THE University of Strathclyde’s Fraser of Allander Institute economic think-tank has appointed Mairi Spowage, a senior statistician at the Scottish Government, as deputy director.
Ms Spowage’s previous roles have included head of national economic statistics and deputy chief executive of the Scottish Fiscal Commission.
READ MORE: Ian McConnell: We must cling on to hope of Brexit slipping through Johnson’s fingers
Fraser of Allander noted the appointment coincided with the recruitment of additional researchers as it continued to expand its research into the Scottish, UK and global economies.
Professor Graeme Roy, director of Fraser of Allander, said: “Mairi will lead on our economic analysis and take forward a number of exciting new projects including our new Economic Futures initiative, which aims to support more young people to take an interest in applied economics and policy analysis."
He added: "Mairi joins the institute after an outstanding career in the Scottish civil service, where she led a number of important initiatives to improve the coverage of economic statistics in Scotland. Mairi will also bring a brilliant insight into the Scottish policy-making process and the use of evidence to inform decision-making."
READ MORE: Ian McConnell: Paris metro poster for slapstick British farce evokes Brexit metaphor
He declared the recruitment of Ms Spowage as "a major vote of confidence in the institute and its recent growth".
He added: "We have doubled in size over the last year to cope with the increased demand for our work."
Ms Spowage said “I’m delighted to be joining the Fraser of Allander Institute at such an exciting time. I look forward to working with Graeme and the institute’s brilliant team of researchers.”
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 here