There are currently nine members of the Board of Trustees. Their responsibilities are to oversee the management of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and to provide strategic guidance to the Senior Management. Trustees are appointed (and can be reappointed) for four yearly terms by Scottish Ministers. The Board is accountable to Scottish Ministers through the Chairman.
Lord Charles Howick
is a plant collector and farmer who has worked as a merchant banker in London for 20 years. He became a Trustee in 2001. He has farmed and developed his estate on the east coast of Northumberland since 1982. He retained an interest in the commercial world as a Non-Executive Director of Northern Rock Bank until 2001.
His garden has been open to the public for many years. Since 1985, he has planted a new arboretum on 60 acres entirely from wild collected seed. He has joined expeditions to all parts of the temperate world, especially to Sichuan in China in a joint programme with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Quarryhill Botanical Garden in California.
Lord Howick is also a Trustee of the Chelsea Physic Garden and The Arboretum at Syon Park in London, and a member of the Advisory Council at Westonbirt Arboretum in Gloucestershire. Formerly a Trustee of The National Collections Fund and The Baring Foundation, he remains a Trustee of the Northern Rock Foundation.
Dame Barbara Kelly DBE
is a partner in a farming business in south-west Scotland and has been a Trustee since November 2002. She has served on public sector bodies including the main Boards of Scottish Enterprise, the Scottish Tourist Board and Scottish Natural Heritage. She was Chair of the Scottish Consumer Council and Commissioner for Scotland on the UK Equal Opportunities Commission. She also set up and chaired the UK Architects Registration Board. She was the first woman director of the Clydesdale Bank plc, sat on the BP plc Scottish Board, the BT Scottish Advisory Committee and the Scottish Post Office Board.
She has a special interest in rural affairs and is presently President of the Southern Uplands Partnership. She chaired the Millennium Forest for Scotland Trust, responsible for managing a £31m woodland project throughout Scotland. In 1998, she was made Deputy Lieutenant of Dumfriesshire and she was awarded a DBE in 2007. She also holds Honorary Doctorates from the Universities of Strathclyde, Aberdeen and Glasgow. Her interests include gardening and the arts.
Mr David Mathewson
has been a Trustee since March 2001. At RBGE he is also a member of the Campaign Board for the Gateway Project. A Chartered Accountant, he has had a career in merchant banking in the UK and overseas. After graduating from the University of St Andrews, he qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1972 and held various senior banking posts overseas before joining Noble Grossart, merchant bankers, in 1986. He became a Director of Noble Grossart in 1989. He is currently the Chairman of Asian Growth Properties, Corsie Group plc, and Amazing Holdings plc. He is also a Director of Edinburgh Tracker Trust plc and the Robertson Group Ltd. His interests are family, golf, mahjong and all things botanical.
Sir George Mathewson CBE, LLD, FRSE - Chairman
became Chairman of the Board of Trustees in November 2007. At RBGE he is also Chairman of the Campaign Board. He joined The Royal Bank of Scotland Group in 1987 and in 1990 was appointed Deputy Group Chief Executive. In 1992 he was appointed Group Chief Executive and, following the acquisition of NatWest, was appointed Executive Deputy Chairman in 2000. In 2001 Sir George became Chairman of the Group, retiring from the Chairmanship in 2006 but continuing as an Advisor.
Sir George has been a Director of the Scottish Investment Trust since 1981, was on the Board of Directors of the Institute of International Finance from 2001 to 2006 and served as President of the International Monetary Conference in 2005 for one year. In 2006 he was appointed as a Director of Stagecoach Group, joined the new Advisory Board for McKinsey & Company European Banking Practice and was appointed Chairman of Toscafund Holdings Ltd and Cheviot Capital Ltd. As well as his new appointment at RBGE, this year Sir George was appointed Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to the Scottish Parliament and Chairman of Wood Mackenzie Ltd.
Sir George is married with two grown up sons. His leisure pursuits include skiing, rugby, hill walking, tennis and cycling.
Ms Katrina Morrison
is Tourism Product Development Manager with Scottish Enterprise. She became a Trustee in July 2005. After graduating from Aberdeen University, Ms Morrison studied in Spain before working for Blackwells for ten years as a bookshop manager. She joined Scottish Enterprise Grampian in 1993 working on the development of a series of visitor attractions and tourism initiatives. She completed an MBA at Robert Gordon University in 1997 and left Aberdeen in 2000 to work in communications at Scottish Enterprise National.
Since 2001, she has been part of the national Scottish Enterprise tourism team where she has responsibility for tourism product development.
Her interests include folk dancing and music, learning languages and gardening.
Mrs Angela McNaught
became a Trustee in June 2008. At the RBGE she is also the Chairman of the Audit Committee. A certified Accountant with over 20 years experience working in financial roles starting as a graduate trainee at KPMG in 1987, she holds a BSc in Geography and Geology. Most recently she worked as the Finance Director of the Events & Exhibition Organising Division of Earls Court & Olympia. Mrs McNaught moved to Scotland in 2004 and has since been carrying out financial consultancy and performed voluntary work in the local community including Chair of a local play group. She is married with two daughters and her leisure pursuits currently revolve around caring for a young family.
Professor Janet Sprent OBE, FRSE
is Emeritus Professor of Plant Biology at the University of Dundee and became a Trustee in February 2007. She is also an Honorary Research Fellow of the Scottish Crop Research Institute, a member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, and a member of RERAD Strategic Scientific Advisory Panel. Professor Sprent has over 40 years' experience of plant science research, with particular interest in symbiotic nitrogen fixation. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, she was awarded an OBE in 1996 for services to science and education. In 2002, her research in the field of ecology was recognised with an Honorary Membership of the British Ecological Society. She retired from the Board of Scottish Natural Heritage in March 2007.
Among former appointments, she was Chairman of Governors of Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, a member of the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council, a Council member of the Natural Environment Research Council, and Deputy Principal of the University of Dundee. With publications and collaborations across the world, Professor Sprent's research continues and her current special interest is in evolution of the Leguminosae.
Dr Ian Sword CBE, FRSE
became a Trustee in January 2007. At RBGE, he is also a Trustee of the Botanics Foundation. A scientist with experience of international business, Dr Sword studied chemistry at Glasgow, Princeton and Oxford Universities. He moved to Inveresk Research in 1973 and after becoming CEO in 1979, he subsequently led a management buy-out, then sale to SGS Geneva in 1989. He received a CBE in 2002 for services to research, education and enterprise. In 2003, Dr Sword became a Director of the private equity group Archangel Informal Investment Ltd. He has served on boards including that of the Medical Research Council, Scottish Higher Education Funding Council, Royal College of Physicians Edinburgh, Caledonian Research Foundation, Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh and LothianLux Biotech, Stem Cell Sciences and Scalar Technologies. He is currently a Trustee of Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, Chair of Scottish Stem Cell Network, Honorary Professor University of Dundee, Honorary Research Fellow University of Glasgow and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Professor Michael Usher OBE, FRSE
is Chair of the Inter-Agency Climate Change Forum of the Joint Nature Conservation Committee. He became a Trustee in November 2002. An ecologist and conservationist with particular interest in biodiversity, Professor Usher graduated in forestry at the University of Edinburgh, and taught ecology, soil biology and conservation at the University of York. After moving to Edinburgh in 1991, he became Chief Scientist at what is now Scottish Natural Heritage.
With honorary professorships in the Universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Stirling, he is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and in 2001 was awarded an OBE for services to conservation science. Since retiring in 2001, Professor Usher has worked on reports on the effects of climate change on biodiversity in the Arctic and protected areas of Europe covered by the Council of Europe. He is a Trustee of the Woodland Trust, International Conservation Fellow of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust (Jersey), Chairman of RERAD's Programme 3 Group, and an advisor on biodiversity research to the Irish Environmental Protection Agency. His interests include growing vegetables, wild plant photography, spiders and insects.