel, and a member of the Strategy Board for the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). 

Mary Bownes - Register of Interest - April 2010

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Angus Mackenzie

Angus Mackenzie is a Chartered Accountant and previously a partner in Ernst & Young. He has experience in establishing and running small businesses as Joint Managing Director of Spoff (Scotland) Ltd, a company manufacturing premium quality muesli, as well as having helped set up and run Brin Herb Nursery with his wife.

Angus Mackenzie - Register of Interests - April 2010

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Professor Lorne Crerar

Professor Lorne Crerar LLB (Hons) NP joined the Board in April 2008.  He is a founding partner and Chairman of leading Scottish commercial law firm Harper Macleod LLP, which has offices in Glasgow, Edinbugh and Inverness. He has held the part-time Chair of Banking Law at Glasgow University since 1997. Lorne has broad experience of public sector operations. He was formerly Deputy Chairman of Scottish Enterprise Glasgow and one of three Chairmen of the Housing Improvement Task Force with his group completing their work in 2002. He sits on the appointed implementation team for the single survey process, one of his task force proposals. He was appointed as Convener of the Standards Commission in June 2003 (under the Ethical Standards in Public Life (Scotland Act 2000). Lorne resigned from this office in September 2006 to take up the Chair of the ‘Independent Review of Regulation, Audit, Inspection and Complaints Handling  of Public Services in Scotland’ which reported in September 2007. Lorne is a non-Executive Director of the Scottish Government Justice Programme Board, and resides in Glasgow and Gairloch, Wester Ross.   

Lorne Crerar - Register of Interests - April 2010

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Jim Royan OBE

Jim Royan joined the Board in April 2008.  He operates Scotland’s oldest family butchers business in Elgin. He was a Commissioner in the Meat and Livestock Commission from 1978-95 and for the last fourteen years has fulfilled leadership roles in the NHS in Scotland including that of Chair of NHS Grampian from 2001- 2007. Jim has extensive experience in the private and public sectors and is on the board of Quality Meat Scotland.

Jim Royan Register of Interests - April 2010

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Craig Spence

Craig was raised on his family farm just outside Kirkwall. In 1997 he graduated in Accounting from Napier University in Edinburgh, and returned to Orkney. A former hotel co-owner, he is a partner in a property and high-quality self-catering business based in Kirkwall. He also has business interests in Europe and Canada. Craig is a non-executive director of NHS Orkney, Chairman of Orkney Children's Panel and a member of the Orkney Public Sector Reform Board. A keen football fan, he is also a member of Orkney Flying Club.

Craig Spence - Register of Interests - April 2010

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