Senior Lay Member

The Senior Lay Member has a key role to play in the governance of the University.

The Higher Education Scotland (Governance) Act 2016 requires the governing board of a higher educational institution to include the position of a  Senior Lay Member. This position to be filled by an election in which staff and students of the institution are entitled to vote.

The post of Senior Lay Member has replaced the post of Senior Governor (held by Dame Anne Pringle who demitted office on 31 July 2020).

The Senior Lay Member plays a leading role in the governance of the University with specific responsibilities for the leadership and effectiveness of Court, and ensuring an appropriate balance of authority and senior management.

The Senior Lay Member:

• has responsibility for ensuring that Court fulfils its objectives in a proper and effective manner;
• will preside over meetings of Court in the absence of, or at the request of the Rector and chair these items of business concerned with strategy, resources, accountability and performance review;
• review the performance of the Principal and serve as a member of key Court committees;
• and represent the University to the Scottish Funding Council, and on the Committee of University Chairs.

Ray Perman started his working life as a journalist on newspapers including The Times and the Financial Times, before co-founding the business magazine company Insider Publications Ltd. He was an executive director of Caledonian Publishing plc, which bought the Glasgow Herald from the conglomerate Lonrho. It was later sold to Scottish Media Group. Since then, he has had a portfolio career and writes books.

From 2011-2017 he chaired the James Hutton Institute, a scientific research organisation working in the fields of environmental sustainability and food security. From 2014-2017 he was Director of the David Hume Institute, which commissions research and organises seminars on economic, political, social and business issues affecting Scotland.

From 2005-2013 he was chair of the Access to Finance Expert Group, which advised the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills on policy relating to the financing of small- and medium-sized businesses. He was a member of the board of Scottish Enterprise from 2004-2009 and chair of Social Investment Scotland, which makes loans to the social economy, from 2001-2009. He is a former member of the court of Heriot Watt University and chaired three small companies including his son's radio and digital media business.

Ray is married to the journalist and editor Fay Young. They have three sons. In his spare time, he plants trees and paints. He is author of:

• The Man Who Gave Away His Island (2010), a biography of the Gaelic scholar John Lorne Campbell.
• HUBRIS: How HBOS Wrecked the Best Bank in Britain (2012).
• The Rise and Fall of the City of Money (2019), a financial history of Edinburgh.
• James Hutton, The Genius of Time (2022), a biography of the Enlightenment geologist.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and Honorary Life Fellow of the James Hutton Institute and a trustee of the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland.