Scottish Rural Leadership Programme

In this episode, Julia Latto of Scottish Enterprise and rural consultant Emily Grant talk openly about leadership and the lifelong value of the Rural Leadership Programme. They reflect on the many opportunities open to the Programme's Alumni to continue their leadership and business growth journey. And in this episode, there's a sneak preview of what's in store for 2026. 

The Scottish Rural Leadership Programme takes business owners and senior leaders on a transformational journey to ignite their businesses, communities and Scotland as a whole.  

The Scottish Rural Leadership Programme takes business owners and senior leaders on a transformational journey to ignite their businesses, communities and Scotland as a whole.  

Hear what some of those leaders had to say about what drives them during this year's closing conference, when we focussed on storytelling for leadership. Soundfile produced by StrategyStory.

Poran Malani is a marketer who has an astute perceptiveness that enables him to identify the challenges that are holding businesses back, and how to address them through clever communication. 

Having worked with global brands like Coca Cola and Vodafone, he has built a track record as one of the marketing world’s great Ad Men. 

At the recent Rural Leaders in Conversation event in the northeast, our podcast host, Jane Craigie, caught up with Rural Leader Donald Boyd.

Donald discusses his 15 years of involvement with Huntly Development Trust (HDT) and the investments it has made, and is making, to ensure the long-term sustainability of the market town, including the purchase of Greenmyres and the erection of a community wind turbine.

The 63 acre rural site, which is owned and run by the community, has been transformed into a recreational and biodiversity destination and is open to the public for walking, cycling and camping with the Ecobothy available for private hire for events, parties and workshops.

Tune in to hear more about what the future plans of HDT are, and the scale of the investments they have made to date.

A lovely, open conversation between Sarah Cruickshank, and host, Jane Craigie about Sarah's role managing fly fishing and holiday accomodation on the River Deveron.

Sarah talks about working with her father, his passion for fishing leading to Deveronside Fishings and ownership of seven miles of double bank fishing. Sarah also talks about rural tourism, fish stocks and the future of fishing and the river Deveron. 

In our latest podcast, we caught up with Rural Leaders from both sides of the Atlantic at the Highland Show, including our guest speaker Rawley Hicks, who is at the sharp end of agricultural machinery innovation. Tune in to find out what's currently top of mind for these Rural Leaders. 

Catherine Drummond Herdman has the most fascinating story. Her home, Megginch Castle, situated between Perth and Dundee, has been in the family since 1660. Borne of generations of plantspeople, it's not at all surprising to hear Catherine's deep relationship with plants, the soil and her heritage. In this very warm and wonderful conversation, Catherine talks about her cancer diagnosis and recovery, the healing and purpose that plants brought her, and her tea and apple growing passions. Catherine has an orchard of over1,400 trees representing over 800 varieties of apples - part of the National Apple Collection. She also has a bloodhound - Ella - a huge and glorious creature that Catherine works with to track down lost dogs. Listening to Catherine is a joyful, hopeful and wonderful experience, one that we hope you will enjoy.

Julia has over 25 years in economic development and currently leads on a wide portfolio of national rural programmes for Scottish Enterprise. These include the Rural Leadership Programme, Agritourism Monitor Farm and many other programmes to support rural leaders to develop themselves, their businesses and their communities. These programmes engage with a wide range of rural sectors including agriculture, tourism, food and drink, energy, horticulture and rural services and involve supporting rural businesses the length and breadth of Scotland. 

James Barr has just completed the Rural Leadership Programme and is a man with many talents. Up until recently, he has worked for Cuthbertson in Lanarkshire, designers and manufacturers of winter maintenance. Operating since 1936, the company has remained true to its roots of supporting Scottish rural businesses.

James is also involved in the family dairy farm and trained at university as a lawyer – something he will be putting to good use with his new job with SSE.

Tune in to this short 15-minute podcast and find out more about James and his leadership journey so far. 

Alix Ritchie is a Perthshire farmer and passionate advocate for the rural community, who was recently appointed as the very first Programme Director for Farmstrong Scotland - a new peer-to-peer wellbeing programme. 

She has developed an understanding of agriculture, education and skills development through working with SAYFC, RHET and most recently QMS as Health & Education Manager. She is also a board member of the Women in Agriculture network.

In our podcast this month, she shares her story since completing the Scottish Rural Leadership Programme, and why wellbeing is such an important topic for agriculture, and rural areas.