Month: December 2024

As 2024 draws to a close, it’s worth reflecting on the last 12 months but also looking ahead with hope, determination and optimism to what the new year can bring. Earlier this year, I indicated I was embarking on what I described as a new direction and new mission for the future. It’s a path which involves stepping back from the endeavour I have devoted so much time to in recent years, the HALO business hub in my hometown of Kilmarnock. But it is a path which will still see me as committed as ever to my passion for regeneration and for bringing hope to communities.

I will continue to be involved with HALO, driving the brand forward across the UK and internationally.  In Kilmarnock HALO is currently engaged with companies like XLCC and Peel Ports on things like cooperation on activities involving apprentices. Both those firms are at the forefront of the drive to Net Zero, which is a mission I am proud to support.

I will also continue to invest in newcos and scale-up companies. However, more of my time will be spent on other projects which are close to my heart. One of those is the issue of women’s health, and specifically my work to champion research and investment to combat the scourge of endometriosis, a condition that blights the lives of too many women.

It is an illness which, as I outlined from my own experiences in an article in the Observer in August, can have a devastating effect not just on women’s health but also on their careers and professional lives. That means tackling endometriosis and related gynaecological conditions should be an urgent priority for governments, as much for economic reasons as health ones.

October saw the launch of ENDO1000, #TALKEndo, a groundbreaking new research project being taken forward by a fantastic team at the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Reproductive Health, which aims to improve diagnosis of endometriosis and bring forward more personalised treatment for women affected.

I’m proud to be a Founding Ambassador for ENDO1000, #TALKEndo women’s health campaign, and it was a privilege to speak at the project’s launch. I look forward to continuing to support the university’s work and to championing women’s health more widely throughout 2025.

This year has also seen me continue my work to support neighbourhoods in my native Ayrshire, communities which remain very close to my heart. That included convening a Faith Leaders’ Summit as well as continuing to support Onthank Primary School, and Kilmarnock Academy on enterprise, sustainability and entrepreneurship activity within the curriculum.

Meanwhile, I have enjoyed sharing some of the lessons my career in business has taught me by hosting a recent masterclass in entrepreneurship at Glasgow Caledonian University, where I am honoured to hold the position of Entrepreneur in Residence.

I’m also pleased to have joined the Board of the Scottish North American Business Council and look forward to helping the organisation continue its important work of growing business and trade links between our country and the United States and Canada.

As part of that transatlantic exchange, which can be beneficial to both sides, I plan to visit the US early in 2025 to take forward my own engagements. As I outlined in a recent article in The Times, it is important that we work as positively as possible with the incoming US administration, and I was pleased to see that First Minister John Swinney recently had a productive introductory conversation with President Elect Donald J Trump.

The political climate remains febrile both at home and internationally. Here in Scotland, as I made clear when I joined a recent panel discussion on STV, it is important that the Scottish Government’s Budget is passed when the key vote arrives early in the new year.

That will mean compromise and a grown-up approach from both the Government and opposition parties. More generally, I am cheered by what appears to be a fresh, practical and can-do approach to business from the Scottish Government, which seeks to maximise gains from our nation’s huge potential in areas like renewable energy.

Cross-party engagement is important to me, and as well as a recent conversation with the First Minister I will also look to have ongoing dialogue with the main opposition parties.

Overall, it’s important that our political leaders understand that the regeneration I am passionate about must be driven by bottom-up growth if it is to drive truly transformational change for our former industrial heartlands.

In summary, 2024 has been a year of transition for me. I look forward to 2025 being a year in which I drive forward the projects I am passionate about – community regeneration, education, women’s health and sustainability – all underpinned by the core concept of regeneration.

Best wishes.

Marie

Scotland’s Draft Budget for 2025/26, which was published yesterday, signals a welcome change in tone from the Scottish Government.

It heralds a reset in both messaging and action coming from the Swinney and Forbes administration, which sets a foundation of growth built around infrastructure investment, centred on housing and renewables.

The Budget includes proposals for £768 million of investment in affordable housing, and around £7 billion in overall infrastructure investment, including £150 million for offshore wind, with a stated mission of driving forward a green industrial revolution.

For Scotland to protect our communities and drive jobs in the construction sector, we need more of this type of policy.

Bottom-up growth, in our forgotten former industrial heartlands, will kick-start a long overdue economic recovery and I welcome the £62 million in funding pledged for town centre regeneration.

The Budget proposals are a start, but we now need to see quick delivery and more proactive solutions to support SMEs and our young people in schools, with Enterprise and Entrepreneurship courses being added to the curriculum.

Finance Secretary Shona Robison began her Budget statement at Holyrood by saying it was about “bringing hope to people”.

That is a sentiment I wholeheartedly endorse. Giving hope to individuals and communities that their lives can be made better should always be a central purpose of our Government and our national Parliament.

Today we have more hope than yesterday, but it is now time for grown up politics in the interests of our country.

That means compromises will inevitably be needed for the Budget to be passed early next year.

All sides should now engage constructively in that process with the intention of seeing it passed – because the public and businesses would not look kindly on politicians or parties who sought to play political games which risk instability and uncertainty.

Set within the recently opened, ‘Entrepreneurial Hub’ in the George Moore building, the Entrepreneur in Residence Masterclass provided the opportunity for Marie to share her business journey with an intentional focus on ‘Regeneration’. Highlighting how watching her hometown de-industrialise in addition to her financial service experience in both London and the U.S.A inspire where she is today.

Marie discussed some of the setbacks and challenges that she’s contended with throughout her business career but claimed, “It’s all part of the process – it’s how you deal with these situations that really counts.”

In addition to the masterclass, Marie had the opportunity to speak with three entrepreneurs from the university, Susan Anderson of Small Change, Money Matters, Umran Ali Javaid, of Fun for Life Fest and Engineer a Career founder, Josh Robertson – hearing more about their products, challenges and aspirations for the future.

The audience, a mixture of students, alumni and staff asked a wide range of questions at the end of the session including…

 Where has the inspiration that keeps you going come from…?

“We’ve just got to keep going, keep going. It’s people and communities that drive me, it’s all about hope and making things happen. I honestly think that it was my near-death experience that pushed me forward and made me who I am today.”

 How would you advise us to find the correct mentors to support our business journey…?

“They are around you, your peers – the people who are also on a business journey that could be experiencing similar problems and challenges who can share their hints, tips and experiences. Surround yourself with a good support mechanism – don’t be afraid to ask for help as the entrepreneurial world can be a lonely one at times. Also, think about the type of support, counsel and advice you need based on where you are on your business cycle and seek the gaps in knowledge to power you forward.”

Reflecting on the event Marie said, “Today provided me with hope and admiration with the entrepreneurial ideas and mindsets within the university, and how these great minds will shape our country and economy in the future. I was inspired by the three students I had the privilege of spending some 1:1 time with, discussing their businesses in more depth. Scotland, the U.K, and indeed the world, need to listen, support and encourage entrepreneurs – helping them to make positive, sustainable and economic contributions to our societies. I look forward to hearing about the progress they all make in the months ahead.”

Marie is a former student of Glasgow Caledonian University and in 2018 was bestowed an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) in recognition for outstanding contribution to the business world and for the common good of students at GCU.

Almost 90 years ago, a young woman made her way across the Atlantic, leaving behind her Hebridean home, family and friends to chart a new life for herself in the United States.  That woman, Mary Anne MacLeod, was the mother of the 45^th and now to be 47^th President of the United States, Donald Trump.

Trump’s Scottish roots are well enough known, but relatively little remarked upon in the country of his mother’s birth.

However, his astonishing political comeback has upended many assumptions and raises questions about what, exactly, happens next, from Washington to Ukraine and beyond.  For those of us in his ancestral homeland, the hope must be that, for all the talk of tariffs and trade wars, we can see a relationship with the UK and Scotland which is mutually beneficial.

So, rather than simply waiting to see what unfolds, or recoiling at what Trump 2.0 might mean for the world, we should instead aim to work with the grain of current American opinion.

America has elected Trump as its President for the next four years whether we like it or not. We can either look the other way, or we can seek to work with and influence his administration in as positive and productive ways as possible.

Trump came to power, first in 2016 and now once more, on the back of the votes of huge swathes of America which feel forgotten and left behind, perhaps none more so than in the key rustbelt states which he “flipped” from the 2020 election.

That disenchantment in places like Pennsylvania and Michigan, the backbone of working-class America, has been festering for at least a generation. It was Bruce Springsteen, ironically one of Kamala Harris’s celebrity backers, who long ago gave voice to that mood of decline and despair. His mid-1980s ballad My Hometown evoked industrial decay and the changes it wrought on those affected. When the song speaks of the “jobs that are going and ain’t coming back”, it’s a poignant and prescient nod to the economic changes which, over decades, help explain the rise and political resurrection of Trump.

It’s also a lyric and a sentiment which I can easily relate to. Coming from Ayrshire and seeing the way my home community, like so many others across west central Scotland and the rest of the UK in the 1980s, was devastated by the loss of traditional industries and the livelihoods they supported has given me an insight into how many working people in comparable communities in the United States must feel.

But that industrial devastation has also provided the spark which has energised me for the last two decades as I have embarked on a mission to revitalise and regenerate my home community and others like it.

Regeneration is fundamental to business and to society. Reinventing our economies and reimagining our ways of living and working is the key to providing fresh hope for each succeeding generation.

My mission, as an entrepreneur and a passionate advocate of urban regeneration and the communities it supports, is to take that message of hope and renewal, and share my experiences with those in other countries, including the United States, where I believe it is a message that will resonate.

My passion for regeneration is also why I believe we on this side of the Atlantic must look to engage positively with the incoming Trump administration which will begin, ironically, amid a wave of hugely positive economic indicators for the United States.  True, many people clearly have not felt that, as the effects of inflation eroded their pay packets.

But the fact remains that under Joe Biden’s administration vast sums of money have been invested in regenerative infrastructure projects and in green jobs which might previously have been lost to other countries.

Trump will now inherit the economic benefits of that investment in regeneration, and – whatever the campaign rhetoric might have been around the green agenda – he knows, as a businessman, that it would be counterproductive to try and unpick a success story.  The green economy is here to stay and is just one example of how those who are prepared to engage with the Trump administration must try to help influence things for the better.

It was Scotland’s national bard, Robert Burns, who penned arguably one of the earliest examples of an environmental conscience when he wrote “I’m truly sorry man’s dominion has broken nature’s social union.”

A Republican icon from an earlier age, Abraham Lincoln, was a devotee of Burns, a son of Ayrshire, where Trump now owns a thriving business. As an Ayrshire native myself, I am as keen as anyone to see that the age-old and enduring US-Scottish links, embodied in the incoming resident of the White House, bring benefits to these shores.

Trump is a disruptor, perhaps the ultimate political disruptor. Maybe that is why those of us who come from the business world, where disruption and renewal are integral to the mindset, are prepared to look beyond the fevered campaign language.

You don’t have to agree with all, or any, of Trump’s rhetoric to agree that it is better to work for the common good regardless of who occupies the White House.  If our political and business leaders are prepared to be pragmatists by engaging wherever possible, we can hope not only to help steer Trump’s second presidency in the most positive direction possible, but also to reap a share of the benefits, including here in Scotland.

View The Times article here.