Kate Forbes MSP is from Dingwall, although she spent part of her upbringing in Glasgow and India. Until she was elected as MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, Kate was employed as an accountant in the banking industry. Prior to that she studied History at the Universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh with a focus on human migration.
As a backbencher, she has served on the Scottish Parliament’s Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee, the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee, the Health and Sport Committee and the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee. She also served as Parliamentary Liaison Officer for Finance and the Constitution.
As well as leading a campaign to ban plastic straws, Kate has participated in several cross party groups at Holyrood including Crofting, Gaelic, Human Trafficking, Palliative Care and Rural Policy. A fluent Gaelic speaker, Kate made history earlier this year by becoming the first female MSP to give a plenary speech entirely in Gaelic in the current Scottish Parliament chamber.
Mark Schwartz joined AWS as an Enterprise Strategist and Evangelist.
Mark has extensive experience as an IT leader in the government, private sector, and non-profit world. Prior to joining AWS, he was CIO of US Citizenship and Immigration Services where he led a large digital transformation effort, moving the agency to the cloud, introducing and refining DevOps and Agile techniques, and adopting user-centric design approaches.
Mark is the author of The Art of Business Value, A Seat at the Table: IT Leadership in the Age of Agility, War, Peace and IT and The Delicate Art of Bureaucracy.
Mark has over 25 years of leadership experience in the internet technology sector. He was instrumental in the success of multiple start-ups, including as COO of Skyscanner, one of Europe's most successful technology companies, where he was responsible for the general management of the business. In 2014, the Institute of Directors named him Director of the Year and in 2016 he won the UK Digital Masters award for Excellence in General Management. In 2019, he was conferred the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science by the University of Glasgow.
Since leaving Skyscanner, Mark’s focus has been as a start-up/scale-up advisor, investor and non-executive director in start-ups across the sector in Scotland and internationally. He is also a Professor at the University of Glasgow’s School of Computing Science and an advisor to the Scottish Government on technology policy.
Mark has a long, successful track record working in both the creative and the business sides of the digital and creative industries. While CEO of the highly successful DigitalCity in NE England he helped hundreds of companies grow as fast and effectively as possible, and was a key player in The Difference Engine - Europe’s first tech accelerator. Moving north in 2013 he ran the UP Accelerator, Edinburgh and then joined the fun at CivTech, first as its Head of Accelerator until taking over as Programme Director in summer, 2019.
Eilidh Mactaggart is the Chief Executive of the Scottish National Investment Bank; a new, publicly-owned development bank established to make strategic, mission-oriented investments in the Scottish economy.
Prior to her appointment to the role in April 2020, Eilidh worked for over 20 years in global banking and investment management. She held senior roles with MetLife Investment Management, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, and ABN AMRO. At MetLife Investments, she established the London-based European Infrastructure team, building a $10 billion investment book over a period of 5 years. Eilidh has extensive experience leading investments in renewable energy, utilities, social housing, education, transport and social infrastructure.
The Scottish National Investment Bank was formally established in November 2020. It will be capitalised by £2 billion and will operate commercially, making strategic and long-term debt and equity investments. The Bank will have a primary mission to support the transition to net zero emissions.
Kim McAllister is a freelance journalist and communications consultant at Connect. She presents Clever About Cash on BBC Radio Scotland and contributes to a number of BBC shows including Radio 4’s Inside Science. She regularly writes for the Herald and other business titles. Since the pandemic hit, Kim has been involved with a wide range of events online, from chairing the three day annual international conference of the British Occupational Hygiene Society to hosting business recovery webinars for the Herald. Her space podcast series "Scotland's Secret Space Race", which she made with the University of Edinburgh, is the no 6 physics podcast in the UK and she is currently working on a special edition.
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