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Hugh is Director of Finance and Company Secretary at the James Hutton Institute, having joined the Institute in October 2019. Hugh is responsible for Finance, Research Support and the Project Management Office.

Hugh’s background is across a range of disciplines from financial and management accounting to business transformation, with particular expertise in establishing and leading a strategically-aligned finance function; process reengineering; financial analysis and modelling; systems analysis, design and specification; change/project management; data interrogation and analysis; process, risk and controls review.

Hugh qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Coopers & Lybrand (now PwC) in 1995, having worked within the Business Assurance and Computer & Risk Assurance Services teams. He then worked at the University of Strathclyde leading the Financial Systems team for a number of years before spending a period in an internal audit role within British Energy, which was followed by a period in a controls assurance role within Scottish Power’s Energy Management division. Hugh then moved into legal services roles for nearly a decade, latterly as an Associate Director within the national law firm Irwin Mitchell, leading business transformation activity. In 2014, Hugh returned to the University of Strathclyde, where he headed up the Finance Directorate as Director of Finance, including a year as Acting CFO immediately before leaving to join the Institute in 2019.