A MANAGER involved in setting up the Edinburgh tram project has been appointed as the champion of Scotland's cities.
Geoff Duke worked for Tie, the body charged with delivering the capital's trams, between 2002 and 2007.
Initially, he was a project manager assigned to get the Edinburgh Tram Line Two Bill through parliament to royal assent, and once that was completed he switched to managing the land acquisition prior to construction work.
Since leaving Tie he has been a consultant for Jacobs and for the past 18 months has been at Sustainable Glasgow.
Now the chartered civil engineer has been appointed as the first director of the Scottish Cities Alliance.
He is being asked to oversee shared commercial projects and joint investment plans to generate growth and jobs across Scotland's seven cities.
That will involve convincing foreign investors and sovereign wealth funds to spend money on everything from digital connectivity and infrastructure to culture. The role is based within the Scottish Council for Development and Industry's policy team.
Dr Lesley Sawers, chief executive of SCDI, said: "Geoff's appointment is a key part of strengthening SCDI's expertise in the delivery of Scotland's cities agenda.
"Geoff's considerable experience and expertise in economic development, planning and sustainability across the public and private sectors adds to the strengths of the Scottish Cities Alliance. The skills Geoff brings to this role will further develop the collaborative work of Scotland's cities."
The role is being jointly funded by the cities and the Scottish Government.
Deputy First Minister and Minister for Cities Nicola Sturgeon said: "The Scottish Cities Alliance will create new economic partnerships, get more investment, jobs and businesses in our cities and help Scotland's cities compete more successfully on the international stage."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article