Ray Perman

Ray Perman "is a member of the board of Scottish Enterprise and is chairman of Social Investment Scotland, which makes loans to the social economy. He Chairs the Small Business Investment Taskforce for the DTI and is an Adviser to the Scottish Executive on Enterprise Education. He is a member of the court of Heriot Watt University and a trustee of the Stewart Ivory Foundation, a charity supporting financial education in Scotland.

"He is also chairman of Good Practice Ltd, the leading provider of HR management toolkits over the Internet.

"He was Chief Executive of Scottish Financial Enterprise, the representative organisation for the Scottish financial services sector, from January 1999 to April 2003.

"He started his working life as a journalist on newspapers including The Times and the Financial Times, before co-founding the business magazine company Insider Publications Ltd in 1983. The company was sold to Trinity Mirror plc in 1999.

"He was a director of the company which bought the Herald and Glasgow Evening Times from Lonrho, from 1994 until its acquisition in 1996.

"Ray, who is 58, was born in London, but has lived in Edinburgh since 1975. He is married to the journalist and editor Fay Young. They have three sons. Ray also has a strong interest in conservation. From 2000-2004 he was Chairman of the Scottish Advisory Council of WWF and a member of the board of trustees of WWF UK."