By golfers for golfers, Leading Courses engaged and knowledgeable community, combined with unique and high quality content provides golfers with a platform that allows for easy discovery, booking and reviewing of any golf course across the world.

New Black Gold offers hope for the planet!We are delighted to announce that we have secured grant support of £319,000 from DEFRA, through Innovate UK’s Farming Innovation Programme, supported by SEED funding of £116,000 from Edinburgh investment syndicate, Apollo Informal Investments.This funding will support our ongoing R & D project in conjunction with the UK Biochar Research Centre at the University of Edinburgh School of Geosciences. We are developing a suite of unique Carbon negative solutions based on Biochar (in layman’s terms best described as supercharged Charcoal) that have the potential to transform the agricultural sectors’ CO2 emissions and help farmers achieve their 2040 net zero target. Our solution will sequester (capture) the Carbon content of agricultural residues by creating Biochar. This captures and locks away the Carbon for generations and is consequently Carbon negative, not just Carbon neutral, hence our “positively negative” strapline! Our products will have a long lasting benefit to soil health and sustainability as well as creating a truly circular economy by returning the nutrients in farmers’ residues back to them bringing long term benefits. In giving feedback on our grant application, Innovate UK’s assessors said the Company’s product “Is likely to disrupt the market and may become the new gold standard.“ That comment is particularly apposite as Biochar has been described as “the new Black Gold”! In tandem with our R & D project we are accelerating plans for our first production facility which, when it comes on stream, will make us the UKs largest producer of Biochar.A unique part of our proposition is to offer consumers and companies the opportunity to buy ISO approved certificates demonstrating the production of sufficient Biochar to completely offset their Carbon footprints.

Excited to be one of the founder shareholders and Chair of Spktral!My business experience (and lots of much better informed independent research!) has taught me that the best management team is exactly that - the best team for the job. Anything that gets in the way of an absolute meritocracy hinders business growth, profitability and the creation of shareholder value. Spktral has developed cloud based technology to help organisations simplify the gender pay gap, ethnicity and diversity reporting processes. Our insights help business leaders to better understand their data and make better people decisions thereby enhancing their brand, employee engagement levels, reputation, profitability, investor attractiveness and shareholder value.www.spktral.com

IROS Consulting provides John's time to carry out a number of service lines including the provision of strategic advice to SMEs and others, including those seeking to raise finance, those facing financial challenges and those with conflicting stakeholder expectations. IROS also provides corporate governance advice and services to SME boards. With his Insolvency Practitioner hat on, John also acts as a Reporter for the Court of Session and Sheriff Courts on fee claims by Insolvency Practitioners, as well as producing Evaluator reports to support sales to connected parties through Pre-pack administrations.

London & Scottish Investment Partners is a Scottish-based angel group supported by investors from London and Scotland. Its aim is to add expertise, experience, and money, alongside hands-on management support and a fresh strategic business plan. This creates a compelling growth and value accelerator for SMEs – taking them to the next level. LSIP are members of LINC, the Scottish Angel Network.To qualify for assistance, companies will usually be well-established (at least 3 years old), solvent, have an existing revenue stream and fall into the following sectors:Life SciencesTechnologyOil & GasFood and DrinkManufacturingThe level of funding will vary in each case, but is expected to average between £300,000 to £500,000.

Par is a broadly based investment business which incorporates a business angel syndicate. Members are encouraged to bring their specialist skills to bear when assessing potential investment opportunities.

Apollo is an Angel Syndicate that specialises in providing SEIS qualifying seed capital and mentoring advice to early stage (generally pre revenue) start ups. I joined the Board in June 2019 with a specific remit to promote excellence in corporate governance both within Apollo as well as in its investee Companies.

We are delighted to partner with Microshield 360 in the US to offer our cornerstone protection product, Microshield 360 Antimicrobial. Rigorously tested to the highest international standards and approved by the FDA and EPA, Microshield 360 forms a permanent bonded coating which lasts for at least 12 months and kills Coronavirus, SARS, flu, the common cold and related bugs on contact. Approved for use on over 1,500 surfaces in almost any location, including offices, retail premises, schools and universities, Microshield 360 protects against the risk of transmission from touching contaminated surfaces. Microshield 360 also prevents micro-organisms from attaching themselves to boat hulls, acting as a green and clean alternative to traditional Anti Fouling treatments.For further information, please go to the Microshield 360 UK Company page or get in touch directly.

The Royal Company of Merchants of the City of Edinburgh has a rich history interwoven with the fabric of Edinburgh life which can be traced back to at least the year 1260. The Company received it's Royal Charter in 1681. The Merchant Company’s original purpose was to protect trading rights in the City of Edinburgh. Today, over 540 businessmen and women are Members of the Company, actively involved at the heart of the city in educational and charitable works, as well as continuing to hold a central role in the civic life of Edinburgh. The Company is also Scotland’s most pre-eminent livery company. The Master's Court is, in effect, the Board of Directors of the Company, shaping policies and acting as custodian of the Company's assets and activities for future generations.

Redefining "pop up" for the digital age, our globally unique range of Pods allow retail, experiential and digital advertising activities to combine in a way that empowers commercial landlords, infrastructure owners and others to generate revenue from previously unused floor space in high footfall locations.Brands, retailers and others can achieve unprecedented exposure via a dynamic, flexible and memorable format by utilising Pods to combine promotional and revenue generating activities across a wide range of different forms of locations.

I was asked to bring my professional skills to bear in spring 2015 in order to carry out a review of the financial position of the club. This resulted in an overhaul of the financial and administrative systems in order to regularise the financial position and create a stable foundation from which the club could move forwards. During the latter part of 2017 and 2018 I ran the club on a day to day basis following the departure of the General Manager, introducing robust systems & processes to better inform the Management Board's decision making..

Invocas Group was a leading provider of personal and corporate debt solutions throughout the UK. John built Invocas from a one man start up in January 1998 to a successful AIM float in 2006. He exited the business in 2010, remaining a major shareholder and Non Exec chairman. Invocas Group entered Administration in April 2017 due to fraud by the recently departed Finance Director.

An unregulated collective investment syndicate which required my specialist expertise to manage the wind down of its activities including evaluating, taking and winning legal action on behalf of the investors against the syndicate's former solicitors and directors.

I was a founding Board member of the DRF - a trade association for providers of formal and informal debt solutions to financially distressed individuals in the UK and served for over 10 years in this capacity.

I served two 3 year terms as Scottish Council member for R3, the trade association for licensed insolvency practitioners in the UK

Senior manager with principal responsibility for the majority of the firm's "big ticket" corporate insolvency cases in Scotland. Having been selected for the partner admission process I had a "road to Damascus" moment and realised I had no desire to move to London, Birmingham or Cardiff, so resigned to found the business which became Invocas Group, Scotland's leading independent insolvency business.

I joined AAs as a wet behind the ears arts graduate who didn't know what he wanted to do with his life and thought becoming a Chartered Accountant would put that decision off for a few more years. I fell into Insolvency and investigation work after about 18 months audit training and the rest, as they say, is history.........