Sarah Eynon Email & Phone Number

Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

On secondment to lead the brilliant Scottish Government broadband team delivering the Scottish Government R100 programme - one of the most ambitious and complex digital infrastructure programmes in Europe - and the UK government funded Project Gigabit procurements, which the Scottish Government is managing in Scotland.

Leading the Digital Infrastructure Team to leverage their collective knowledge and network to support the delivery of the Scottish Government’s strategies and inform future policy development

Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

I lead one of eight pathfinder projects funded by UK government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, Infralink-Exchange, that promotes the installation of mobile transmitters, including small cells, across the Tay Cities region (Angus Council, Dundee City Council, Fife Council and Perth and Kinross Council). When fully operational it will attract the mobile industry to work with these local authorities and invest in improved mobile coverage in communities across the region.Collecting data on public sector owned assets (land, buildings, street furniture) that is relevant to mobile phone operators’ site assessment processes and hosting this information on a dedicated website, the assets and the terms on which they can be leased is promoted to the mobile sector. By providing a single point of entry, standardised commercial tools and a digitised lease management tool, there will be smoother interactions between the local authorities and industry during contract negotiation.The 13 month project forms part of the Infralink programme and brings together 4 local authorities, a variety of public sector organisations, private sector partners and mobile industry users (infrastructure providers, MNOs and neutral host providers) to test ideas, solve problems and extract what works so national approach to data collation, site identification and contract conclusion for macro and small cell infrastructure can be established. This project brings together my wealth of stakeholder and leadership experience within the requirements of DCMS project, ensuring we can deliver a workable and scalable solution for Scotland during the project and once the pilot ends.

The Infralink programme is engaging with public sector property owners and mobile industry to improve mobile connectivity by taking a national approach to streamlining and simplifying the network roll-out process. By building off existing best practice and working collaboratively the tools delivered by Infralink will encourage engagement and promote Scotland as a place that wants to actively improve its connectivity. My role as lead of this programme is to set the strategic vision and objectives for the team, ensure cohesion and coordination across the projects to deliver on these objectives, and engage current and future stakeholders at a Scottish and UK level to stimulate areas of opportunity and impact for Infralink. My engagement with the private and public sector allows me to build a well rounded view and develop projects and outputs that are deliverable in an ever changing and evolving sector. Supported by a very capable and knowledgeable team, my role is to set the framework and give them opportunities to deliver and thrive.

Edinburgh

As a member of the digital infrastructure team at the infrastructure experts, Scottish Futures Trust (SFT), I support national and local government with achieving their mobile connectivity objectives across 4G and 5G (macro and small cells) utilising sector knowledge and commercial experience to deliver approaches and projects that work within the public sector environment in Scotland. Key to this is a strong knowledge and links into the Scottish technology sector and leading lights across the UK. As digital infrastructure develops, I am driving alignment with wider Scottish Government and local government policies and strategies to ensure that value and inclusion are key elements of any additional investment.

As one of the founding partners of the Scotland 5G Centre, I represent Scottish Futures Trust on the Governing Board to impart my knowledge and experience in governance, legal, strategic communications and marketing, project delivery and resource management. At this early stage of the Centre and indeed 5G in Scotland, I bring my knowledge of the wider activities in digital across Scotland and look at how we can leverage the current activities and investment to deliver relevant and progressive impact to the economics of and social inclusion within Scotland.

Being part of this active working group allows me to focus in on a particular user group for 5G and ensure we are promoting the transformative capabilities and benefits of 5G to the ultimate end users. It keeps my eye on the real motives for additional digital infrastructure and allows me to engage with some of the real pioneers in 5G across the UK.

For 4 years I was seconded to the Scottish Government to be the Commercial Director to the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme. The £254m contract with BT plc provided fibre broadband infrastructure across Scotland that is capable of supporting the Scottish Government's long-term aspirations while also providing a step change in current broadband availability across 27 local authority areas. As Commercial Director I had responsibility for strategic coordination of the programme, contract management, liaison with key stakeholders (public and private sector), and change management. With ambitious targets and timescales having been set, I worked to ensure that deadlines were met, opportunities identified and taken, and stakeholders were informed of progress.

Under the ownership of BAA Airports Limited and, since May 2012, Global Infrastructure Partnership, my role evolved from being the Commercial Laywer providing legal support to one department in the business, to being the Company Lawyer and a member of the Leadership team, providing legal and strategic advice to all the departments, senior management and the Board.As the only in-house lawyer at Edinburgh Airport, I advised the CEO and senior management in respect of the day-to-day running of the airport and strategic development of the business, including commercial, aviation, procurement, IT, environmental, insurance, HSSE, regulatory and statutory compliance matters. I participated in cross-functional projects, and identifying and advising on connected legal issues, so as to assist the business in the management and implementation of projects.In addition to my legal functions, I was the company secretary to the Edinburgh Airport Limited Pension Board and provider of the company secretariat function to the Edinburgh Airport Limited Board.

On my secondment to the Scottish Futures Trust Limited I was part of the small team that developed and implemented the award winning National Housing Initiative:an innovative scheme that involved 12 local authorities and 53 developers intended to stimulate growth in residential construction and provide affordable housing to mid-income tenants. My role included:- developing and running a national public procurement;- drafting and reviewing a suite of commercial contracts and documentation; - high level of involvement with the Scottish Government and local authorities (including the City of Edinburgh and Glasgow City Council)

In 2006 I moved to the Commercial Property team at Burness LLP in order to gain a wide variety of client and property experience: - Extensive experience acting on behalf of landlords and tenants (retail, development, investment, leisure and pension fund clients) in the leasing and management of properties, including industrial units, multi-let city centre offices, retail units, and standalone units.- Selling and purchasing various types of properties, many of which included dealing with construction, planning, environmental, tax, lease and title issues.- Acting on behalf of major European financial institutions to secure and refinance interests in properties including development sites, UK portfolios, and already secured properties.- Acting on behalf of private individuals in the sale and purchase of residential properties.

My traineeship consisted of three 8 month placements in Commercial Property, Dispute Resolution and Intellectual Property both in the Edinburgh and Glasgow offices.

Llb (Hons) And Diploma In Legal Practice, Scots Law

Education record