Scottish Land & Estates names former SFE man Mark Tennant as new chairman

A former chairman of Scottish Financial Enterprise has been elected as the new chairman of Scottish Land & Estates (SLE), the rural business organisation.

Mark Tennant and his family run the Innes Estate in Moray.

Mark Tennant is also former deputy chairman of the Scottish Government’s financial services advisory board. He his family run the 4,500-acre Innes Estate in Moray.

Tennant said: “It is with very great pleasure that I take on the role as SLE chairman. It is a great honour and will present some very interesting challenges in the coming few years.

“I will be working on several key issues and top of the list is ensuring Scotland’s rural businesses and communities are provided with all the information and help they need, ensuring they climb out as sure footed as possible from the appalling damage which Covid-19 has done.

He added: “Amidst the horror of this pandemic, we need to recognise that Brexit has not gone away. Our members’ businesses across rural Scotland and the wider communities will be deeply affected by how the negotiations turn out. I will be doing all I can to ensure rural Scotland is considered as the Brexit story continues to unfold.”

Also at the annual general meeting, Hugh Campbell Adamson and Sarah-Jane Laing were reappointed as directors and members of the board.

Three new directors and members of the board were appointed: Andrew Douglas Miller, managing partner of Forneth Estate, near Blairgowrie; Lucy Laidlaw, a communications and community engagement specialist who spent the past nine years working at Buccleuch; and Derek Lewis, who owns and runs the Drimnin Estate on the western tip of the Morvern peninsula, just north of the Isle of Mull.