Our Team

The Caledonia Consulting team, from left to right:
David Davidson, Mike Watson, Devin Scobie, Andrew Scobbie and Lynda Gauld.

Devin Scobie, Managing Director

Caledonia Consulting’s founder and managing director is Devin Scobie. Until September 2006, Devin Scobie was Director of the Eaga Partnership in Scotland who managed and delivered the Central Heating Programme and Warm Deal scheme on behalf of the Scottish Executive. Eaga delivered over 50,000 free central heating systems to Scotland’s elderly, the majority of which were in the second half of Eaga’s five-year contract managed by Devin Scobie.

Prior to joining Eaga Partnership, Devin spent most of his working life in public affairs and communication consultancy. His last position was as Scottish Director for one of Europe’s largest consultancy chains. During his five years there, he advised over two dozen FTSE Top 30 companies at one time or another. These included many household names ranging from high street retailers and international pharmaceutical brands to the world’s biggest drinks conglomerate. In addition, he provided invaluable support to several leading charities including Macmillan Cancer Support, and the National Asthma Campaign in Scotland.

Devin Scobie’s career has also included working in-house as marketing manager for a major tour operator, and working as a travel journalist with HarperCollins. He is a former elected member of the City of Edinburgh Council.

Andrew Scobbie, Senior Consultant

Andrew Scobbie is a Senior Consultant with Caledonia Consulting and has been with the company since it started.  He is principally responsible for Caledonia’s parliamentary monitoring service.

With over 30 years experience in local government. Andrew was an elected member with the City of Edinburgh Council until May 2007. He was the Chair of the Edinburgh International Conference Centre for four years during which time the Centre became the 9th best conference centre in the world , gaining the coveted European Foundation for Quality Management Award as well as many other accolades.

Andrew was also a director of EDI, the Edinburgh Council arms-length development company, Convener of the City Scrutiny Panel, Member of the Lothian and Borders Police Board, and a Trustee of the Lothians Pension Fund.. Andrew also stood on the Lothians Regional List for Labour in the 2007 Holyrood elections.

He is no relation to Managing Director Devin Scobie!

Mike Watson, Associate Director

Mike joined the Caledonia Consulting team in January 2007, shortly after Caledonia Consulting opened its doors. He has a wide range of experience of the political scene in Scotland and the UK, having sat in three legislatures.  At Caledonia he works across a range of client programmes in a number of different sectors.

From 1989-1997 he was the Member of Parliament for the Glasgow Central constituency, during which time he served as a member of the influential Public Accounts Committee at Westminster.

Mike was for two years an Edinburgh-based public affairs and public relations consultancy specialising in communication strategies, corporate and consumer PR and media training.
From 1999-2005 he was a member of the Scottish Parliament. He became the first convener of the Finance Committee, a position he held until appointed to the Scottish Executive cabinet as Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport.

Mike also piloted one of the first Member’s Bills through the Parliament and was the author of a book describing the Parliament’s first year.

In 1997 he was created a life peer and is a regular attender at the House of Lords.

David Davidson, Associate Director

David joined the Caledonia Consulting team in July 2007 after spending eight years as a member of the Scottish Parliament from its re-opening in 1999.

David studied Pharmacy at Heriot Watt University and Business Administration at Manchester Business School and has been self employed from the age of 26 when he bought his first community pharmacy. He then developed a chain of community pharmacies across northern England and the west of Scotland branching out into agriculture in Central Scotland. He has been an advisor to Glaxo and after three years of advising UniChem, a pharmaceutical distributor now Alliance Boots, he joined the board serving through its rapid expansion until flotation and became a regional chairman from 1990 -93.

David has been a director of Stirling Enterprise and chaired a public training company at the same time. During his business career he also gave advice to start up businesses and to small businesses seeking to expand. On the professional side he served on two advisory committees to the Scottish Office concerned with education, training and delivery of NHS services in Scotland.

In his political life David served on Stirling Council and in the Scottish Parliament held many briefs including Finance, Enterprise, Tourism, Higher and Further Education, Transport, Health and Local Government including Licensing and was in regular contact with ministers and civil servants. He also served as Convenor of Justice and Deputy Convenor of Audit giving him a detailed knowledge of committee and parliamentary procedures. He was a founder member of the Cross Party Group on Oil & Gas serving as Vice Chair. He has also worked closely with the voluntary sector for many years.

Lynda Gauld, Associate

Lynda has been an Associate of  the Caledonia Consulting team since June 2007.  She is a director of her own consultancy business, Baccus Consulting, and is widely regarded as one of Scotland’s most experienced healthcare professionals.

Lynda was previously Head of External Affairs at Pfizer with responsibility for all aspects of External Affairs for Scotland and Northern Ireland. Prior to moving into this role, Lynda worked as an NHS liaison manager with Pfizer.

During her time with Pfizer, Lynda has managed a number of highly successful partnership relationships and has sought to identify new approaches to policy development in the health related field. She has worked in all key therapeutic areas and has obtained considerable experience in managing issues and corporate change.

Before working in the pharmaceutical sector with Pfizer, Lynda spent twenty years in the NHS as a nurse and a manager and three years as Regional Manager of the Institute of Health Services Managers (now Institute of Healthcare Managers) and has a strong working knowledge of the NHS, its successes and challenges.

Lynda is currently Convener of the Scottish Parliament and Business Exchange, an educational charity dedicated to providing opportunities to exchange knowledge and understanding between business and the Scottish Parliament.