thirty-one ... fifty

0 Comments | Sunday Herald, The, Aug 25, 2002

Here he is attempting to create a careful balance between alternative renewables and the prospect of further nuclear generation in Scotland.

The latter proposal could bring about a bitter clash between the government in Whitehall and the Scottish Parliament, which he campaigned long and hard not to create.

Alex Salmond

SNP former leader Age: 47 Education: Linlithgow Academy; St Andrews University Bowed out of the leadership two years ago, but making sure he is neither gone nor forgotten, his leadership of the Westminster MPs and regular reminders of his political and presentational skills are a thorn in the side of his less charismatic successor through a difficult transition phase for the party. Salmond remains publicly loyal, but with his own band of loyalists, he can intervene at will in the party's future direction.

Keith Miller Miller Group chief executive Age: 53 Education: Heriot-Watt and Glasgow universities The family-owned construction group is moving onto a different level under the latest generation's more hard-edged leadership. Growing through the Edinburgh Park development, it is a key player in private finance of public services, starting with the Skye bridge and, more recently, Glasgow's school refurbishment.

House-building and property development are expanding aggressively, with Europe's biggest business park planned for Warrington. It is a risky strategy in rocky economic times.

Charlie Gordon Glasgow Council leader Age: 50 Education: St Mungo's Academy Three years as leader of Scotland's biggest council have set Gordon out on a limb from other councils.

He takes a confrontational attitude to the Scottish parliament, but relented over its plan to solve the council housing nightmare by taking it all away from him.

His power is as much to block as to solve solutions to Glasgow's problems, but at least the council's internal Labour feuding is diminished.

Lord Sutherland of Houndwood Edinburgh University principal Age: 61 Education: Robert Gordon's College, Aberdeen; Aberdeen and Cambridge universities Created one of the first 15 "people's peers", Sutherland is a philosophy academic. He is a former English schools chief inspector and London University principal who has led Edinburgh University into an international research league, including an alliance with California's Stanford.

As chair of the UK Royal Commission which recommended free care for the elderly, he was architect of Scotland's most daring policy departure.

Soon to retire, he takes over leadership of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Chris van der Kuyl

VIS Interactive Age: 33 Education: St Saviour's High, Dundee; Edinburgh University leading light among young technology entrepreneurs and accomplished self-publicist. Basing his computer games company in Dunfermline earned him the ear of Gordon Brown. Admirers include senior figures at Bank of Scotland, who helped fund him. Chairman of Young Enterprise Scotland and director of Schools Enterprise Scotland, role-modelling even though his own bottom line isn't much to emulate yet.