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Ms Macklin has enjoyed a stellar career in business after, by her own admission, finding life less than easy in her school days. But the drive which has characterised her career has been about much more than the pursuit of success for herself.

Around 15 years ago, Ms Macklin was deeply concerned when Scotch whisky giant Diageo announced plans to shut its Johnnie Walker bottling plant in Kilmarnock, putting several hundred jobs at risk. It was the latest in a series of devastating economic blows for the Ayrshire town, which had already been hit by the closure of major operations run by carpet firm Stoddard, railway engineering company Andrew Barclay Sons & Co, and Massey Ferguson, the tractor manufacturer.

Prompted by a desire to rally round her home town, Ms Macklin joined the high-profile campaign to save the Diageo plant. However, when it became clear Diageo was not going to reverse its decision, she began thinking about what could not only be done to replace the jobs destined to be lost, but create opportunities for the town’s younger generation and equip them with the skills required for the economy of tomorrow.

Ms Macklin was also motivated to address the worrying findings of a report produced by East Ayrshire Council, which highlighted a lack of high-quality, sustainable premises to persuade businesses to locate in the area, and an absence of accelerator programmes to promote the growth of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). There was also little in the way of angel or institutional investors for businesses in the area, the report found.

Thus, the concept for Halo, a regeneration project designed to transform 28 acres of vacant industrial land into a multi-use destination – spanning a business and innovation hub and conference facilities, and plans for hundreds of sustainable homes – was born.

It has not been plain sailing. As Ms Macklin said in an interview with The Herald this week, her plans for Halo have had to overcome a lot of barriers in the last decade-and-a-half, citing “red tape, planning problems, and funding problems in relation to market-failure sites”.

However, there are numerous achievements that she and her colleagues can look back on with pride.

The town centre site now includes a sustainable innovation and enterprise centre which hosts a broad range of major companies and entrepreneurs. PRA Group, the Nasdaq-listed US financial services firm, employs 385 people over two floors at the site, with other tenants including Anderson Strathern, Nelson Track Solutions, Shire Energy, Scottish Power, Net Zero Nation, Ayrshire Chamber of Commerce, Pertemps, XLCC, Five Star Global, Clickspur, Pexapark, and Scottish Enterprise.

All in all, Halo has played host to some 85 companies, employing 785 people, at various times, while its conference facilities have held 345 events to date.

Ms Macklin deserves enormous praise for her achievements and perseverance. She has responded to the devastation brought by the Johnnie Walker closure and, over the course of 15 years, replaced it with hope and renewal.

Hundreds of much-needed jobs have been brought to Kilmarnock as companies have been encouraged to open bases in Halo. But, as Ms Macklin notes, it has not just been a case of “build it and they will come”- the services provided by the business hub have had to be meaningful and at least the equal of the quality of the sustainably built premises.

“It is a case of, if you offer a full package of measures, on sustainability, on entrepreneurship, driving it through the schools, people will come,” she said. “Because we have written off our towns and outlying areas for far too long.”

Now, Halo stands at the start of a new chapter. As revealed by The Herald on Wednesday, Ms Macklin has made the “emotional” decision to take a step back from the project, and is seeking external investors to drive forward its next phase. That will involve the execution of a £95 million masterplan completed by Ms Macklin and her team, which will provide more than 200 homes, premises for light industry, and green spaces for community leisure.

It is forecast the masterplan will generate £200m of gross domestic product and support 1,500 jobs.

Ms Macklin said the decision to step back was not one she reached lightly, but believes it was right for the future of the project.

“This has been a decision I have thought about for the past six months,” she told The Herald. “And I thought what more can I do to drive this forward really quickly? The next stage is now actively working with our agents and speaking to potential investors or end users.

“We could basically sell out what the rest of the masterplan is and take our money but that is not what I want to do. I want to now go on to phase two (and) bring in Plc to escalate the next phase, which is the sustainable housing phase that we have done all the hard work on over 15 years and got the masterplan in play and created the enterprise and innovation hub. We now want to take capital out of that site and reinvest it back into the local economy by setting up a community fund for our young people, to help them drive education and entrepreneurship.”

It was not surprising to hear Ms Macklin say that the process of deciding to “pass on the baton” had been “emotional”. After 15 years of hard work and no doubt struggle at various times as she worked to bring her vision to reality, it is understandable that the prospect of scaling down her involvement had given her pause for thought.

However, now she has reached the decision to seek new partners to take the project forward, she is entitled to reflect on a job well done.

Not that Ms Macklin, who was awarded a CBE for services to economic regeneration and entrepreneurship in Scotland in 2015, will be ending her association with the project. Far from it.

She will now focus on franchising the HALO#Rockme initiative, for which she holds the intellectual property and trademark rights in the UK and US. A documentary and a book about her experiences are also under consideration.

Marie’s innovative approach to transformational land development, investment in entrepreneurial businesses and her career experiences in finance and property are the foundations for her strategic insight and creativity and the importance of selfbelief, commitment and perseverance in facing up to adversity and bureaucracy.

The challenges and frustrations of transforming derelict regional town-centre land into a thriving entrepreneurial hub shape the story she wants to share. Her masterplan for the 28-acre site challenged local, regional and national governments with its imaginative and far-reaching ambitions. It took sixteen years to establish an award-winning enterprise centre and pave the way for over two hundred sustainable homes, space for modern, light industry and urban green space for community leisure that will create £200million of GDP and support 1500 jobs.

Market-deficit for regional investment, where the cost of providing modern premises and amenities is more than can be realised from commercial income, demands proactive, accelerated Government decision-making and funding along with the imagination and confidence of business in assessing risk. The HALO Enterprise and Innovation Centre (HEIC) is leading the UK in sustainable workspace planning and management and is a dynamic base for supporting and inspiring tomorrow’s entrepreneurs.

Marie will now devote her time and energy to franchising the HALO#Rockme initiative, for which she holds Intellectual Property and Trademark rights, in the UK and in North America. She plans to build on an international network of influencers and decision-makers, particularly in the USA.

Marie’s mantra, ‘Creating a New Tomorrow’s World for our Children’s Children built on sustainability and digital transformation – underpins her work at a strategic level, providing advice and guidance through engaging directly with business and Government leaders nationally and internationally. As an inspirational public speaker, she aims to build public platforms through live audience engagement, television and social media platforms to share her front-edge learning about community regeneration and the importance of effective, mutually rewarding business and government partnerships.

She is exploring the potential for documentary programmes and planning a book which will be frank, informative, stimulating and hard-hitting about her life in business, about regeneration, market failure, economic reform and how she leads from the heart and love of music. She will explore the pitfalls of political engagement in commercial investment from her experiences dealing with national, regional and local governments and the frustrations of bureaucracy for entrepreneurs.

By passing on the baton, Marie wants to give other like-minded Scottish entrepreneurs and businesses the opportunity to make their mark as she did to optimise the potential of the masterplan and planning permissions for the site. This will enable her career change and free time to help others wishing to learn from the challenges and experiences she has faced as a woman in business life.

Having delivered Scotland’s most sustainable property, Marie’s legacy will be the life-changing opportunities the HEIC is creating for hundreds of young people in an ultra-modern building which has given new heart and new confidence to the town of Kilmarnock. She intends that the site should pass to a third party with a shared ethos and ambition to fulfil its community potential. From any net returns, Marie will establish a Community Fund that invests in Young People. This will assist in funding community driven initiatives and funds to young entrepreneurs which in turn will leave a lasting legacy.

Dr Marie Macklin CBE, prominent Scottish businesswoman, entrepreneur and Founder and Executive Chair of The HALO Urban Regeneration Company, delivered a powerful and moving speech on her endometriosis journey and the need for more support from national government at last week’s Women of Scotland lunch in Glasgow.

Attended by esteemed guests from across the country, including special guest HRH The Duchess of Edinburgh, this year’s Women of Scotland lunch was held in aid of Endometriosis UK, raising both awareness and money for the fight against a disease which has no cure. It is estimated that over 179 million women are impacted by this globally.

In the UK, around 1.5 million women are affected by endometriosis which has a significant impact on the economy and the future wellbeing of large proportions of the workforce. Dr Macklin believes endometriosis needs to be reclassified to be on par with other chronic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes. With the disease costing the UK economy £8.2 billion per annum in treatment, loss of work and healthcare costs, Dr Macklin continues to rally both UK and Scottish Government for additional funding to support further research and development.

In front of an audience of 500 guests at the Radisson Blu in Glasgow, Dr Macklin’s message was “Never Give Up” as she used her love of community, people and music to tell her inspiring story which helped shape her successful career in the world of business and entrepreneurship, overcoming a major health scare with endometriosis to transforming urban regeneration in Scotland and beyond with her role as Founder and Executive Chair of The HALO Urban Regeneration Company. Dr Macklin passionately spoke of her support for ENDO1000. A new project, based at Edinburgh University, which is a UK-wide research project with Professor Andrew Horne at the helm that will collect data from 1000 individuals with known or suspected endometriosis to support further advancements in personalised care.

Dr Marie Macklin CBE said: “It was a privilege to be invited to be a keynote speaker at the Women of Scotland lunch in the company of incredible speakers, guests and our guest of honour, HRH The Duchess of Edinburgh, all in aid of a fantastic charity.

“I hope by telling my Endometriosis story, it will help raise further awareness of this debilitating disease as we continue to rally national governments to increase funding into research and development for further support for women who are impacted each and every day by this. We need to continue to fight and support incredible charities such as Endometriosis UK and ENDO1000”.

The Women of Scotland Lunch was founded in 1958 by Bill and May Hamp-Hamilton. The Women of Scotland Luncheon, as it was then called, was designed to draw together a cross-section of influential women in Scotland ‘to celebrate their success in many and varied endeavours