Professor Janice Kirkpatrick OBE

Co-founder and Creative Director of Graven, Janice Kirkpatrick is a designer with 30 years’ professional experience. She is also an educator, writer and broadcaster and an experienced curator leading exhibition projects for the V&A, National Museums of Scotland and Design Museum, where she was a Conran Foundation Archive Collector.

Janice co-founded the Glasgow-based design studio, Graven, with her architect husband Ross Hunter in 1986. The business is an industry-acknowledged expert in branding and has an enviable international track record working with both start-ups and global corporations.

Alan Bissett

Alan Bissett is an award-winning novelist, playwright and performer from Falkirk. His novels include Boyracers and Death of a Ladies’ Man, and his most well-known plays are The Pure, the Dead and the Brilliant and his ‘one-woman show’ The Moira Monologues, the sequel to which – More Moira Monologues – is currently touring Scotland and won a Fringe First in 2017.

Pauline Miller Judd

Pauline Miller Judd is Dean of Arts & Creative Industries at Edinburgh Napier University.

Pauline started her career in stage management and technical theatre, graduating from Guildford School of Acting in 1984. She enjoyed a varied freelance career with a range of companies including: the National Theatre; The Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester; The Old Vic; Shared Experience; Temba; The Queen’s Hall; and South Bank Centre. Building on this, Pauline became a freelance arts manager working with a number of small scale drama, dance and visual arts companies, including Oracle Productions at Holland Park’s Open Air Theatre and the X Factor Dance Company. Pauline also moved into events management and worked with Plus 1 Event Services for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1991 World Student Games in Sheffield.

A year later she moved to Scotland to become Administrative Director of the Scottish Youth Dance Festival (now YDance), and in 1994 she made the move into higher education by joining Queen Margaret College teaching stage management and arts management.  In 2003, she became Head of Production & Cultural Management in the School of Drama & Creative Industries at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh. Pauline then joined Edinburgh Napier University in 2009 as Associate Head of School, becoming Head of School in 2010 and taking on the role of Dean in 2015.

Ruth Wishart

Ruth Wishart is a journalist and broadcaster who chairs the Dewar Arts Awards and is a member of the Creative Scotland board. Previously she has been chair of the CCA in Glasgow, and Glasgow Common Purpose. She also served two terms as a trustee of the National Galleries of Scotland, and was a Governor of the Glasgow School of Art.

Neil Mackay, Editor, Sunday Herald

He is multi-award winning investigative journalist, a radio broadcaster, film-maker and author. His books include a non-fiction account of the Iraq War called The War on Truth, and two novels All the Little Guns Went Bang Bang Bang, and The Wolf Trial.

Rhona Corscadden, Senior Events Manager, EventScotland

Rhona works with a range of partners across the international cultural and sporting event portfolios to bring major international events to Scotland and develop existing events in the calendar.  Rhona has over 15 years’ experience in the events industry in Scotland and prior to this role, worked in Project Management roles with UZ Events, Unique Events and Fisher Productions, including a number of large scale events and festivals such as, Merchant City Festival, Big in Falkirk and Edinburgh’s Hogmanay.

Stuart Cosgrove

Stuart Cosgrove is from Perth, Scotland and is a writer and broadcaster. He is the author of ‘Detroit 67: The Year that Changed Soul’ recently nominated as Best Music Book of 2016  ‘Young Soul Rebels: a Personal History of Northern Soul’ and the forthcoming ‘Memphis 68.’ He was a staff writer with the black music paper Echoes, Media Editor of the NME and a television executive with the UK broadcaster Channel 4.

A graduate of Hull University, he completed a PhD. in modern American theatre history and has since studied at Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania and the John Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Stuart is an Honorary Fellow of John Moores University Liverpool and an Honorary Professor of Stirling University, and Honorary Doctor of Arts at Abertay University in his native Scotland.

In 2005 he was named Broadcaster of the Year in the Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Awards, In 2012 he won numerous awards including a BAFTA and Royal Television Society award for Channel 4’s coverage of the London Paralympics 2012, Paralympics including.

Stuart presents BBC Scotland’s popular radio show ‘Off the Ball’.

Ricky Ross

Ricky Ross formed Deacon Blue in Glasgow in 1985, they went on to become one of the city’s most famous and successful bands. From debut album Raintown and follow-up, the chart-topping When The World Knows Your Name, through to 2016’s The Believers, Deacon Blue are one of the most respected and best loved bands of their generation.

During the band’s down time Ricky has established himself as a successful solo artist and songwriter releasing seven solo albums, his most recent the critically acclaimed 2017’s Short Stories Vol. 1, as well as writing for and with artists including James Blunt, Ronan Keating, Jamie Cullum and Nanci Griffith amongst many others.

He also has a successful broadcasting career, Another Country, his BBC Scotland radio show has won two Sony awards and in 2014 he was the proud recipient of the CMA International Country Broadcaster Award.

www.rickyross.com