How do you approach a task like breaking down and analysing Mark Logan’s time in government?

It’s been over four years since he published the Scottish Tech Ecosystem Review (STER), coinciding with the end of his first two years as Chief Entrepreneur of Scotland, a role that was essentially created for Logan.

We’re certainly not bereft when it comes to lines of inquiry – key areas of progress made since the STER report, areas where Logan felt he could have made further progress, vulnerable points in the tech ecosystem, challenges in government, what he was looking forward to next – are a few that spring to mind.

He had just published an update to the DeepTech Supercluster initiative he was excited to spearhead, when just two days later, he announced his resignation via a LinkedIn post.

Despite not mincing his words in said post, speculations – as well as support – flooded in, and now, Logan would be forced back into the limelight he so often tried to avoid, as commentators (representing both good and bad faith) scramble to define his legacy.

In this interview with DIGIT, we speak to the former Chief Entrepreneur to discuss his time in government, and why he left, in his own words.

From STER to Chief Entrepreneur

Logan saw his transition from writing STER to leading its implementation as a linear, sensical progression.

Once he wrote the STER report, which reviewed the current Scottish tech ecosystem and offered various key recommendations, he could not help but feel attached.

“I think I realised after completing STER that if I really wanted to see it come to fruition, I would need to follow over the wall into implementation,” Logan said.

He realised if he left the report’s fate in the hands of others it would leave it “open to a lot of interpretation, and potential for dilution.

“I think it was useful to keep an author of a report like that very much in the vanguard of its implementation, so that the original intent and meaning wasn’t lost in translation.”

When Logan cut his teeth in the Scottish startup scene in the 90s, Scotland lacked an interconnected ecosystem.

Logan reflects on the challenges faced by early startups, emphasising the absence of supportive networks and resources at that time.

“There weren’t any of the support networks or social networks, or even good places to go and start a tech company in those days.

“That’s changed a lot.”

Logan noted that just before STER, the Scottish government did not necessarily take the idea of a tech startup nation as seriously as it does now, resources were “isolated,” unlike successful national strategies in countries like Estonia, Finland, and Lithuania.

“The government did not talk about tech startups or ecosystems at that time – it wasn’t really in the vocabulary.”

He says: “Now, there’s a much stronger sense of a systematic model and approach that spans multiple stakeholders, it’s much easier to collaborate because we have a common model for what we’re trying to do. There’s also a lot more belief in the ecosystem that you can make improvements to the betterment of the companies that are trying to thrive within it.”

His reflection on the thematic manifestations his work with the government has created has galvanised a true explosion of life in the Scottish tech ecosystem.

Logan could of course discuss the success of Techscaler in the short term, with the programme claiming in its first annual report that companies supported by Techsclaer attracted investment of more than £52 million in 2023 – according to the project’s first Annual Report.

He also provided some updated figures, saying that the total investment raised by Techscaler startups since joining totals £91.2m, with 908 startups.

Beyond this, STER has prompted the formation of STACS to improve computing science education, the establishment of an Ecosystem Fund to help startups, as well as the formation of the Northern Scaleup Fund to help more remote regions feel the benefits of the newly forming ecosystem. Of course, it would be remiss to not mention the Pathways report (which Logan co-authored with Ana Stewart), which highlighted the need to mitigate gender imbalance in Scottish entrepreneurship, its associated Pathways Fund, and, just days before he announced his resignation, the formation of a DeepTech Supercluster.

All of these, of course, come with a caveat, it’s hard to objectively gauge the success of any of these initiatives in isolation – time will tell how meaningful their impact will be.

It’s an impact that Logan won’t be in office to see following his shock resignation.

Recommended reading

• Techscaler One Year In: Hit or Miss?
• Mark Logan Resigns as Chief Entrepreneurial Advisor
• Scotland: A Technology Nation (Just Don’t Mention Education)

Working in government

So how did we get here?

In terms of looking back, Logan was realistic on how things work in government – it takes persistence and patience to see things through.

While education reform was one of his “greater frustrations,” it also imparted important lessons on how to balance a considered, thoughtful approach to government, whilst managing the need for speedy addressing of key issues.

“There’s good reasons why governments are thoughtful and cautious, but there’s no question that the government and civil service in Scotland could move faster than it does,” he pointed out.

Essentially, Logan’s frustration was rooted in bureaucratic processes and structural barriers, rather than in taking time for careful consideration.

“My eternal ask of government is to learn how to iterate more quickly – and this is not a party political point, because it’d be the same challenge that any party in power would find,” he clarified.

“We have to always seek to better learn how to subordinate functional priorities to the tasks needing done, the jobs needing done in the country which span those boundaries.”

It’s a similar problem many face in any large company, Logan assured, though in government the stakes are even greater, often more care will be necessary, and decisions and actions will be met with greater scrutiny. But speed is still of importance.

Despite this, Logan feels that in his time with the government, a lot got done, though it’s clear he feels that with more streamlined governmental processes, much more could be achieved.

On his resignation

Mark’s resignation statement did not leave much to the imagination, saying he was ‘increasingly becoming a target for some in the right-wing of Scottish politics and their supporting publications.’

While the circumstances of his departure certainly sent shockwaves through the ecosystem, the nature of his implementation in the role were unprecedented.

Logan was the only industry expert brought in, and he was meant to advise on and encompass the entire entrepreneurial ecosystem, despite his background being firmly in tech.

Reflecting on this isolation, and considering the amount of time Logan bore the role, it’s given him a clear idea on how a future Chief Entrepreneur could progress this kind of work.

If nothing else, Logan’s time made it clear that he would like to see more industry experts working in government to better address the diversity of the ecosystem.

“There’s absolutely no question that the principle of bringing people like me close to government is the right one.

“But, we shouldn’t just have one person doing that.”

Having a pluralistic aspect to the role of chief entrepreneur would perhaps have avoided some of the pitfalls Logan experienced.

In his first address to the Scottish Parliament, conservative MSPs asked him nothing about his work or recommendations, but only challenged the existence of his position.

While looking at Logan’s body of work in his time in government could certainly serve as a solid justification for the existence of the role, these kinds of questions early in his tenure warned him that he would be playing not just an advisory role, but a political one as well.

It was the increasing number of these attacks – Logan was candid in calling out articles like those in the Daily Express and the Telegraph, as well as repeated criticisms from Conservative MPs – that made him consider if this was the right role for him.

“As I got into the second-half of this year, I started to detect an uptick of this sort of stuff and I decided to start monitoring that more closely. It was clear that this was going to escalate quickly, as my potential contract extension neared, and as we edged closer to elections in Scotland.” Logan said.

His frustration was palpable as he noted the frequent Freedom of Information requests requiring detail on every single meeting he had and their associated minutes in an attempt to place a price tag on conversations over coffee.

Logan’s salary continually came up during his tenure. He was contracted for two days a week to work for the Scottish Government, though both he and members of the government say he most often exceeded this time scale, and could have been paid £200K a year. In actuality, he says he was paid about £130k per year, with the FOI request revealing he was paid £236,000 during his time as Chief Entrepreneur.

With this in mind, Logan felt that his position was at risk of being scrutinised for all the wrong reasons, and would pull attention away from his accomplishments and further goals, especially with an election ahead.

“Four and a half years is a long time to be doing a job of this nature,” he said of the job, as well.

He had reached a point in the DeepTech Supercluster initiative where he felt comfortable announcing its current phase, before announcing his resignation.

“In isolation of all those things, I would have been delighted to continue work on these, along with other initiatives.”

However, these attacks were ‘draining’, and affecting Logan’s mental wellbeing.

”At some point you’re going to say that ‘this isn’t the best thing for you, Mark, and it’s time to protect yourself a little bit.’”

He had been doing the job for longer than he imagined – back when he wrote STER, he thought that would be that. Eventually, he realised he had choices.

The part-time role was eating up more of his time – Logan is a university professor at the University of Glasgow where he teaches 100 students each year, and he also works as a private consultant.

Logan is a self-proclaimed introvert who is also autistic. He says that, within this context, he was able to successfully manage the many public-facing aspects of the job – the presentations, meetings, networking, intensively liaising with a large number of stakeholders, though at times it could be draining.

He successfully managed his autism during his prior roles, such as his stint as Chief Operating Officer of Skyscanner, often able to tend to his own needs throughout his career, and use the “considerable advantages” of being a variant on the spectrum throughout his life, even in the era before tech decided to champion itself as a sector made of and supporting of neurodivergent people.

“It probably helped me to write the STER report in six weeks, for example,” he says.

He does not regret not mentioning his autism during his time in government, saying that “it was something that I’ve managed perfectly effectively throughout my entire career and I didn’t need to make it anyone else’s issue, was what I felt.”

By all reasonable accounts, his assessment was right – he successfully worked with the government for over four years, fulfilling many of his ambitious goals, and laid a foundation for Scotland to realise its entrepreneurial aspirations.

“But a relatively new experience for me was to become, or be at risk of becoming Scotland’s pantomime villain in a very public way, as a result of systematic attempts to deliberately undermine my position by the Conservative party.

“I feared that might be too much for me to want to add on to an already, as you can imagine, quite demanding role I had.”

He said his ability to manage his autism amidst these growing “attacks” was “a key consideration for me.”

Mark was also concerned of what this might mean for government, thinking that the continued visceral media attacks would be a distraction from the work of the government.

While there are areas in which Logan wished he could have dedicated more time – supporting social enterprises and ‘scale deep’ efforts –  he feels like he has left the overall Scottish ecosystem in capable hands.

However, he is well aware that these foundations need to be nurtured, and have many vulnerabilities.

“Something I put great store on is the value of narrative.

“You know, what’s the story that we are telling ourselves that we can then go and execute on?

“And I would just urge my peers across those and other areas to continue to be clear on what the narrative is.

“Why are we doing the things we are doing and how are we going to get them done and what’s the consequences of not getting them done.”

Mark said that one of the great things about his role was that he had the “freedom to narrate” which he knows may be more difficult for institutions to do.

This is something he urges the government to look for when seeking to fill the role in the future.

“I genuinely feel that our various projects are in safe hands, but I do feel there’s still vulnerability because, you know, any country can go backwards as well as forwards,” he noted.

And Mark is not going anywhere. He spent far more than the four years in government working for the Scottish tech ecosystem.

He turned down opportunities to chase California dreams in Silicon Valley, or cement himself in the already solid London ecosystem.

“I always made the deliberate choice that I was going to invest my contribution in Scotland alongside others who are doing the same,” he said.

“I will still absolutely continue to contribute.”

He’s not sure what these contributions will look like at the moment, besides his existing commitments, but Mark Logan is not “walking off into the mystical sunset.”