The Pathways Forward programme, launched in September following the publication of the Scottish Government-commissioned Pathways: A New Approach For Women in Entrepreneurship report, has appointed an advisory group to make further progress on the report’s recommendations.

Carolyn Jameson, professor Eleanor Shaw OBE, and Jo Forster join the advisory board while Darina Garland and Mark Logan OBE have been appointed as advisors, together making up the advisory group. They join Ana Stewart, Pathways Forward chair and co-author of the Pathways report, which highlighted the obstacles women in Scotland face in entrepreneurship.

Speaking on the new advisory group and its creation, Stewart said: “So many individuals have supported us along the way, and continue to support our efforts, but we also wanted to formalise an advisory group to bring even more focus to the very considerable job in hand to remove barriers for women starting and leading businesses in Scotland.”

Jameson is experienced at scaling businesses, having held roles including chief trust and consumer officer at Trustpilot, head of international M&A and corporate development at Ctrip, and chief legal officer at Skyscanner. She is on the boards of Ten Lifestyle Group plc and the Scottish National Investment Bank, and sits on the investment advisory committee for venture capital firm Scottish Equity Partners (SEP).

Prof Eleanor Shaw OBE, who’s dean and head of the University of Glasgow’s Adam Smith Business School and one of Scotland’s leaders in entrepreneurship strategy, was previously an associate principal at the University of Strathclyde. Shaw also holds board positions with the Chartered Association of Business Schools, the Small Business Charter, and the Scaleup Institute.

A longstanding senior marketing and communications executive, Jo Forster is the industry lead for the Rose Review, the independent review originally commissioned by the UK Government in 2018 to report on female entrepreneurship in the UK. Forster works with both the public and private sectors across the UK ecosystem to remove barriers for women in entrepreneurship.

Darina Garland is the co-founder and co-CEO of Ooni, the world’s largest pizza oven company. Garland started her career at the Leith Agency in Edinburgh before setting up her first company Suklaa, running projects and events for clients such as the Royal Opera House, TEDx, NESTA, and the Institute for Education. She is also the co-founder of global education festival Oppi.

Mark Logan OBE is the Scottish Government’s chief entrepreneurial adviser, and was a director at Cisco before joining Skyscanner as chief operating officer in 2012. Logan is also a professor at the University of Glasgow’s School of Computing Science, and advises a number of startups and scaleups in Scotland.

Commenting further on the new advisory group, Stewart said: “I’m delighted to have Carolyn, Eleanor, Jo, Darina and Mark on board. Their combined expertise will be invaluable in informing our strategy going forward. While tangible progress has been made, equally there is still so much more work to do.

“We are already developing a number of initiatives, which we will further formalise in the coming weeks and months, one of which will enable companies from across the entire entrepreneurial ecosystem to sign-up to the principles underpinning Pathways through action-led commitments.”

Recommended reading

• ‘Stewart Review’ to Support Business Ambitions for Scots Women
• Women Entrepreneurship: New Scot Gov Report Tackles Gender Barriers
• Ana Stewart’s Pathways Forward Programme Set for Investor Event

In October last year, the Scottish Government’s cabinet secretary Neil Gray announced £2.9 million in funding for entrepreneurs including women and other priority groups split between two funds.

The Ecosystem Fund provided 42 recipients with £1.6 million, while 20 projects received £1.3 million through the new Pre-Start Pathways Fund — which is helping to develop a pre-start network to bring more people into the entrepreneurship pipeline.

The establishment of a network of pop-up ‘pre-start’ centres across Scotland, a key recommendation of the Stewart Report, is aimed at making it easier for women to access pathways into entrepreneurship.