Business briefs: Scottish Renewable | Google | Flybe | Buchanan Galleries

A RECORD number of delegates are due to attend Scottish Renewable’s annual conference in Edinburgh next week.

The trade body said that more than 780 people will make their way to the event, up from 550 attendees last year.

Speakers at the conference will include Energy Secretary Ed Davey, while finance secretary John Swinney will present the Saltire Prize Medal.

Niall Stuart, Scottish Renewables’ chief executive, said: “This event is the only conference that focuses exclusively on the issues that matter to the growth of renewable energy in Scotland.”

• Internet giant Google is paying almost $15 million (£10m) in bonuses to four of its top executives for their performances last year.

Executive chairman Eric Schmidt will get the biggest award at $6m, to supplement his estimated $8 billion fortune. Schmidt served as Google’s chief executive for a decade until he turned over the job to Larry Page nearly two years ago.

As has been their custom since Google went public in 2004, the company’s co-founders, Page and Sergey Brin, will not get a bonus – both are already billionaires.

• Lord Digby Jones of Birmingham, the former director-general of the CBI, has stepped down as a non-executive director of regional airline Flybe to “concentrate on his other business interests”.

Jim French, Flybe’s Scots-born chairman and chief executive, said: “I’d like to place on record my thanks to Digby for his important contribution to the board, in particular his commitment to the UK regional agenda and his support for skills training. All of us at Flybe wish him well for the future.”

Jones had joined the Flybe board in April.

• Toy shop chain The Entertainer is to open its first Scottish store in the Buchanan Galleries shopping centre in Glasgow.

Health food retailer Holland & Barrett is also opening a branch in the centre, according to owners Henderson Global Investors and Land Securities.

Rebecca Rees, head of Marketing at The Entertainer, said: “We are excited to be opening our first store in Scotland in late June as part of our expansion plans. We will be employing 12 people.”

Lego announced in January that it will open a store in Buchanan Galleries in April.