LEAD Scotland 2023

Biography

Gordon Brown is the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education and former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Since September 2021, he also serves as WHO Ambassador for Global Health Financing. 

He served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2007 to 2010 and is widely credited with preventing a second Great Depression through his stewardship of the 2009 London G20 summit. He was one of the first leaders during the global crisis to initiate calls for global financial action, while introducing a range of rescue measures in the UK. In April 2009, he hosted the G20 Summit in London where world leaders committed to make an additional $1.1 trillion available to help the world economy through the crisis and restore credit, growth and jobs. They also pledged to strengthen financial supervision and regulation.

Previously, he served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1997 to 2007, making him the longest-serving Chancellor in modern history. During ten years at the Treasury, Gordon masterminded many of Labour’s proudest achievements including the Minimum Wage, Sure Start, the Winter Fuel Allowance, the Child Trust Fund, the Child Tax Credit and paid paternity leave. His record on global justice includes his negotiation of debt cancellation for the world’s poorest nations and the tripling of the budget for life-saving aid. His time as Chancellor was also marked by major reform of Britain’s monetary and fiscal policy as well as the sustained investment in health, education and overseas aid.

His role in government continued to shape his views on the importance of education as a fundamental right of every child in the world and the key to unlocking better health, greater social stability, more rights and opportunities for women and a higher standard of living. He is a passionate advocate for global action to ensure education for all. In his role as UN Special Envoy for Global Education, he works closely with key partners to help galvanise support for global education investment and the use of innovative financing to reach the UN’s global goals. He is Chair of the High-Level Steering Group for Education Cannot Wait, the fund for education in emergencies; and Chair of the International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity.

In 2020, he played a key role leading a group of 275 former world leaders, economists and educationalists calling for international action to prevent the global health crisis creating a “COVID generation” to avoid the reality of tens of millions of children with no hope of an education.

In his role as WHO Ambassador, Gordon has been invited by WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to raise awareness internationally on the great need for sustained global health financing, particularly from G20 and G7 countries, and the immediate task is to work together to finance the vaccination of the whole world and protect the poorest countries from the terrible effects of COVID-19 and other diseases.

In addition to his global education work Gordon is an advisor to the Graça Machel Trust, a Senior Panel Member at the Kofi Annan Foundation initiative on Electoral Integrity, and he is also an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Within the United Kingdom, Gordon is also the founder of Our Scottish Future, and the Alliance for Full Employment.

Gordon is the author of several books including Beyond the Crash: Overcoming the First Crisis of Globalisation, My Scotland, Our Britain and My Life, Our Times and most recently, Seven Ways to Change the World (Simon & Schuster, June 2021).

Gordon has a PhD in History from the University of Edinburgh and spent his early career working as a lecturer and in television production. He has been awarded several honorary doctorates, most recently Doctor of the University from The Open University.

He is married to Sarah Brown, the Chair of global children’s charity, Theirworld and Executive Chair of the Global Business Coalition for Education, and the couple live in Fife, Scotland with their two teenagers.

Biography

With over 30 years’ experience in sales and marketing, Glen is a versatile Marketing and Managing Director, with experience working across a wide spectrum of large corporate and high growth SME companies.

In his most recent role as Marketing Director for The Macallan single malt Scotch Whisky, he has transformed the marketing strategy for the brand over the last seven years, spearheading a focus on insight, direct-to-consumer, innovation and brand education. Amongst the recent high-profile initiatives to drive the incomparability of the brand, Glen has overseen most the launch of The Reach – the brand’s oldest ever single malt whisky – and partnerships with Bentley Motors and Roca Brothers to inspires consumers around the world.

Glen has held a number of leadership positions across high profile brands in the drinks industry. Formerly Director of Blended Scotch at parent company Edrington, he was responsible for managing The Famous Grouse and Cutty Sark globally, after being appointed in 2014.

Previously Marketing and International Sales Director for Whyte and Mackay, Glen played a fundamental role in the team during the acquisition of the business from Jim Beam Brands, and prior to this worked as International Marketing and Regional Manager.

He has wealth of experience in senior UK and international sales and marketing roles across blue-chip businesses including BP Oil, Mars Confectionery and Colgate Palmolive. Before taking up leadership positions in Edrington, Glen was Managing Director of Vets Now, a leading UK provider of emergency and referral veterinary services which employed 500 people at the time. During his tenure, the business opened or acquired over 15 new clinics as part of an accelerated growth programme. In addition, he also held the position of MD at Charterebrands – a specialist investment company, focused on brand turnaround or early stage investment.

Glen is passionate about giving back to the industry, demonstrated through his roles with The Marketing Society and guest alumni lectures at the University of Strathclyde. Born and raised in Scotland, he has also held a long-standing non-executive director role at the prestigious Royal Military Tattoo. In 2022, he was selected as the inaugural Chair of the Cabrach Distillery – Scotland’s first distillery set-up as a community interest company to reinvest in projects that will help to build resilience and long-term sustainability – and was proud to receive a Keeper of the Quaich award for his contribution to Scotch whisky back in 2015.

Biography

Abigail Jones, Strategic adviser to the Director General, International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA).

Abigail Jones is a global communications and public affairs leader with a track record of over 40 years of experience across the corporate, agency and government sectors.  This experience has seen her lead government relations, media relations and digital campaigns for some of the most globally significant political, economic, and social issues.

Most recently, Abigail postponed her retirement in 2020 to lead the communications efforts for IFPMA, the global innovative biopharmaceutical industry trade body in official relations with the UN.  During this period, Abigail oversaw the Association’s global communications response to COVID-19.  Today, she continues to be involved in global health advocacy as strategic adviser to IFPMA’s Director General.

In 2010, Abigail founded Acumen, an agency specialising in integrated public affairs and communications specialising in the fields of international or European health and sustainability. The agency combines the very best of big agency experience with hands-on senior support.  Abigail led the agencies global health practice, splitting her time between Brussels and Geneva, providing senior counsel to clients seeking stakeholder engagement advice.

Abigail has a breadth of experience in some of the most established corporate communications and public affairs agencies – including Rowland Company (part of Saatchi and Saatchi) and Hill & Knowlton – where she led assignments for blue-chip companies, trade associations and think tanks advising on European, Africa and international affairs. This included leading strategic advocacy for the Private Investors for Africa in setting up the World Bank/IFC’s HIV/AIDS programme for the private sector; as well as the global alcohol producers network.

Following her degree in Islamic Art & Archaeology, Abigail kicked off her career working for Middle Eastern and African economic publications and public affairs, followed by stints in corporate identity and branding, as well as running information and communication contracts for the European Commission.

Abigail is Belgian and British and speaks English, French and Dutch fluently.

Biography

Kenny Farquharson is a columnist with The Times, based in Edinburgh. He also publishes a Substack newsletter on Scottish culture and politics called The Jaggy Thistle. Career highs include being embedded with Scottish troops in Afghanistan and reporting on Barack Obama’s presidential election campaign. One of Scotland’s most seasoned political commentators, he was the first convenor of the Scottish Parliamentary Journalists’ Association. As a newspaper editor he helmed Scotland on Sunday and was deputy editor of The Scotsman. He is an Orwell Fellow, having been shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for political writing. In the Scottish Press Awards he has won political journalist of the year, columnist of the year and interviewer of the year.

Biography

Sharon Lloyd Barnes is Commercial Director and Talent & Inclusion Lead at the Advertising Association, which represents the UK advertising industry and includes advertisers, agencies, media owners, tech platforms and production companies in its membership. Previously, she ran magazine ad sales teams in London and New York before co-founding The Drive Partnership, a consultancy working with businesses across a range of sectors to build profitable growth. Outside of work, Sharon co-founded a school for autistic children in 2000 – now called Beyond Autism – serving children from most London boroughs. 

Biography

Chris is sports presenter and reporter based in Aberdeen. He was previously a news presenter for STV and began his career as a football and rugby commentator for the BBC. He’s covered national and domestic teams exploits at home and abroad, reporting from the Euros, Commonwealth Games, and the Six Nations.

Biography

Murdo Fraser has been MSP for Mid-Scotland & Fife since 2001.  He is the Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Business, Economic Growth and Tourism and sits on the Scottish Parliament’s Economy and Fair Work Committee.

Murdo lives with his wife and two children in Perthshire. Born in 1965 and educated at Inverness Royal Academy, he graduated LLB from Aberdeen University in 1986, and went on to do the postgraduate Diploma in Legal Studies. He has since worked as a solicitor in Aberdeen and Edinburgh and prior to his election to the Scottish Parliament was an associate with Ketchen and Stevens WS in Edinburgh, specialising in commercial law.

Murdo held the position of Deputy Leader of the Scottish Conservatives from November 2005 to November 2011 and has previously been Scottish Conservative Spokesman on Economy, Health, Education, and Enterprise & Lifelong Learning. He is co-convenor of the Cross-Party Groups on Scotch Whisky and Pakistan.

Murdo is Chairman of Trustees of the National Prayer Breakfast for Scotland, a Trustee of the Guardians of Scotland Trust, a patron of the Conservative Christian Fellowship and a member of the Scotland-Malawi Partnership. Publications include: “The Blue Book: Scottish Conservatism in the 21st century” (2006), and “The Rivals: Montrose and Argyll and the struggle for Scotland” (Birlinn 2015).

Murdo’s interests outside politics include hillwalking (he has climbed Kilimanjaro and more than half of Scotland’s 284 Munros), football, classic cars, travel (especially Africa), and Scottish history.

Biography

Gill is a board director at Republic of Media and has been instrumental in growing the company from 5 people to 67 with billings of over £100m. She currently heads up Client Service in the Edinburgh office and spearheads the Scottish Government account. Gill is passionate about social and behaviour change marketing, winning numerous awards. She is the current Chair for the IPA in Scotland where championing Advertising Effectiveness forms a key part of her agenda.

Biography

Lauren is an Experience Partner helping to grow the CX team. She has worked across a wide range of sectors including banking, retail, hospitality, telco and automotive. Her role is to find, define, and explain compelling the problems and opportunities existing within a brand’s experience; ensuring those in charge take notice and customers get the great experiences they paid for. Before NCA, she spent 5 years at Wunderman Thompson where she led projects for some of the world’s biggest retailers including Walmart, Selfridges, and Shell.