Board of Directors

Ray Perman (Chair)

Ray has a strong interest in conservation. He is a former Chair of the Scottish Advisory Council of WWF and a member of the board of trustees of WWF UK. He is a trustee of the Botanics Foundation, which supports the scientific work of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh and also chairs the Access to Finance Expert Group, which advises the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills on policy relating to small business finance. He was a member of the board of Scottish Enterprise from 2004-2009 and, from 2001-2009, chair of Social Investment Scotland, which makes loans to the social economy. Ray’s early career was spent in journalism working with newspapers including The Times, Financial Times, The Scotsman, and the Sunday Standard in Glasgow.

Professor David Boxer

Professor Boxer is Director of the Institute of Food Research on the Norwich Research Park and is Professor of Microbial Biochemistry at the University of East Anglia. He was previously Vice Principal (Research and Enterprise) at Dundee University. He held a number of positions at Dundee University including Dean of Faculty of Science and Engineering and Chairman of the Biochemistry Department and was Professor of Microbial Biochemistry at Dundee University from 1990. He led a reappraisal of Dundee University’s academic and financial priorities to produce a blueprint for the future management of the University. He has been a major player in establishing wide ranging and novel partnerships with other Scottish universities and Institutes.

Julia Brown

Julia Brown leads the Foresighting and Translational and Clinical Medicine activities for Scottish Enterprise Life Sciences. Following a career in managing compounds through non clinical and clinical development for a range of biopharmaceutical companies (including Syntex; Roche and PPL Therapeutics), she co-founded a clinical research organisation in Scotland called Pleiad. It primarily supports medical device companies and has expanded its operations into the United States. In her role as Director of Programmes for the publicly funded ITI Scotland, she was responsible for commissioning and directing a wide range of research programmes with academic and commercial groups. She is also a Director of the Genomia Fund which supports the commercialisation of public sector research in biosciences.

Professor Brian Clark

Professor Brian D. Clark is Professor of Environmental Management and Planning at the University of Aberdeen and Co-Director of the MSc in Sustainable Rural Development, a Director of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), and Chairman of both the North Region Board and the Planning and Finance Committee of SEPA. He has 40 years’ experience in urban and rural planning and environmental management in Scotland, the UK, Europe and overseas.

Dr Laura Meagher

Dr Laura Meagher is the senior partner of Technology Development Group in Fife, a company specialising in strategic organisational change, primarily involving research, knowledge exchange and policy. She has particular expertise in development of innovative visions involving strategic alliances, interdisciplinarity and/or knowledge exchange and the generation of research impact; she has also evaluated funding schemes promoting such changes, and captured lessons learned for wider benefit. Dr Meagher has a background in biology, biotechnology and the environment both from a research and a commercialisation perspective. She was co-founder and first vice president of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center (a pioneering model as the first such state-wide centre for economic development) and was associate dean/director of research for the environmentally and agriculturally oriented Cook College/New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, Rutgers University. Originally from the United States, she held a Fulbright Fellowship in institutional change at the University of Edinburgh in the mid-nineties and has been based in Scotland since 1999.

A.D. (Sandy) Morrison

A native of Aberdeenshire, Sandy studied at the University of Strathclyde in the 1960s finishing with a BSc Hons in Applied Chemistry. He joined Unilever plc and spent 37 years focussing on the Unilever Foods Business with senior roles in research and development, supply chain, innovation and finishing in general management. He gained considerable experience with managing the transfer of technology from scientist to the customer. He spent 20 years living and working abroad especially Europe, Asia and Africa. Mr Morrison retired from Unilever in 2005. He continues to have active roles at company board level and also mentors small businesses in the old cotton towns of East Lancashire on a voluntary basis.

Professor Wayne Powell

Professor Wayne Powell has more than 25 years’ experience working in the field of contemporary plant genetics. Before being appointed as Director of IBERS, he was Director and CEO of NIAB in Cambridge. Previously he was Professor and Foundation Head of the School of Agriculture and Wine, University of Adelaide, Australia. He was Deputy Director of SCRI (Scottish Crop Research Institute), Dundee, UK, from 2000-2004 and was responsible for leading and facilitating the development of the Institute’s scientific vision, with overall responsibility for the Institute’s research programmes. Between 1998 and 2000 Professor Powell worked at the Du Pont Company in Wilmington, Delaware, USA, where he gained exposure and experience of operating in a global private sector organisation.

Professor George Salmond

George Salmond is Professor of Molecular Microbiology at Cambridge University, and a Fellow of Wolfson College. He studied Microbiology (BSc) at Strathclyde and gained a PhD on bacterial genetics at Warwick, followed by an MA and ScD (Cambridge) and an honorary DSc (Strathclyde). He worked for the biotechnology company, Celgene Corporation, in New Jersey, USA and he was a Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of NSC Technologies in Illinois, USA. He also held a Senior Ciba-Geigy Fellowship at the CNRS, Marseille, France. Professor Salmond has served on various BBSRC and Scottish Government committees dealing with research funding and the assessment of quality of science in UK Research Institutes. He has held multiple governance and science advisory posts including Council of the Society for General Microbiology (as International Secretary), Council of the Federation of European Microbiological Societies, Pathogen Sequencing Advisory Group (Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute) and Governor of the John Innes Centre and SCRI. Professor Salmond is currently a Member of the Scottish Science Advisory Council and President of the British Society for Plant Pathology.

Allan Stevenson

Arable farmer from Luffness Mains, Aberlady, East Lothian specialising in growing pre-packing potatoes for all year round supply to the retail market, using principles of integrated farming, with LEAF Marque accreditation. He is also a business graduate and Chartered Accountant, with international experience in growing companies.

Current roles include a Director of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, and Board Chairman of one of its divisions, the Potato Council, Non-Executive Director of RSABI (charity), Governing Board Member and Chair of the Audit and Finance Committee of The James Hutton Institute, Chairman of EC Harris Group Pension Scheme and a Council member of SAC.

George Thorley

George Thorley has extensive experience of the public sector. He has worked in central government and with councils at regional, unitary, district and large burgh levels. He has also worked with new town development corporations. He was Assistant CEO with Strathclyde Regional Council and from 1995-2004, as CEO of South Ayrshire Council, he was responsible for the management of a new organisation with an annual spend of £250 million and 6000 employees. Between 2004 and 2010 he was a non-executive director at the core of Scottish Government specialising in audit, governance and risk management. Since 2004 as Head Associate for SOLACE Enterprises (Scotland) he has successfully developed a private sector business with an annual turnover of £1.2 million. He currently sits as a Non-Executive Director on the Board of Marine Scotland.

Professor Alan Werritty

Alan Werrity is the Professor of Physical Geography at the University of Dundee. He held the post of Head of the Department of Geography from 1997-2001 and has been Chair of the Council of British Geography since 2004. Alan is also the Director of Research at the Dundee UNESCO Centre for Water Law, Policy and Science a post he has held since 2007. An advisor to the Scottish Government on flooding, Alan sits on the UN High-Level Expert Panel on Water and Disasters created by the United Nations to develop and promote solutions to water related catastrophes.