Ann Gloag

Ann Gloag, OBE (born Ann Heron Souter on 10 December 1942 in Perth), is a Scottish business woman and charity campaigner.

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Biography

Educated at Caledonian Road Primary School and Perth High School, she qualified as a nurse and during a 20 year career worked as a burns unit sister.

Stagecoach

Gloag founded bus company "Gloagtrotter" in October 1980 with her then-husband Robin Gloag, joined later by her brother, chartered accountant Brian Souter. Some £25,000 of her father's severance money was used to purchase two small buses. Later the company expanded to offer cheap journeys between Dundee and London. They initially offered sandwiches (provided by her and her mother), blankets, and tea. The company was renamed "Stagecoach Express Services", and subsequently became Stagecoach Group. Her involvement in Stagecoach has diminished in recent years, although she remains a non-executive director.

Other business interests

Gloag also has investments outside Stagecoach Group with her brother, including bus builder Alexander Dennis (through her Highland & Universal Investments company) and a chain of petrol stations and other property interests through a shareholding in Moncrieffe Holdings. She was also an investor in Cambridge-based regional airline Scot Airways but sold this shareholding on 18 September 2006.

Charity works

Gloag now devotes a significant amount of her time to charity interests, including support for Mercy Ships and Opportunity International. She was appointed OBE in the 2004 New Year's Honours List for her services to charity. In 2005 Edinburgh Napier University awarded her an honorary doctorate. In honour of her late son she runs a charitable school in Nairobi, Kenya, the Jonathan Gloag Academy.

Personal life

Gloag has owned Beaufort Castle near Inverness since 1995, and Kinfauns Castle, near Perth since 2004. She has attempted to block off private access at Kinfauns in a high profile case.[1][2][3][4] On 12 June 2007 she was successful in gaining a court ruling that she was legally entitled to bar the public from a swath of woodland in the grounds of Kinfauns Castle.[5]

Her ex-husband Robin Gloag was killed in a car crash on 6 December 2007.[6] Their son, Jonathan, died in 1999, aged 28.

References

  1. ^ The Scotsman
  2. ^ "Tycoon launches court access bid". BBC News. 2 June 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/5040326.stm. Retrieved 25 April 2010. 
  3. ^ Ramblers Association - Scotland - Index
  4. ^ Courier News Story
  5. ^ Carrell, Severin (2007-06-14). "Multimillionaire uses financial muscle to bar ramblers from woods". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/country/article/0,,2102624,00.html. Retrieved 2007-06-14. 
  6. ^ BBC News 6 December 2007

External links