Ann Gloag

Ann Gloag
Born Ann Heron Souter
(1942-12-10) 10 December 1942
Perth, Scotland, UK
Residence Kinfauns Castle, Perth and Kinross, Scotland
Nationality British
Education Perth High School
Known for Co-founder, Stagecoach Group
Net worth GBP £1.04 billion (April 2015)[1]
Religion Church of the Nazarene
Website The Gloag Foundation

Ann Gloag OBE (born Ann Heron Souter; 10 December 1942, in Perth) is a Scottish business woman and charity campaigner. She is co-founder of the international transport company Stagecoach Group. She founded The Freedom From Fistula Foundation. After meeting Adam Friedman, became executive producer of Shout Gladi Gladi, a documentary film explaining the medical and social issues surrounding obstetric fistula in Africa.

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 burn unit sister. She is ranked as Scotland's richest woman.[2]

Stagecoach

Using her father's redundancy money, and working with her brother Sir Brian Souter and her first husband Robin Gloag, Gloag established the Stagecoach Group in 1980, running buses from Dundee to London. Expansion continued and in the early 1990s, Stagecoach acquired National Bus Company operations in Cumberland, Hampshire, East Midlands, Ribble, Southdown and the United Counties. Stagecoach bought further bus operations in Scotland, Newcastle and London, with Manchester being added in 1993.

Manston Airport

On 29 November 2013, Gloag took ownership of Kent International Airport, also known as Manston Airport for the sum of £1.[3] Gloag's co-director is Pauline Bradley,[4] a corporate lawyer and former head of joint ventures at Bank of Scotland, described by the Scottish Herald as "one of Scotland's most powerful women".[5]

Despite assurances to staff regarding long term investment in the airport,[6] management announced a consultation on closure in April 2014. Uncertainty about the airport's future led flight operators who were using Manston to leave, notably KLM who ran a twice daily service to Amsterdam Schiphol. A number of bids were forthcoming during the consultation period to buy and run the airport,[7] but on 15 May 2014 Manston was closed with the loss of 144 jobs in the airport and an unknown number in the surrounding area. Gloag did not appear publicly or give a reason for the airport's closure or her refusal to sell. The trade union Unite said it would challenge the way the consultation on closure was conducted.[8] Sir Roger Gale, Member of Parliament for Thanet North, described Gloag's actions as an act of "corporate vandalism".[7]

As of 2016, Gale and pressure groups including Save Manston Airport and Why Not Manston? continue to campaign for the reopening of the airport and have opposed alternative uses. In May 2014, then prime minister David Cameron, in answer to a question from Gale in the Houses of Commons, stated that the future of Manston was the responsibility of the airport owner, but the Government was in negotiation with Mrs Gloag.[9]

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.[10][11] 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.[12]

Her ex-husband Robin Gloag was killed in a car crash on 6 December 2007.[13] Their son, Jonathan, killed himself in 1999, aged 28.[14]

Gloag is a member of the Church of the Nazarene.[15]

References

  1. ↑ "Sunday Times Rich List". The Sunday Times (page 33). 26 April 2014.
  2. ↑ "Overview of Ann Heron Gloag". Scottish-places.info. Retrieved 20 May 2014.
  3. ↑ "Manston Airport sold to Stagecoach founder for £1". Bbc.co.uk. 15 October 2013. Retrieved 20 May 2014.
  4. ↑ Pauline Bradley. "Pauline Bradley: Executive Profile". Investing.businessweek.com. Retrieved 20 May 2014.
  5. ↑ "Head of joint ventures at BoS quits to join Kenmore". Herald Scotland. 19 January 2005. Retrieved 20 May 2014.
  6. ↑ Archived 21 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine.
  7. 1 2 Price, Chris (15 May 2014). "Manston airport: Dramatic last-minute offer to buy Thanet site by US group RiverOak rejected as staff leave for last time". Kentonline.co.uk. Retrieved 20 May 2014.
  8. ↑ "Manston Airport closure 'bizarre', says union". Telegraph. Retrieved 20 May 2014.
  9. ↑ "House of Commons Hansard Debates for 14 May 2014 (pt 0001)". Publications.parliament.uk. Retrieved 20 May 2014.
  10. ↑ "The Scotsman". Thescotsman.scotsman.com. 2 June 2006. Retrieved 20 May 2014.
  11. ↑ "Tycoon launches court access bid". BBC News. 2 June 2006. Retrieved 25 April 2010.
  12. ↑ Carrell, Severin (14 June 2007). "Multimillionaire uses financial muscle to bar ramblers from woods". The Guardian. London, UK. Retrieved 14 June 2007.
  13. ↑ "Gloag's ex-husband dies in crash". BBC News. 6 December 2007. Retrieved 20 May 2014.
  14. ↑ "Saturday Profile: Brian Souter". The Scotsman. 2 February 2002. Retrieved 8 November 2013.
  15. ↑ "Tayside Police launch abuse handling investigation". The Scotsman. 21 November 2010. Retrieved 30 July 2012.

External links

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