Leaders in Business

Ellie Craig has been leading since she was fifteen.

In this episode of Leaders in Business, Marlene Lowe sits down with the Chair of the Scottish Youth Parliament — elected as an MSYP for Glasgow Cathcart at fifteen (so convinced she'd lost that she skipped the election count), and now a veteran of seven years in Scotland's democratic and charity spaces. Fresh from graduating in politics and sociology from the University of Glasgow, Ellie has chaired an entirely youth-led board, joined the UK board of the National Lottery Community Fund, and just started a new role with the David Hume Institute.

Ellie speaks with remarkable honesty about what it's like being a "professional young person" — often the youngest in the room by twenty years, navigating assumptions, judgement and a no-win tension: told she's not experienced enough to be taken seriously, then told she's too polished to be authentically young. She reflects on how imposter syndrome shaped her leadership, and her realisation that self-belief isn't vanity — it's what allows you to genuinely lift other people up.

There's real depth here too. Ellie shares how losing her mum in 2021, having been her young carer, gave her advocacy a deeply personal foundation — and how the support networks around the Scottish Youth Parliament carried her through. She and Marlene explore intergenerational leadership, the lessons we're forgetting from COVID, why "hard to reach" is a myth ("everyone's easy to reach if you look in the right places"), and what it means to build systems for generations you'll never meet.

It's a conversation about values-led decisions, knowing when to say yes and when to say no, and separating who you are from what you achieve — wisdom that took most of us decades longer to find.

Marianne McJannett is one of the rare people who knew what she wanted to do from a young age — and is still doing it today. Now an employment law partner at Aberdein Considine, leading the firm's employment offering in Glasgow as part of a team spanning Scotland and Northern England, she has spent her career seeing leadership at its very best and its very worst.

In this episode of Leaders in Business, Marianne joins Marlene Lowe to unpick one of the most common threads running through her casework: talented people promoted into management without ever being taught how to lead. From mishandled return-to-work meetings to grievances that could have been avoided entirely, she explains why almost every dispute she sees has a leadership or managerial failing at its heart — and why investing in ongoing management training is always cheaper than the alternative.

But this conversation goes far beyond the law. Marianne dispels the myth that legal life is glamorous (sorry, Suits fans), shares why storytelling drew her to employment law in the first place, and opens up about the reality of the juggle — partnership, parenthood, and the question she gets asked weekly that men in her position rarely hear: "How do you do it all?" Her answer is refreshingly honest: she doesn't. She prioritises, she says no, and she's learned that that's okay.

Along the way there's charity ballroom dancing in front of 500 people, a reading habit that has replaced television, and a reminder that behind every corporate facade is a whole person worth getting to know.

Great employees don't automatically make great managers

• Promotion is too often treated as a reward rather than a role change — people are handed line management responsibilities with a pay rise but no training, and expected to simply step into leadership overnight.
• The vast majority of employment disputes Marianne sees have a leadership or managerial failing somewhere at their root, from poorly handled difficult conversations to botched disciplinary and redundancy processes.

Management training is an ongoing investment, not a tick box

• Induction alone isn't enough; skills need refreshing regularly, and peer learning between managers — sharing how they've handled tricky situations — is a powerful, low-cost tool.
• Taking people away from their desks for training feels costly in the moment, but the risks of getting it wrong far outweigh the investment.

Be proactive, not reactive

• Leadership is steering the ship in good times and bad, and staying attuned to how people on the ground are feeling — anticipating problems rather than firefighting them.

People and stories are at the heart of it

• Marianne was drawn to employment law because every case, whether acting for a business or an individual, is a human story that deserves to be heard.
• Acknowledging that clients come to her at vulnerable moments — and breaking the ice accordingly — is part of the job.

"Doing it all" is a myth — prioritisation is the reality

• Asked weekly how she copes as a partner, lawyer and mum, Marianne is candid: she doesn't do it all. She does what she prioritises, with a supportive husband, nearby family and honest trade-offs.
• Learning to say no — to client socials, office events and commitments that don't fit — is a strength, not a failing, and there are other ways to build relationships (hence her love of LinkedIn).
• Everyone in a leadership role needs something outside work to switch off — for Marianne it's reading every night, and, when time allows, dancing.

Peter Vardy is a name most people in Scotland will recognise — but far fewer know the story behind it.

In this episode of Leaders in Business, Marlene Lowe is joined by co-host Catherine McWilliam, Scotland Director at the Institute of Directors, for a conversation with the entrepreneur behind one of Scotland's best-known motor retail businesses. Peter shares his journey from a childhood spent serving petrol on the family forecourt in the north east of England — where customers were occasionally found eating his dinner — to buying his first dealership in Perth at 27 and building his own group across Scotland over the following two decades.

But this is a conversation about far more than cars. Peter opens up about the moment a leadership conference in Chicago changed his thinking forever — "leadership is a lifelong journey" — and how that shaped a business built on values: one uniform for everyone, performance reviews weighted equally on behaviour and results, a blank £100 cheque handed to every new colleague on day one, and a commitment to give 10% of profits away.

The results of that commitment are extraordinary. Peter tells the story of a school opening in Uganda that grew into a programme supporting 25,000 children, an email from Cambodia answered by a giving pot containing the exact sum needed, and the COVID decision to keep paying colleagues even if it cost him everything. Along the way there are lessons from his father's "war on waste", a Formula One paddock, and Alison on front reception — proof that you don't need a job title to be a leader.

The conversation culminates in The Calling, the values-based leadership event Peter is bringing to Glasgow's Armadillo — inspired by the conferences that shaped him, and built on a simple belief: everyone has influence, and Scotland's story should be one of saying yes.

What do two history degrees have to do with gardening? Not much — and that's exactly what makes this story so compelling.

In this episode of Leaders in Business, Marlene Lowe sits down with Calum Lawrie and Angus McGregor, the 23-year-old founders of Scotica Gardening. What began as a favour — mowing a family friend's lawn during university — has grown, in just four years, into a professional garden maintenance business operating across Edinburgh, Exeter and Oxford, complete with their first full-time employee.

Angus and Calum share how they spotted a gap in the market between large firms chasing government contracts and informal odd-jobbers, and built their business around year-round maintenance plans, reliable service and genuine personal relationships with their clients. They talk candidly about earning trust as young business owners, the steep learning curve of admin and systems, and how they've used AI and automation to handle scheduling, pricing and invoicing — freeing them up to focus on the work, and the people, they love.

They also reflect on what it means to become employers in a brutal graduate job market, why they're determined to treat every applicant with respect, and their ambitions for the future — from steady, sustainable growth to community green space projects and, one day, perhaps the gardens of Scotland's historic castles.

It's a masterclass in doing the basics brilliantly — proof that turning up on time, doing what you say you'll do, and excelling at the cup of tea and a chat can take you a very long way.

Find out more about Scotica Gardening at www.scoticagardening.co.uk

Do the basics brilliantly

• Turn up on time, on the right day, with the right tools — and be polite. It sounds simple, but doing it consistently requires strong systems and organisation, and it's rarer than you'd think.
• Trust is earned through action. The best answer to "you're very young — do you know what you're doing?" is simply to do a good job.

Work on the business, not just in it

• The pair used their university years as a low-pressure training ground to learn customer service, pricing and operations before going full time.
• Automating admin — scheduling, invoicing, route planning and photo-based pricing — freed them from hours of nightly laptop work and made growth possible.
• Technology handles the repetitive work so they can prioritise the human side: personal relationships are their competitive advantage.

Find the gap and own it

• Scotica sits between large firms chasing commercial contracts and informal, unreliable solo operators — offering professional, year-round maintenance plans for individual clients, with predictable revenue as a bonus.

Grow deliberately and sustainably

• Knowing exactly what one employee, one van and one set of tools can deliver means expansion is now a formula, not a gamble.
• Early on they worked unsustainable hours; learning to dial back, choose customers and protect time to think was some of the best advice they received.

Be the employer you'd want to work for

• Having watched friends ghosted by faceless recruitment processes, they committed to in-person interviews, honest rejections and proper explanations — treating all 40–50 applicants with respect.
• With growth comes responsibility: building a genuine company culture, and eventually giving back through community green space and charity work.

In this episode of Leaders in Business, host Marlene Lowe speaks with Joyce Onuonga, Managing Director of John White & Son Weighing Machines Limited, about her remarkable journey from Kenya to Scotland and from teacher to custodian of Scotland's oldest family business. Joyce's story is one of resilience, cultural adaptation, and breaking barriers in ways she never anticipated.

Starting as a high school teacher in Kenya, Joyce moved into business before following her husband to Scotland. After struggling to find teaching work despite registering with the teaching council, she pursued various jobs, earned an MBA, and eventually accepted what was supposed to be a six-month temporary placement at John White & Son. Nearly 30 years later, she's still there—having progressed from business development manager to general manager to becoming the company's first female manager in its nearly 300-year history.

The conversation reveals the profound challenge Joyce faced as a woman of colour in a male-dominated industry. Her first achievement, she says, was convincing colleagues to look past her gender and race to hear her ideas. This required patience, persistence, and surrounding herself with supporters who encouraged her to "wipe the dust away and stand up" when faced with resistance.

In 2017, Joyce completed a management buyout when founder Edwin White decided to retire but wanted someone who would preserve the family ethos and company values. Now, Joyce works alongside her two sons, transforming John White & Son (established 1715) into a Scottish-Kenyan family business whilst honouring its three-century legacy.

Joyce chairs the Scottish Africa Business Association (SABA), working to connect Scottish and African businesses and challenge outdated narratives about Africa being too risky for business. She advocates for recognising Africa's innovation—citing Kenya's M-Pesa mobile money system that leapfrogged traditional banking to create a nearly cashless society—and encourages collaboration between Scottish technology expertise and African problem-solving approaches.

The episode explores Joyce's cultural perspective on risk, innovation, and problem-solving. Where Western business culture emphasises risk mitigation through extensive planning, Joyce describes the African approach: when there's a problem, find a solution immediately rather than dwelling on "what ifs."

Joyce offers wisdom on work-life balance (advice she wishes she'd followed earlier), the importance of building safe networks with mentors and critics who challenge you, and the difference between business associates and friends. She emphasises being a giver—sharing information and skills to lift others—and maintaining clear boundaries when working with family through agreed-upon rules and discipline.

In this episode of the Leaders in Business podcast, Marlene is joined by Marc Crothall MBE, Chief Executive of the Scottish Tourism Alliance — the overarching national trade body for tourism and hospitality in Scotland — and the recent recipient of the IoD Lifetime Achievement Award for his outstanding contribution to the tourism and hospitality industry.

Marc's story is one of the most colourful you'll hear. It begins at 16, when a young Marc bluffed his way into a silver service role at a prestigious Oxford restaurant under one of France's most celebrated chefs — only to lance a potato into the lap of a wealthy American diner. Rather than marking the end of his career, it turned out to be the beginning of a remarkable one. From milkman to the Metropole Hotel in Brighton, from South Africa to the Channel Islands, and from Glasgow's European City of Culture to the Olympic Games — Marc's 45-year career has been anything but conventional, and entirely shaped by the connections he has made and kept along the way.

At the heart of Marc's philosophy is a simple but powerful truth: never say no to an invitation, and never lose touch with the people who matter. It was exactly this approach that led him, in 2012, to the role he holds today at the helm of the Scottish Tourism Alliance — an organisation he has grown from a single office in an Old Town jail cell into one of the most influential trade bodies in Scotland.

Beyond his leadership of the STA, Marc co-chairs the Tourism and Hospitality Industry Leadership Group alongside the Minister for Business and Employment, and serves as a board member of Apprenticeship in Hospitality Scotland and Interface, an advisory board member to Springboard, and a member of the ScotRail Stakeholder Forum. In 2020 he was awarded a Fellowship by the Scottish Hotel industry, and in June 2022 he received his MBE in the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Birthday Honours for services to the tourism industry in Scotland — a moment made all the more special by being able to share it with his 85-year-old mother at Windsor Castle.

Marlene and Marc explore the vital importance of advocacy and visibility for the tourism and hospitality sector — an industry Marc passionately believes is everyone's business — and why staying silent is never an option when policy needs to change. They also discuss the future of Scottish tourism as the country approaches its next election, the untapped potential of the next generation of talent, and what it truly means to leave a lasting legacy in an industry you love.

Honest, warm and full of wonderful stories, this is a conversation about a life lived fully in service of an industry Marc clearly adores — and a timely reminder that the greatest careers are built not on qualifications, but on curiosity, connection and the courage to always just show up.

In this episode of the Leaders in Business podcast, Marlene is joined by Sarah Boyd, Chief Executive of the Lothian Group — the organisation behind Lothian Buses and Edinburgh Trams — whose combined network carried an extraordinary 130 million passengers last year.

Sarah's story begins in Dundee, before a degree in maths and finance at Edinburgh University led her unexpectedly away from the world of finance and onto a Stagecoach graduate scheme that would shape everything that followed. Spending time in depots across the UK — including a memorable stint underneath a bus with a jet wash in a Fife depot on a freezing cold day — Sarah quickly discovered that the heart of any organisation lies firmly in its people. That insight has never left her.

After 12 years with Stagecoach, she joined Lothian in 2013, and last October took on the role of Chief Executive — overseeing the integration of the bus and tram networks, bringing together two distinct cultures under one vision, guided by Lothian's long-standing ethos: leave it better than you find it.

Marlene and Sarah explore what it means to lead with genuine curiosity and determination, the power of staying close to the ground even at the most senior level, and why Sarah actively welcomes the moments that don't sit comfortably — because those, she has learned, are often where the greatest growth lies.

They also discuss Sarah's IoD Director of the Year Award, the quietly complex feelings that come with individual recognition when success is always a team effort, and the surprising personal challenge Sarah set herself in her forties — taking up running from scratch and completing her first half-marathon last year, with more already on the horizon.

Warm, candid and quietly inspiring, this is a conversation about leadership, lifelong learning, and the very human thread that runs through every great organisation.

In this episode of the Leaders in Business podcast, Marlene is joined by Rebecca Rigby, Operations Director at Bluestone National Park Resort — a five-star holiday destination in Wales welcoming hundreds of thousands of guests each year.

Rebecca's story is one of full circles. Growing up immersed in her family's thriving hospitality empire — spanning pubs, restaurants, a hotel and a nightclub — she developed a formidable grounding in people, service and work ethic from a young age. But with a burning desire to spread her wings, she studied economics in Bristol before landing her first role at a German investment bank in London, trading on the floor during the turbulent days following 9/11.

In a male-dominated environment where she was once told by a senior leader that "no woman would ever make it on his trading floor," Rebecca chose to answer with determination rather than defeat — and proved him wrong. After several years in the city, she followed her heart back to Wales and rejoined the family business, only to find that deep-rooted generational expectations around gender could not be shifted regardless of her efforts. It was a pivotal and difficult decision, but one that ultimately set her on the path to discovering her own leadership identity.

From her early days at Bluestone, through to a senior commercial role at the National Trust navigating the complex balance between conservation and commerce, Rebecca's journey has been shaped by moments of growth, reinvention and the courage to choose her own direction. Eight years later, she returned to Bluestone as Operations Director — a role that felt, in every sense, like coming home.

Marlene and Rebecca explore the fascinating concept of generational pivoting — the shift between traditional family models and the evolving expectations of today's workforce — and the importance of creating space for both men and women to navigate that change authentically. Rebecca also shares her passion for elevating the hospitality sector as a destination for meaningful, long-term careers, and reflects on the possibility of one day building a family business legacy of her own.

A warm, candid and genuinely inspiring conversation about resilience, identity and what it truly means to lead.

In this powerful episode of Leaders in Business, host Marlene Lowe speaks with Amy Callaghan, former Member of Parliament for East Dunbartonshire and current Strategic Political Adviser at Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland. Amy's story is one of extraordinary resilience, marked by life-altering health events that redirected her path from teaching to politics to advocacy.

Amy's journey began at age 19 with a melanoma diagnosis that opened her eyes to health inequalities in the West of Scotland. This experience, combined with support from Teenage Cancer Trust, transformed her aspirations from becoming a teacher to entering politics to create systemic change. She witnessed firsthand how young people with cancer needed greater psychological and financial support, and how many preventable deaths resulted from health inequalities.

After working as a staffer in the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood—which she describes as a "modern functioning parliament"—Amy stood for Westminster and achieved a remarkable victory in 2019, defeating the incumbent leader of a Westminster party by just 149 votes. However, her time as an MP was immediately challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by a severe brain haemorrhage that left her navigating Parliament as a young woman with an acquired disability.

The conversation reveals the stark contrast between Holyrood and Westminster, particularly regarding accessibility and support for disabled MPs. Amy had to campaign for the basic right to a proxy vote whilst recovering from her brain injury—an experience she describes as "resentful" but one that left a positive legacy for future MPs with disabilities.

Amy speaks candidly about authentic leadership, distinguishing between showing up when you shouldn't (which she did) versus being true to yourself by acknowledging capacity limits. Her cyclical grief over her acquired disability, leadership challenges during the pandemic whilst consuming information simultaneously with constituents, and the pressure of being perceived as strong when feeling vulnerable paint a realistic picture of leadership under extraordinary circumstances.

Now at Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland, Amy works on the very rehabilitation programme that helped her regain independence—including the seemingly small but profoundly significant goal of being able to put on her own bra so she could wear power suits in Parliament. The programme challenges outdated scientific evidence about stroke recovery timelines, proving that neuroplasticity continues far longer than previously believed.

The episode concludes with Amy's passionate call to protect democracy, encouraging listeners to research candidates thoroughly, align votes with personal values, and actively lobby their elected representatives. Her message is clear: every vote counts, and democracy requires active participation, not passive observation.

In this captivating episode of Leaders in Business, host Marlene Lowe discovers an unexpected connection with guest Hamish Taylor—both with roots in Zambia's Copper Belt, setting the stage for a conversation filled with personal insights and professional wisdom. Hamish's remarkable career journey spans from Procter & Gamble's rigorous brand management training to transforming customer experience across British Airways, Eurostar, and Sainsbury's Bank.

Hamish's story begins with his education at St Andrews University and an MBA in America during the early days when MBAs weren't popular in Europe. His first claim to fame was becoming "the UK's leading expert on housewives' toilet cleaning habits" at Procter & Gamble—an experience that taught him the fundamental principle that would define his career: it's not about your product, it's about the customer benefit.

The conversation reveals how Hamish thrived as "the outsider"—the non-banker running a bank, the non-railwayman running a railway. His philosophy centres on the Procter & Gamble principle of customer benefit over product features, which he brilliantly demonstrated at British Airways with the "arrive ready for business" promise that revolutionised business class travel with innovations like arrival lounges and pre-flight dining.

Hamish candidly discusses his career transitions, admitting he "gets bored easily" and explaining how each move taught him that technical brilliance isn't enough—the missing piece is always putting the customer at the centre. His turnaround experiences at Eurostar (starting with a £206 million loss, no service due to Channel Tunnel fire, and striking French workers) and Sainsbury's Bank showcase his ability to transform product-led organisations into customer-centric businesses.

The episode explores three levels of customer experience: product quality, customer experience, and emotional connection. Hamish argues that whilst product competence is essential, true differentiation comes from how you make customers feel—citing Disney's "magical surprises" and Starbucks' experience-driven success.

Personal insights emerge as Hamish reveals his biggest weaknesses: not being tough enough and struggling with managing upwards, which ultimately led him to leave corporate life for consulting and speaking. 

The discussion touches on recruitment philosophy, the importance of passion in work, and the challenge of institutional memory loss when experienced leaders leave organisations. Hamish advocates for thinking beyond job titles to focus on the benefits others receive from your expertise, embodying his core principle that "everything we ever do is about somebody else's success.