Asia Scotland Trustees
The Trustees are a tightly-knit group which meets monthly and takes a pro-active approach to matters in hand.
Roddy Gow, OBE Chairman of the Asia Scotland Trust, is the Founder and Chairman of the Asia Scotland Institute. He is also the Founding Partner of Canongate Partners, an international executive search and consulting firm. He was previously the Chief Executive of Asia House, London, where he drove its mission to educate and inform the people of the UK about the region extending from the Gulf to Japan. He is a member of the King’s Bodyguard for Scotland (Royal Company of Archers) and holds an MA degree from Trinity College, Cambridge, in Fine Arts and Architecture.
Tom Addyman BA, MA Conservation Studies, York a leading expert in his field, is principal of Addyman Archaeology and Partner at Simpson & Brown Architects, Edinburgh. He has extensive experience as an archaeologist and buildings historian in relation to architectural conservation, and has led many significant research projects in the UK and overseas including India, particularly Kolkata and Punjab. He has published and lectured widely and teaches on the MA building conservation course, ESALA, University of Edinburgh.
Philippa Vaughan BA Hon is an art historian with extensive experience of conservation and heritage issues in the Indian subcontinent. After over a decade at Christie’s King Street she became a Founder Trustee, and later Director of Projects, of The Calcutta Tercentenary Trust working in Calcutta. She acted as Consultant archaeologist and art historian to the Aga Khan Trust for Culture on World Heritage Monuments in South Asia and curated on behalf of the British Council an exhibition for the Golden Jubilee of Pakistan which was opened in Islamabad by HM The Queen. She was Director and a Vice-President of the Royal Asiatic Society 1995-2001.
Sir Rob Young GCMG spent his career in HM Diplomatic Service. An Arabist and Middle East specialist, his postings included Cairo and Damascus, as well as Head of Middle East Department in London in the 1980s. He also enjoyed two postings to Paris, latterly as Minister. His last job was as British High Commissioner to India from 1999 to 2003. Since retirement, Sir Rob has held a number of positions in both the voluntary and private sectors. He was a Commissioner of the Commonwealth War Graves for eight years, and is Chairman of the Calcutta Tercentenary Trust.
Clare Sorensen MA Hons trained as an historian in art and cultural history and has a postgraduate degree in Heritage and Interpretation. Her professional life has been spent with the Royal Commission on the Ancient Historical Monuments of Scotland and she is currently Buildings Survey Project Manager (Survey and Recording, Heritage Directorate) at Historic Environment Scotland. She has experience of Kolkata having participated in the recording exercise of the Scottish Cemetery with the Kolkata Scottish Heritage Trust, researching and archiving the resource now made available online. A Londoner by birth, and living in Edinburgh for many years, she holds British and New Zealand citizenship.
Advisors
Dr Mark Watson Hon FLS is a plant scientist at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, where he is head of the Major Floras Research Programme. He is a taxonomic botanist who specialises in plants from China and the Himalayan Region, with particular focus on Nepal. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Flora of Nepal. He has collaborated with scientists from the Botanical Survey of India, especially those at the AJC Bose Indian Botanic Garden Howrah, West Bengal. Mark has expert knowledge on the history of botany in India, particularly the early years of the Calcutta Botanic Garden (as it was then known). He is a trustee of the Linnean Society of London.
Alex Hammond-Chambers, MA Cantab, has a long association with India having been born in Dehra Dun. He was educated at Wellington, and Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he studied Economics. He has had a distinguished career in finance and from 1964 to 1991 was with Ivory & Sime PLC, involved with both the North American and international markets, holding increasingly senior positions and becoming Executive Chairman in 1985.
He has a portfolio of Board positions, most recently as Chairman of the Roxburgh International Trust. From 1984 to 1987 he was the Overseas Director of NASD which ran NASDAQ, and Chairman of the Association of Investment Companies 2003 – 2004. He is Executive Chairman of Walter Scott & Partners, and lives in Edinburgh.
Douglas Brotherston TD BSC CA is also Honorary Treasurer for the Asia Scotland Trust. He has been a Chartered Accountant for more than 30 years and is Principal of Douglas Brotherston Financial Management which he established in 2001. He specialises in business advisory services and strategic planning acting for a range of clients, either as independent accountant, finance director, or as an external financial advisor. These organisations include charities, charitable trusts, independent schools, property developers, hoteliers, publicans, training centres, recruitment consultants, stately homes, tourist attractions, nursing homes, public arts consultants, architects practices, IT companies and web-based companies. In some instances he has a part ownership in the business.
He has substantial experience of charities and third sector organisations. He sits on the Board of a not-for-profit company which provides a Pan-European forum combatting credit card fraud and also on the Board of the Asia Scotland Institute, as well as the Royal Artillery Council for Scotland and the Army In Scotland Trust. In the past he has acted as Honorary Treasurer to The Royal British Legion Scotland and was also a Board member of Paths for All, chairing the finance sub-committee.
Bruce Kerr, KC was the founding Chairman of the Asia Scotland Trust and a former court lawyer. He was educated at the Universities of Oxford and Edinburgh before practising for 21 years as an Advocate in the Scottish courts. He then sat as a Sheriff in Glasgow for 5 years (1994-1999) and served for 15 years (1999-2014) as Sheriff Principal of North Strathclyde, a post comprising both judicial and administrative components in charge of the whole court system in one of Scotland’s six sheriffdoms.
The Asia Scotland Trust is a registered Scottish charity. Scottish Charity No. SCO45273. Companies House No. SC464144
© Asia Scotland Trust 2020