Jackie has more than 35 years experience in business, enterprise and policy development, including a period advising the UK Government’s Small Business Service. Passionate about encouraging more people to start and grow businesses, she was CEO at the UK’s first women’s enterprise centre (Wellpark) and co-founded Women’s Enterprise Scotland in 2011. Jackie was also the director of the West Midlands Centre of Expertise for Young People’s Enterprise from 2008-10. She has been CEO of GrowBiz – a rural enterprise support organisation based in Perthshire for eight years. GrowBiz has supported more than 1000 rural businesses since 2016 and is the only business project in Scotland to have achieved the Scottish Mentoring Network quality standard for its mentoring programme.

Jackie was a member of the Scottish Government’s National Council of Rural Advisers (NCRA) and has chaired the rural Perth and Kinross LEADER programme since 2014. She was awarded an MBE in 2008 for services to enterprise and in October 2019 was inducted to the Saltire Society’s ‘Outstanding Women of Scotland’. In her spare time she enjoys walking her dogs, dreaming about yoga classes and supporting St Johnstone FC.

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