Meet the Board

Chair: Louise Martin CBE

Louise Martin was appointed as Chair of sportscotland in June 2008 having previously served two terms on the Board between 1997 and 2005..

Being passionate about all aspects of Scottish sport, Louise is committed to encouraging everyone to discover and develop their own sporting experience, helping to increase participation and improve performances in Scottish sport.

Louise is the Immediate Past Chair of the Commonwealth Games Scotland (CGS) and has a long and ongoing association with the Games as a competitor, team manager and administrator.

First elected as a board member of CGS in 1995, Louise was Chair from 1999 until November 2007 when her maximum two terms came to a close. She is also the Commonwealth Games Federation Honorary Secretary, being re-elected unopposed for a third term in November 2007 and is the first woman to hold a position on their Executive Board. Louise is also a member of the Commonwealth Advisory Board on Sport

Louise has adopted an innovative and developmental approach in all her work with Commonwealth sport and was responsible for the introduction of the Commonwealth Youth Games to the international sporting calendar, the Commonwealth Sports Development Conference and the development of the Commonwealth Sports Awards.

In 2003 Louise was awarded the CBE in the New Year’s Honours List for services to the Commonwealth Games.

As CGS Chair, Louise led the successful Bid for the 2014 Commonwealth Games which resulted in Glasgow being awarded the Games in November 2007. She has since been appointed as Vice Chair of the Organising Committee.

Other board appointments include UK Sport, Abertay University and Chair of the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame Committee.

Originally a practicing sports nutritionist, the vast majority of Louise’s work in sport has been undertaken in a voluntary capacity.

Away from her busy life in national and international sport, Louise is a committed grandmother to five and nothing gives her more pleasure than helping her grandchildren explore and enjoy their own physical activity and sporting experience

Vice Chair: Ian Beattie

Ian Beattie is a Chartered Accountant and Chief Operating Officer of Lindsays Solicitors. He has worked in the legal sector for the past 8 years, and prior to that held a number of positions in the financial services sector, including Finance Director of Royal Bank Private Equity Group and Head of Finance of Murray Johnstone. He was a non executive director of Scottish Athletics for 4 years. He has also consulted to the UK Athletics / UK Sport Modernisation programme, and was involved in the development of the Bank of Scotland Talented Young Athletes programme.

Ian is an experienced long distance runner, with more than 80 marathons under his belt, and is a member of Harmeny Athletic Club. He is the Race Director of the West Highland Way Race, having completed the race 8 times between 2000 and 2009.

Carolan Dobson

Carolan Dobson is a Competition Commissioner, as well as the Independent Investment Advisor to both the London Borough of Enfield and the Environment Agency's Pension Scheme, and a Non-Executive Director of Shires Smaller Companies plc an investment trust.  Past achievements include being Head of Abbey Asset Managers’ Investment Floor in Glasgow with funds under management of £30billion.  She has also worked for British Waterways as Non-Executive Director where she worked closely with local authorities and helped to establish private public partnerships.

Sir Bill Gammell

Sir Bill Gammell is Non-Executive Chairman of Cairn Energy PLC. Sir Bill founded Cairn and was Chief Executive from the Company’s initial listing in 1988 until 30 June 2011. He has over 35 years experience in the international oil and gas industry and in 2006 he received a knighthood for his services to industry in Scotland.

In 2006 Sir Bill set up and is Chairman of The Winning Scotland Foundation. The Foundation aims to bring about a culture of a winning attitude and through effort an increased achievement and excellence in sport throughout the wider community in Scotland. He is an ex Scottish rugby internationalist and has a number of leisure interests including squash, skiing and football.

Sir Bill joined the Scottish Institute of Sport Board in 1999 and following the merger of the Scottish Institute of Sport and sportscotland in February 2008 was co-opted onto the sportscotland board. He is a Director of Glasgow 2014 and also sits on the British Olympic Advisory Board.

David Gass

David Gass is a partner with Upper Quartile, an international management consultancy based in Edinburgh. Prior to this, he was a senior director with Scottish Enterprise, responsible for the South of Scotland region and SE’s economic development work across rural Scotland. He worked closely across the local authority sector and with other public bodies in this role. A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, he has worked in business and international trade development across a number of industries, and with the University and social enterprise sectors. He has always had a keen interest in sport and is involved in a number of sports clubs in his local community in the Scottish Borders, and when time allows he remains a keen swimmer, and tennis and golf player.

Mike Hay MBE

Mike Hay is the British Olympic Association’s Head of Winter Sport Engagement.  He leads on all technical matters in support of the seven Olympic Winter Sports in preparations for the 2012 Youth Olympic Games, Innsbruck and the  Olympic Winter Games in Sochi 2014.  Mike also forms part of the technical team which will undertake wider responsibilities as part of Team GB’s preparation for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

As well as being an successful curler himself Mike previously was head of the high performance curling programme at the Scottish Institute of Sport during which time the GB curling teams won World titles (1999, 2002, 2006), European titles (1999, 2003) and Olympic Gold in Salt Lake City 2002.  In 2002 Mike was inducted into the Coaching Hall of Fame and in 2004 he received an MBE from the Queen for services to curling.

Mike joined the Scottish Institute of Sport board in September 2007 and following the merger of the Scottish Institute of Sport and sport scotland in February 2008 was co‑opted onto the sport scotland board.

Professor Grant Jarvie

Professor Grant Jarvie is Deputy Principal with the University of Stirling. He comes from an international sporting family, has extensive experience and understanding of sport and education both nationally and internationally and is a passionate advocate of the power of education and sport to make a difference not just in local communities but through international development work. He has held established chairs in two of Scotland’s Universities, is a registered teacher, advisor to the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame, has chaired area institutes of sport, is an Honorary Professor with the University of Warsaw and has been central to the development and recognition of Stirling as Scotland’s University for Sporting Excellence. He has previously advised on the measurement of costs and activity in Higher and Further Education and currently sits on the Cabinet Secretary for education and lifelong learning implementation group for the Curriculum for Excellence. 

Graeme Marchbank

Graeme Marchbank is Global Category Manager, Sport Sponsorship at Diageo, the world's leading premium drinks business and owner of brands such as Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff and Guinness. Following a career in golf administration which included being Director of Tour Operations with the Ladies European Tour and ultimately Director of Golf at the famous Gleneagles Hotel, venue for the 2014 Ryder Cup, Graeme joined Diageo in 2001 and until recently was the Head of Corporate Sponsorship and Events. In his current role Graeme leads corporate sponsorship strategy and is responsible for the sport sponsorships category globally across brands and markets. The role specifically leverages his experience and intimate knowledge of Diageo’s business and his understanding and relationships in the sports marketing community.

When not travelling his interests include, tennis, golf and particularly road cycling.

David Sole OBE

David Sole currently has his own consultancy business where he advises senior executives across a diverse range of industries.  Prior to that he was head of the Leadership Development practice for Whitehead Mann. He has also worked for Diageo in a number of strategic roles. Mr Sole played international rugby for Scotland for seven years and toured with the British Lions and was inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame in 2008.

Rod Stone

Rod Stone has 35 years of professional involvement in sport. In his capacity as Chair of VOCAL, the body that represents local authority chief officers who are responsible for sport and culture, he helped develop a number of national and local initiatives liaising with Scottish Government, COSLA and sportscotland. Mr Stone is a former international athlete who still likes to keep himself fit through recreational involvement in several sports. His other interests – when he finds time – are photography and modern English literature.

Mel Young

Mel Young is the President and co-founder of the Homeless World Cup, an organization established to use sport as a mechanism to create change. He is a globally recognized social entrepreneur who co-founded The Big Issue in Scotland in 1993, the International Network of Street Papers (INSP) in 1995 and Social Entrepreneurs Network Scotland (Senscot) in 1999.  

Code of Conduct

You can view the Members' Code of Conduct in the See Also link at the top right of this page.