In 2001 through a £5m endowment we funded The Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship at Strathclyde University.

Now a world leader in entrepreneurial education and research the Centre also plays a crucial role in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) measuring entrepreneurial activity by country and region.

It is almost satirical that despite years of investment in enterprise education and entrepreneurship, Scotland, thanks to our own Centre’s research, has not moved one jot in becoming more entrepreneurial in the past decade.

We only console ourselves that the millions of pounds we’ve invested in enterprise education alongside out Government and others maybe stemmed a possible reduction in entrepreneurial activity rather than just helping to maintain the status quo.

However we won’t be beaten and are now investing in a variety of programmes we hope will deliver significant impact on entrepreneurship in Scotland – from Scottish Edge to the West Coast Accelerator and Scale-up’s in between.