Ross MSP and finance secretary Kate Forbes welcomes Scotland's start-up czar at Highland launch
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Finance Secretary Kate Forbes announced the appointment of Scotland’s chief entrepreneur, Mark Logan.
The pair were given a tour of the Wasps Inverness Creative Academy by CEO Audrey Carlin and introduced to some of those renting space there.
The venture has been held up as a potential template for other places in the Highlands.
The role will see Mr Logan work with agencies, governments, private individuals and entrepreneurs to develop “the best possible conditions” to launch new businesses – anywhere in Scotland.
The move is part of the National Strategy for Economic Transformation and will entail the creation of a network of support for start-ups and skills-ups in Scotland aimed at boosting economic growth.
Mr Logan said: “I think in this endeavour it is essential we enfranchise the whole population in what we're doing because otherwise what's the point?”
Asked to define his role, he said: “The way I think about it is that every job that exists today, your job, my job, everyone's job here today exists because someone started something – we sometimes forget that, starters in our economy and our society are incredibly important.
“My role is about working with many people, agencies, governments, private individuals and entrepreneurs etc, to develop the policies that we can apply to society to create those conditions. So that is a focal point for that exercise.”
The much praised £6 million revamp of the former Inverness Royal Academy building has been widely praised and Mr Logan said that similar facilities elsewhere could work well for the Highlands.
He said: “I think it is a good model and I think in this endeavour it is essential we enfranchise the whole population in what we're doing because otherwise what's the point? Big cities will tend to find their way anyway.
“So we've got to make sure that if you're living in George Street in Edinburgh or in Wick you've got the same opportunities to start companies.
“We've met businesses today that are flourishing with international customers all over the world and they're based here in Inverness and they've never thought that Inverness is a disadvantage for them.”
Ms Forbes said: “The chief entrepreneur is one of the most exciting announcements since the publication of the National Strategy for Economic Transformation and I'm delighted that Mark Logan has accepted the role.
“His job will be to build a network of support for start-ups and skills-ups in Scotland, ultimately to drive economic growth in Scotland – our ambition is to ensure that Scotland’s economy grows faster than it has and we know that high growth businesses will drive high growth in the economy.
“I think that the whole point here is that there needs to be a network of support. Financial support is one form of support, that is not just about public funding, public funding is important and obviously, through our enterprise agencies we provide grant support, loan support.
“The change that we need to see is targeting that more effectively at the businesses with the greatest potential to grow but the other part of this is very much ensuring that there is private investment too.
“We know that private investment exists, but it's about joining, about basically building that bridge between sources of private finance and the businesses that have these sort of investable propositions to then grow and develop.”
