Evelyn McDonald of Scottish EDGE and Mandy Bailey of Royal Bank of Scotland

Miked Up With Alison Walker

Evelyn McDonald is CEO of Scottish EDGE. Previously run by Scottish Enterprise for four rounds, Evelyn oversaw the spin-out of the competition in Autumn 2014 to the private sector-led Scottish EDGE C.I.C. The introduction of lending to the winners in Round 5 has created a revolving loan fund to support future applicants.

Prior to joining Scottish EDGE in November 2014, Evelyn had a long career at the Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust, and latterly the Prince’s Trust.

Evelyn is also a board member at the Scottish Design Exchange and an assessor of the Small Business Charter Award.

Mandy joined Royal Bank of Scotland 3 years ago and more recently as Regional Eco-system Manager for Scotland with a primary focus on the bank’s partnership ecosystem, enabling and facilitating effective collaborations to support businesses, customers and the Bank's Enterprise Delivery strategy.

Mandy joined after 12 years of starting and growing her own horticulture wholesale business in addition to 9 years in a family business. Mandy started her career in Human Resources in some of Scotland’s well-known organisations including Diageo, Kwik-Fit Group and The Scotsman Publications.

In this episode, Evelyn, Mandy and Alison discuss the current state of female entrepreneurship in Scotland with a focus on the Pathways Report, the challenges and barriers faced by women in business, and what needs to change in order to achieve gender parity in business start-up, support and growth.