Independent Budget Review - panel members
On February 11, 2010, John Swinney MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth, announced that Crawford Beveridge CBE, Sir Neil McIntosh CBE and Robert Wilson would form the Panel to conduct Scotland's Independent Budget Review.
The Panel's remit was agreed as part of this year's Budget process. Its work has been taken forward independently of government, with Mr Beveridge, a former Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise, as the Chair.
Announcing the appointments in February, Mr Swinney said:
"All three Panel members will bring a wealth of public and private sector expertise to the Independent Budget Review.
"I thank them all for agreeing to give up their time to conduct the Review, which will consider the implications of forecasts of reductions in public spending in Scotland in the short and medium term. It is now entirely down to the Panel to take forward this process under the remit agreed as part of this year's Budget process."
Crawford W Beveridge CBE is the former Executive Vice President of Sun Microsystems.
Crawford attended the University of Edinburgh, earning a BSc in social science. He followed that with an MSc in industrial administration from the University of Bradford.
Crawford's business background includes stints at Hewlett-Packard, Digital Equipment Corp. and Analog Devices. In 1985, he joined Sun as vice president of corporate resources, where he stayed until 1991 when he became Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise. In 2000, Crawford returned to Sun to fill the position of Executive Vice President People and Places and Chief Human Resources Officer. He left Sun in January 2010.
Robert Wilson was, until his retirement in March 2010, a partner in Deloitte Consulting, based in Edinburgh.
An MA and MBA graduate, Robert began his career in public sector management in Scotland before moving into the private sector, initially into marketing and information systems and subsequently management consultancy. He has spent over 20 years in consultancy, covering both the public and private sectors.
In his work with Deloitte Consulting, Robert specialised in business strategy, operational reviews, organisational transformation and major programme management. He has worked across most segments of the public sector as well as many private sector industry segments. He has also acted as a non-executive director.
A former chief executive of Dumfries and Galloway Regional Council and Strathclyde Regional Council, Sir Neil McIntosh has served as an Electoral Commissioner, Chief Counting Officer for the Scottish Parliamentary Referendum in 1997 and Returning Officer for the Strathclyde Water Referendum. He was knighted in June 2000.
Sir Neil chaired the Commission on Local Government and the Scottish Parliament in 1998-99. He was also Adviser to the Northern Ireland Review of Public Administration from 2002-05.
Other public appointments have included Convener of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, Chairman of the Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland, Trustee of National Museums Scotland and Civil Service Commissioner.
In June 2009, Sir Neil was appointed to carry out an independent examination of the Scottish Parliament's expenses system, and he reported to the Scottish Parliament Corporate Body in December 2009.
All three members of the Review Panel have agreed not to take any payment for conducting the Review, but they may be reimbursed for incidental expenses.