Speakers

Liz Forgan

Liz Forgan OBE was formerly Managing Director of BBC Radio. Following an early career in journalism, she moved to television with the start of Channel 4 where she became Director of Programmes. She joined the BBC in 1993.

She is a former Chair of the Churches Conservation Trust and also former Trustee of the Phoenix Trust. She is the Chair of the Scott Trust and a board member of the Conservatoire for Dance and Drama.

Ms Forgan joined the National Heritage Memorial Fund and Heritage Lottery Fund as Chair in April 2001.

Muriel Gray

Journalist, presenter and writer Muriel Gray was born in Glasgow. After gaining an honours degree in art from Glasgow School of Art she pursued a career first in illustration and then in three-dimensional design in as assistant head of design at the National Museum of Antiquities in Edinburgh. Her broadcasting career began with Channel 4's music show The Tube and she went on to present diverse range of programmes including the influential The Media Show. Muriel began her own production company in 1987 that later became Ideal World Productions - from which IWC Media was formed. Muriel was the first woman rector of Edinburgh University, a post she served for three years. She began her writing career with a non-fiction best selling mountaineering book entitled The First Fifty, and in 1993 with the publication of her first horror novel The Trickster, followed by two more - Furnace and The Ancient. Muriel is working on an original horror screenplay commissioned by Little Bird films as well as her regular column for the Sunday Herald. She lives in Glasgow with her husband and three children. After her family, her other passions are mountaineering, snowboarding and growing trees.

Tom Devine

Tom Devine is University Research Professor in Scottish History and Director of the Research institute of Irish and Scottish Studies at the University of Aberdeen. He is the author or editor of some two-dozen books on such varied subjects as emigration, famine, Scottish transatlantic links, urban history, the Scottish Highlands and rural social history. His last major book, The Scottish Nation (1999), became an international bestseller. Winner of all three major prizes for Scottish historical research, he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, an Honourary Member of the Royal Irish Academy and a Fellow of the British Academy – one of only five historians of Scotland elected FBA in the last hundred years. In 2001 he was awarded Scotland’s highest academic accolade, the Royal Medal, the HM The Queen. In 2002 he edited the book Being Scottish – a collection of personal reflections on Scottish identity today.

Jim Hunter

Professor Jim Hunter is director of the UHI Centre for History, UHI being the prospective University of the Highlands and Islands. He is the author of several acclaimed books on Scottish history. His latest book, published by Mainstream in October, is Scottish Exodus: Travels Among a Worldwide Clan. Jim Hunter has been much involved in the public life of the Highlands and Islands. He was the first director of the Scottish Crofters Union. More recently, he chaired Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the north of Scotland’s development agency. Jim Hunter's lifetime commitment and contribution to the renaissance of the northern half of Scotland have made him a national figure and acknowledged contributor to the complex debate on regional development issues.

Gary Younge

Gary writes for the Guardian on the subjects of world issues, racism, identity and heritage and is based in New York. His book No Place Like Home, which was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, is part travel book, part inquiry into cultural history – a Black Briton's journey through the Deep South. Over the past 10 years he has reported extensively from Southern Africa, the Caribbean, America and Europe as well as presenting two BBC documentaries on Louis Farrakhan and Puff Daddy and a recent polemic for Channel Four. Raised in Stevenage he studied French and Russian at Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh before receiving a bursary from the Guardian to study a post-graduate degree in journalism at City University in London. In 1996 he was awarded the Laurence Stern fellowship and worked as a staff writer at the Washington Post for three months. Winner of journalist of the year Ethnic Multicultural media Awards for the last three years running, Gary, 34, won two other awards for his writing last year and was nominated for the Foreign correspondent's Association award in 2000 for his reporting in Zimbabwe.

Fred MacAulay

Fred's brand of contemporary observations and caustic sarcasm is loved by millions. With a popular breakfast radio show, MacAulay & Co, and a string of TV credits including They Think It's All Over, Have I Got News For You, Life According to Fred and McCoist and MacAulay. Yet his on screen reputation and on air witticisms are the product of years of experience on the live circuit, including a stint as the first ever Scottish compere at London's famous Comedy Store.

Despite such familiarity, audiences are constantly surprised by Fred's innate ability to talk on any subject and weave rich comic tapestries from the most unlikely of yarns.

Despite his extensive TV and radio commitments, Fred has never lost the ability - or the desire - to play in front of a live audience. Currently enjoying a monthly residency at The Stand Edinburgh and Glasgow clubs, Fred is still a regular on the London cabaret circuit, a huge hit on the UK comedy scene and a massively popular after-dinner speaker and corporate entertainer.

Murray Grigor

Murray Grigor's award winning documentaries include CR Mackintosh, Sean Connery’s Edinburgh, Big Banana Feet, with Billy Connolly and The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright with Anne Baxter. He has directed and co-produced many television series including Granada’s Edge of Britain with AJP. Taylor; Channel 4’s Irony Curtain with Barbara Grigor. For American television he directed the eight-part architecture series Pride of Place with Robert A M Stern and The Face of Russia with James Billington, the Librarian of Congress.

With Barbara Grigor, Murray devised the provocative Edinburgh Festival exhibition Scotch Myths, the acclaimed Scotland Creates in Glasgow, Seeds of Change in the Museum of Scotland and The Sixties at The Barbican. Grigor is currently preparing a landmark television series on Scotland with Sir Sean Connery.

Kay Hampton

Kay Hampton is currently a lecturer in sociology at Glasgow Caledonian University and as former Research Director of the Scottish Ethnic Minorities Research Unit, researched and published widely on racism, ethnicity and discrimination. Ms Hampton has also been employed by University of Durban-Westville, South Africa.

She has been closely associated with the voluntary sector in Scotland since 1994 and is currently a board member of the Scottish Refugee Council; Deputy Chair & lead Commissioner for Scotland at the Commission for Racial Equality.

Quintin Oliver

Quintin Oliver was born and bred in Belfast, moving to Scotland toattend the University of St Andrews. He then worked as Welfare Rights Adviser to Strathclyde Regional Council, before returning to Belfast to run the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action; from here, he established the European Anti-Poverty Network, and was appointed to Mary Robinson's Presidential Council of State; he resigned from NICVA to run the "YES" Campaign in the 1998 Referendum on the Good Friday Agreement, after which he set up Stratagem, a public affairs and lobbying organisation. He chairs the Oscar-nominated Nerve Centre in Derry and is a trustee of Nil by Mouth in Glasgow.

Donnie Munro

Born on the Isle of Skye Donnie was brought up with his parents in Portree as well as spending time on his grandparents croft. Donnie joined the yet-to-break band Run-Rig and taught art at Inverness Academy, Leith Academy and Tynecastle High School (Edinburgh). In 1982 Runrig turned professional and the band became one of Scotland's most popular acts. Donnie was elected as Rector of Edinburgh University in 1991 and has presented many radio shows over the years including spells at the BBC's Radio Scotland. In 1997, with the UK general Election looming, Donnie made one of the hardest decisions of his life and left Run-Rig to stand for the Parliamentary seat of Ross, Skye and Inverness West. The seat went in the end to the Liberal Democrat Leader Charles Kennedy, but not without Donnie running him very close to the end. Donnie couldn't keep away from music and with help from Chris Harley, recorded what turned out to be his first solo album On the West Side. With his new band he recorded a live album simply called Donnie Munro. More tours in Scotland and Europe followed over the years, as did a further batch of albums. Donnie also continues with his position as Development Director for the gaelic-language college Sabhal Mor Ostaig on Skye.

Lesley Riddoch

Lesley was brought up in Belfast and moved to Glasgow in 1973. Lesley Riddoch hosts a Sony award-winning show on BBC Radio Scotland - a daily two-hour extravaganza of news, debate and phone-in argument which acts as a daily link between listeners and Members of the Scottish Parliament. Lesley is also founder and editor of Worldwoman – a Scottish based charity that sets up e-papers written by women in developing countries via the Internet. It was launched on International Women's Day 2000.

She was Assistant Editor of the Scotsman, Contributing Editor of the Sunday Herald and has presented network programmes on BBC Radio 4, BBC TWO and Channel 4. Lesley hosted five series of People's Parliament and also the political programme Powerhouse. She has also presented BBC TWO's Midnight Hour and Radio 4's You and Yours.Lesley began her career on Radio Scotland with her own award winning daily programme, Speaking Out which won the Best Talk Show 1994 from American Women in TV and Radio, the 1994 Silver Quill Law Society Award, the 1992 Plain English Special Award and the 1992 Norman McEwen Award for Civil Liberties. In 1993 Lesley was Cosmopolitan magazine's Woman of the Year for Communication. She won the Silver Sony Speech Broadcaster of the Year Award in 2001 and 2002 and has been nominated again in 2004. Lesley is a trustee of the Isle of Eigg Trust and has been very active in the land reform movement in Scotland.

Aasmah Mir

Aasmah Mir has been a presenter with BBC Radio 5 Live since 2001. She currently presents Drive with Peter Allen on Fridays and The Weekend News. She also writes a weekly column for the Sunday Herald newspaper.

She began her career in broadcasting as a newsreader with Scottish Television in Glasgow in 1993. Since then, she has worked for the Daily Record and Sunday Mail, BBC Radio Scotland, Central TV in Nottingham, and BBC London.

Aasmah was born in 1971 in Glasgow and lived there until 1998. She now lives in London, but still supports Celtic – from afar.

David McCrone

David McCrone is Professor of Sociology, and co-director of the University of Edinburgh's Institute of Governance. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He coordinated the research programme funded by The Leverhulme Trust on Constitutional Change and National Identity (1999-2004). He has written extensively on the sociology, culture and politics of Scotland, and the comparative study of nationalism. His recent books, authored and co-authored, include: Living in Scotland: social and economic change since 1980 (2004); Understanding Scotland: the sociology of a nation (2001); New Scotland, New Society? (2001), New Scotland: New Politics? (2000); The Sociology of Nationalism: tomorrow's ancestors (1998); and Scotland - the Brand: the sociology of Scottish heritage (1995).

Graham Leicester

Graham is Director and founder of The International Futures Forum - an international group of some 30 strategic thinkers across a range of disciplines dedicated to developing the capacity to sustain human aspiration in a complex and challenging world. IFF works with businesses, governments and communities and was established in 2001. Its early meetings were all held in Scotland and much of its practical project work in areas of health, learning, enterprise and governance first developed in response to Scottish concerns. IFF played a critical role in helping to establish Scotland's Futures Forum for the Scottish Parliament in late 2004 and has been engaged in the My Future's in Falkirk programme for economic transformation.

Hamish MacDonell

Hamish has been the Scottish Political Editor of The Scotsman since 2001. Born in Inverness he studied at Fettes College, Edinburgh and the University of York. His reporting career began with the Yorkshire Evening Press and in 1994 became a freelance journalist in Africa and Australia. He joined the Press Association as a Parliamentary Reporter in 1995 and became Scottish Political Editor before moving on to the Scottish Daily Mail 1998-2001. His interests include golf, rugby and jazz.