David Davidson

David Davidson joined the Caledonia Consulting team in July 2007 after spending eight years as a member of the Scottish Parliament from its re-opening in 1999. David studied Pharmacy at Heriot Watt University and Business Administration at Manchester Business School and has been self employed from the age of 26 when he bought his first community pharmacy. He then developed a chain of community pharmacies across northern England and the west of Scotland branching out into agriculture in Central Scotland. He has been an advisor to Glaxo and after three years of advising UniChem, a pharmaceutical distributor now Alliance Boots, he joined the board serving through its rapid expansion until flotation and became a regional chairman from 1990 -93.

David has been a director of Stirling Enterprise and chaired a public training company at the same time. During his business career he also gave advice to start up businesses and to small businesses seeking to expand. On the professional side he served on two advisory committees to the Scottish Office concerned with education, training and delivery of NHS services in Scotland. In his political life David served on Stirling Council and in the Scottish Parliament held many briefs including Finance, Enterprise, Tourism, Higher and Further Education, Transport, Health and Local Government including Licensing and was in regular contact with ministers and civil servants. He also served as Convenor of Justice and Deputy Convenor of Audit giving him a detailed knowledge of committee and parliamentary procedures. He was a founder member of the Cross Party Group on Oil and Gas serving as Vice Chair. He has also worked closely with the voluntary sector for many years.

Affiliations

• Scottish Parliament Business Exchange on the board when he was an MSP