Montrose Associates

The niche consultancy has sought "people of quality and experience" to provide "strategic advice and analysis" to companies, says Maclay, Montrose's executive chairman. Giving advice and analysis on public policy, reputational management, corporate governance and corporate social responsibility, the company opens its doors at a time when "corporate decisions need to be sharp", "to raise a good performance to an excellent one", says Maclay.

Advisory Board

• Douglas Hurd,Rt Hon The Lord Hurd of Westwell, Deputy Chairman, Coutts and Co; Senior Adviser to Hawkpoint Partners. Chairman, German-British Forum. Formerly British Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary and Northern Ireland Secretary. Also former Chairman of British Invisibles and of the Prison Reform Trust.

• Richard Holme, Rt Hon The Lord Holme of Cheltenham, Chairman, Globescan and LEAD International. Former Board Member, Rio Tinto plc and former Chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce Environment and Energy Commission. Chairman, Hansard Society and Chancellor of the University of Greenwich. Liberal Democrat Peer and Chairman of the House of Lords Constitution Committee.

• Christopher Haskins, Lord Haskins of Skidby Chairman, European Movement. Director, Yorkshire Television, Yorkshire Regional Development Agency. Formerly British government Rural Delivery Adviser, Chairman, Northern Foods, Chairman, Better Regulation Task Force and member of Hampel Committee on Corporate Governance. Also former member of UK Round Table on Sustainable Development, and of Runnymede Trust.

• Carl Bildt KCMG, Chairman, KREAB Group and Nordic Venture Network. Member of Board of Trustees RAND Corporation and Non-Executive Director of Legg Mason Inc (USA) . Director of Lundin Petroleum, Vostok Nafta, HiQ, and Öhmans (Sweden). Formerly Swedish Prime Minister, International High Representative in Bosnia, and Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General to the Balkans.
• Mike Welton Chairman, Hanson plc. Chief Executive, Balfour Beatty plc, 1995 to 2004. Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Chairman of the UK Government's Railway Sector Advisory Group and Chairman, Global Solutions Ltd.

• Michael Bottenheim Director, UPM-Kymmene. Consultant, Compass Advisers. Formerly Managing Director, Lazard Brothers, Executive Director of Citicorp, specialising in cross border mergers and acquisitions. Formerly member of the supervisory board of Abemy BV.

Officers

• Michael Maclay Executive Chairman, Montrose Associates, Former diplomat, journalist and editor, later Foreign Office political adviser and special adviser/chief spokesman at Office of High Representative, Bosnia. Latterly director of Hakluyt. Also Executive Director of the Franco-German-British Club of Three, and Chairman, Citizenship Foundation.

• Tom Rhodes Chief Operating Officer, Montrose Associates, Former New York Bureau Chief of The Sunday Times and Washington Correspondent for The Times. Latterly senior executive of one of UK's Hakluyt and Managing Director International of New York technology company, Exceed.

Consultants

• Andrew Mitchell, MP