KATE Forbes has announced Scotland's new chief entrepreneur.
Businesswoman and investor Ana Stewart has been appointed the Scottish Government’s new chief entrepreneur.
The Deputy First Minister made the announcement on Tuesday while on a visit to Inspirent, a social enterprise in Hamilton.
She was joined by Stewart (below), who said she was "looking forward" to contribution to developing the Scottish Government's entrepreneurship strategy.
She will take up the role until July 2026.
Stewart is a tech entrepreneur and investment partner, sitting on a number of boards including pet wellness company Bella & Duke and identity authenticaton software start-up Condatis.
In 2017, she became the first female board member of the Scottish Football Association in its 145 year history.
In 2022, she was appointed chair of an independent review into female entrepreneurship, and co-authored the "Pathways: A new approach for women in entrepreneurship" report with Logan in 2023, which found that just one in five of Scotland’s businesses are led by women.
In her role as chief entrepreneur, Stewart will act as the chief advisor to the Scottish Government on growing the start-up and scale-up economy.
This includes implementing the Pathways report, optimising existing programmes and initiatives, growing Scotland's risk capital market and working with universities to increase the number of spinout companies who reach scale.
Stewart will work with investors and entrepreneurs to ensure Scottish Government policy is delivered and shaped by business, as well as ensuring entrepreneurship is instilled in the education and skills systems.
Forbes and Stewart visited the Inspirent offices in Hamilton to mark the appointment and launch a new round of the Scottish Government's Ecosystem Fund.
Inspirent is the delivery partner of this year’s £700,000 fund, which is focused on developing the strength and impact of Scotland’s start-up community by funding organisations and programmes that support new companies to start and grow.
The application process is being fully digitised from this year through an online portal, enabling faster funding decisions and expanding opportunities for grassroots initiatives and community-led projects across Scotland.
Since the fund launched in 2021-22, £2.6 million has been awarded to 75 different projects.
Commenting, Forbes said: “It is vital to Scotland’s economic resilience that we support our business community – particularly those taking their first steps.
“Scotland is home to some of the world’s brightest business minds, and innovators. The Scottish Government is committed to helping deliver an end-to-end support network that nurtures this talent and helps this and future generations of business founders to thrive.
“To deliver a truly meaningful, strategic support, it is vital we continue to listen to learn from entrepreneurs and the wider business community.
“Ana Stewart beings the insight, lived experience, and connections needed to shape and accelerate our policies and deliver for Scotland’s start-up talent.”
Stewart said: “Leveraging my own lived experience as an entrepreneur and investor, I am looking forward to contributing to the development and optimisation of the Scottish Government’s entrepreneurship strategy.
“Entrepreneurship is the engine room for economic growth and it’s essential that we provide more pathways, increased access and accelerated funding to current and future founders, whilst ensuring private and public sector are aligned in making that happen.”
