LESLEY Sawers, chief executive of the Scottish Council for Development and Industry (SCDI), is leaving to take up a newly created senior role at Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU).
After five years heading SCDI, which followed two years leading Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, one of Scotland's best-known businesswomen will become vice-principal for business development at GCU in early summer. She was appointed a visiting professor at the university last year and had given an inaugural lecture on global leadership.
Professor Sawers said: "I have always been close to that university and over the past few years that I have been at SCDI we have worked increasingly closely together." She said vice-chancellor Professor Pamela Gillies had "transformed" GCU, with an ambition to recruit more overseas students but "more importantly to provide access to opportunity" around the city.
She said the university was keen to bring in someone with commercial and international experience to help expand through overseas growth, including marketing in India and China.
Professor Gillies said: "Professor Sawers' exceptional knowledge and experience will have a transformational impact on how we identify and develop new opportunities to support business." She added: "The university and SCDI have had a very effective partnership in recent years."
Professor Sawers was Glasgow Chamber's first female leader in its 230-year history when appointed in 2006. She is a non-executive at the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency, a member of the Scottish Trade and Economic Growth Board, chairwoman of the Scottish Cities Alliance Leadership Group, and chairwoman of BusinessClub Scotland. She has an economics degree from Glasgow University and a PhD from the Institute of Retail Studies in Stirling.
She said SCDI was "in good shape" for a successor to take on.
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