Governors
- Mr Peter Berry CMG (Chairman)
- Professor David Boxer
- Mrs Wendy Goldstraw
- Dr Thomas Jolliffe
- Mr Ian McLaren
- Professor Steve Parry
- Professor George Salmond
- Professor Wilson Sibbett
- Mr Allan Stevenson
- Mr A.D. (Sandy) Morrison
- Mr Andrew Wilson
Mr Peter Berry CMG (Chairman)
Peter is President of the Crown Agents Foundation, established in 1997 to succeed government as the owner of the Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations which helps governments of developing and transition states throughout the world make best use of the human and material resources. He was CEO and subsequently Chairman of Crown Agents from 1988 to 2007, having from 1982 been Director for Asia, Pacific and Middle East. Peter’s early career was in South East Asia with a large trading and plantation group and from 1973 to 1982 he was CEO of a UK plc with plantation and agricultural engineering interests in South and South East Asia, East Africa and Europe. He is Chairman of one quoted investment trust, and was most recently director of another and senior independent director of the construction company Kier Group plc. He is a retained advisor to the City of London Corporation on international affairs, having similarly advised the UK DTI for many years. He is deputy Chairman of the Charities Aid Foundation, a Director and Trustee of Charity Bank and UK President of the global coalition against corruption, Transparency International. In 2008 he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun by the Emperor of Japan for services to International Development. Peter has a home in Fife and a smallholding in Italy.
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.
Mrs Wendy Goldstraw
Mrs Goldstraw gained her degrees from the University of Edinburgh, before joining the Post Office as a management trainee. After a number of roles in human resources and line management, she was latterly General Manager for Post Office Counters Ltd for Scotland and Northern Ireland, with responsibility for 2800 Post Offices. She was an executive member of both the Scottish and Northern Ireland Post Office Boards, and served as a Director of Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce and also on the Scottish Committee of the Institute of Directors. She was a member of the Accounts Commission for Scotland from 1994 until 2002 and is convenor of the Standards Commission for Scotland.
Dr Thomas Jolliffe
Dr Jolliffe is Director of Commercial Strategy for Limagrain UK Ltd and also responsible for research and development. His PhD is in biometrics, studied as an external student at the John Innes Institute while in full time employment. He has 25 years experience of working in the seeds industry, particularly in relation to plant breeding and to marketing and sales. Dr Jolliffe is Chairman of the British Society of Plant Breeders.
Mr Ian McLaren
Mr McLaren is a partner in a family owned farming business, specialising in potato and cereal production. He is also a partner in a retail dairy business, a garage business, and a visitors’ centre. He is a Director of a leisure complex, the Dewar’s Centre in Perth, and a member of the Perth and Kinross Agricultural Forum, and was a member of the Home-Grown Cereals Authority from 1988 to 1997. He is a member of the Governing Board Risk Committee.
Professor Steve Parry
Steve Parry is currently a director of The Falling Apple Consultancy Ltd which works with both the private and public sector to facilitate the generation of novel science and technology led innovation opportunities. In his early career he was a lecturer at Newcastle University in microbiology and immunology. He worked for much of his career in Unilever Research as a scientist working initially in the areas of animal health and then medical diagnostics. Up to his retirement in 2007 he was Head of Research for Unilever's European frozen foods business covering a range of areas from food technology to agriculture and breeding for their frozen vegetable business. Additionally he was responsible for Unilever's sustainable agriculture research programme including their 1200 acre research farm in Befordshire and he also held a visiting chair at the University of Essex.
Professor George Salmond
Professor George Salmond ScD is currently Professor of Molecular Microbiology in the Biochemistry Department at the University of Cambridge, and a Professorial Fellow of Wolfson College. George studied Microbiology (BSc, Strathclyde) and did research on bacterial genetics (PhD, Warwick) followed by an MA and ScD (Cambridge). His research group is working on various aspects of molecular microbiology and genetics including quorum sensing, bacterial viruses, virulence gene regulation, and secondary metabolite production (including antibiotics) in bacterial plant pathogens, rhizosphere bacteria and animal pathogens. He has industrial experience from working for a chemical biotechnology company (Celgene Corporation) in the USA and he served on the Scientific Advisory Board of NSC Technologies in the USA. In addition, Professor Salmond has been chairman of various BBSRC and Scottish Government committees, International Secretary and member of Council of the Society for General Microbiology, and member of Council of the Federation of European Microbiological Societies. He is also a member of the Governing Council of the John Innes Centre. Professor Salmond is currently Vice-President of the British Society for Plant Pathology, and will be President in 2011.
Professor Wilson Sibbett
Professor Wilson Sibbett, CBE, FRS, FRSE is a University of St Andrews physicist who has made groundbreaking developments in the world of laser technology. He was the first person to chair the Scottish Science Advisory Committee which was established under the auspices of the Royal Society of Edinburgh to provide independent advice to Scottish Executive Ministers on strategic scientific issues, including science strategy, science policy and science priorities. He is a graduate of Queen’s University Belfast gaining his PhD degree from Imperial College in 1973. He conducted research and taught as a staff member of the Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College and transferred to St Andrews to take up the post of Professor of Natural Philosophy. At present he is the Director of the Interdisciplinary Medical Research Institute in the University of St Andrews. He is the co-author of more than 300 papers. He is a winner of the prestigious Rank Prize for Optoelectronics (1997) and of the Royal Society’s Rumford medal (2000), awarded biennially in recognition of an outstandingly important recent discovery in science made by a scientist working in Europe.
Mr Allan Stevenson
Allan Stevenson is an arable farmer from East Lothian specialising in growing potatoes, principally for all year round supply to Tesco, using principles of integrated farming. He is also a business graduate and Chartered Accountant, with international experience in growing companies and consultancies in several sectors, most recently Group Finance Director of EC Harris Group. Current roles include: Non-Executive Director of DEGW Plc, Cobra Group and RSABI (charity); Chairman of a pension scheme; consulting and advisory work for other international businesses and committee roles with SAC and NFU.
Mr A.D. (Sandy) Morrison
A native of Aberdeenshire who studied at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow 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. Mr Morrison is particularly interested in the continued challenges of the development and adoption of sustainable agricultural good practices and the need for agriculture to adapt to meet climate change needs. Mr Morrison and his Lancastrian wife split their time between North East Scotland and North West England. He joined the SCRI Governing Board in May 2008.
Mr Andrew Wilson
Andrew Wilson is the Head of Group Corporate Affairs of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group (since April 2008). He has held a variety of posts with the Group including Deputy Chief Economist (2005-2007), Head of Group Media Relations (2003-2005) and worked on the acquisition of ABN AMRO and the subsequent integration planning team in Amsterdam. From 1999 to 2003 he was a Member of the Scottish Parliament and the Shadow Minister on first Finance, then Economy and Transport and finally Economy and Lifelong Learning. During this same period he wrote a weekly column in the Sunday Mail and contributed to a variety of other publications. Prior to his election he worked as an economist with the Government Economic Service (1993-1995); the SNP (1995-1997) and the Royal Bank of Scotland (1997-1999). Educated at St Andrews and Strathclyde Universities, he is a Trustee and Honorary Treasurer of The John Smith Trust and a member of the Development Board of the children’s charity Barnados (Scotland). He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers and Member of the Institute of Fiscal Studies.
