Our Team

A wide range of expertise...

Devin Scobie Caledonia Consulting's founder and director is Devin Scobie who is considered to be one of Scotland's most experienced public affairs professionals.  Devin was, until September 2006, Director of Eaga plc in Scotland. The company managed and delivered the Central Heating Programme and Warm Deal scheme on behalf of the Scottish Government. Eaga installed over 50,000 free central heating systems to Scotland's elderly, the majority of which were in the second half of the five-year contract managed by Devin Scobie. Prior to joining Eaga, 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 public affairs career, he has and continues to advise a range of FTSE Top 100 companies - probably over 50 at one time or another. These include 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 as a travel journalist with HarperCollins. He is a former parliamentary candidate, elected member of Edinburgh City Council, and is a frustrated novelist (working on his second tome, but not found the time to get the first one published yet!).

Andrew Scobbie 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 more than 30 years' experience in local government, Andrew was an elected member with Edinburgh City 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 venue 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. Despite his surname, he is no relation to Devin Scobie.

Mike Watson Mike has been with the Caledonia Consulting team since the beginning. He has a wide range of experience of the political landscape in Scotland and the UK, having sat in three legislatures. 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, Director of an Edinburgh-based public affairs and media relations consultancy. 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 Government 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.

Euan Robson Euan Robson joined the Caledonia Consulting team in August 2008 and served as Member of the Scottish Parliament for Roxburgh and Berwickshire from 1999 to 2007. Born in Corbridge, Northumberland, his ancestors and forbears come from both sides of the border and indeed, fought at the Battle of Flodden in 1513.  A graduate of the History Department at Newcastle University, Euan's career was initially in teaching at King Edward VI School in Morpeth until 1979.  Thereafter, he completed a postgraduate degree in Political Science at Strathclyde University before joining the Gas Consumers' Council in 1981.  He was head of the Council's Scottish office for 12 years. Euan stood for Westminster in the General Elections of 1983 and 1987 and then, in the first three elections to the Scottish Parliament as a Liberal and Liberal Democrat. He was Deputy Minister for Parliamentary Business in the opening session of the Scottish Parliament and Deputy Minister for Education and Young People in the second. In the first role, he was Chief Whip and shared duties securing the then Scottish Executive's legislative programme including his own Marriage (Scotland) Act 2003 which allows civil marriages to occur in locations other than Registration Offices. His special responsibilities in the Education Department included children's panels and hearings, youth work, fostering and adoption and social work. He took forward the Additional Support for Learning (Scotland) Act 2004. After leaving the Scottish Parliament, Euan served, until July 2008, as Chief Executive of the Scottish Sustainable Energy Foundation, a charitable company dedicated to the delivery and exploitation of the broadest range of renewable energy and heat supplies. His interests include the history of Scottish painting upon which he has written and published books, ornithology and fishing.

Kevin Dorrian Kevin Dorrian is a BBC trained broadcaster and has, with Devin Scobie, helped facilitate Caledonia’s popular media training courses since the company was set up.  As a radio journalist, Kevin cut his teeth by heading up ‘AA Roadwatch’ and was the ‘voice’ of traffic and travel reporting across east central Scotland (Radio Forth, Radio Tay and BBC Scotland) for many years. He has featured regularly on the BBC and Independent Local Radio stations. Kevin formed his own public relations company in the mid-1990s and has worked on senior level public relations programmes for high visibility clients such as Sir Tom Farmer – former chairman and chief executive of Kwik-Fit, the University of Edinburgh, Cable & Wireless plc and varied clients in the energy, technology and financial services industry. As a media trainer, he specialises in the growing importance of the social media and has arranged media training on both one-to-one and ‘group’ sessions for literally hundreds of high profile individuals and organisations. He is working with a Glasgow based innovation and commercialisation consultancy – Targeting Innovation – offering media training to a myriad of clients across the central belt of Scotland with a strong focus on social media and how to get your message across using Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Margaret Smith Margaret brings an in-depth knowledge of Holyrood and Scottish local government to the Caledonia team. Born and raised in the city, Margaret is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh and had a career in the civil service and voluntary sector before entering politics.  Following four years as a City of Edinburgh councillor, Margaret served for 12 years as MSP for Edinburgh West until May 2011. During that time she held a number of senior positions including the role of Convener of the Parliament’s Health and Community Care Committee when she played a leading role in the delivery of the flagship policy of free personal care.   Margaret Smith held front bench positions throughout her Parliamentary career covering Health, Justice, Transport, Local Government and finally as a spokesperson on Education and Young People where she focussed, to a large extent, on Higher Education. She was a member of a number of Parliamentary Committees including Audit, Education, Lifelong Learning and Culture, Justice, Equal Opportunities and Public Petitions. She was also a Party Chief Whip in government during the 2003-07 session.  Her outside interests include property renovation and travelling.

Julie Kolokotsa Julie has 20 years of experience in public affairs and communications, part of which was gained working at the US Congress and the European Parliament and has worked with Caledonia's MD, Devin Scobie, on a number of shared projects going back to the mid-1990s.   She has worked as a journalist with Tomorrow Magazine, adviser to private companies and law firms on engaging stakeholders (media, EU officials, and NGOs) and with NGOs on reaching out to the media and the corporate world.   She works with a number of blue chip public affairs/public relations firms in a communications and training capacity.  She speaks French, Italian and Greek.

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