Mary Goudie

Mary Teresa Goudie, Baroness Goudie (born 2 September, 1946) is a Labour member of House of Lords. According to the Scotsman which named her as 13th most poweful woman in Scotland in 2004, 'Baroness Mary Goudie is one of Scottish Labour’s most prolific and accomplished networkers. The life peer was a close friend of the late Donald Dewar, and she is close to Gordon Brown and Wendy Alexander. However, her friendship with leading lights in the Brown camp has not stopped her from forming close links with both Tony and Cherie Blair. Baroness Goudie is the founder of the exclusive Aeolus networking dinner club.'^[1]

New Labour-Business linker

Goudie is known as a key link between business and Labour in Scotland and beyond:

Labour’s tentacles in Scottish business run deep, giving access to a variety of cut-price services during campaigns, and allowing the party to use business figures to attack the claims of opposing parties.

A key pro-Labour business figure is Baroness Goudie, the Labour peer and secretary of the Scottish Industry Forum. While the forum claims to be independent, critics accuse it of being too close to Labour. Baroness Goudie is the former organiser of the Labour Solidarity Campaign and is married to James Goudie QC, a barrister with Lord Derry Irvine’s chambers. John Reid, the former Scottish Secretary, employed Goudie to act on his behalf when he was investigated by Elizabeth Filkin, the Commons sleaze watchdog, in 1999.^[2]

Career

• 1990-1995 European director of public affairs for the World Wide Fund for Nature (UK)
• 1995-1998 public affairs consultant.
• 1998 made a Life peer as Baroness Goudie, of Roundwood in the London Borough of Brent.
• 1998-2006 Strategic and Management Consultant for the Worldwide Fund for Nature.

Affiliations

• director of the House magazine
• director of the Hansard Society
• PiggyBankKids, trustee
• Secretary of the Scottish Industry Forum.
• member of the Napier University Court [3]
• Patron of the National Science Club

From the Register of Lords Interests, December 2006:

Remunerated directorships

• MTG One Ltd (strategic and management consultancy)
• Chairman, Stakeholders

Controlling shareholdings

• MTG One Ltd

Visits

• Visit to Jordan (10-14 June 2006) to attend a conference - fare paid personally, accommodation paid by Global Women's Action Network for Children

Office-holder in voluntary organisations

• Trustee of PiggyBankKids
• Board member, Pfizer Foundation UK

Voluntary organisations

• Member of the APEX/GMB Trade Union
• Member of the Labour Party
• Member of the Society of Labour Lawyers
• Member of the Merchants House of Glasgow
• Patron of the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland

External links

• Announcement of her introduction at the House of Lords House of Lords minutes of proceedings, 27 July 1998

Notes

1. ^Gillian Bowditch, 'Scotland's top 50 powerful women'The Scotsman, Tue 31 Aug 2004.
2. ^Murdo MacLeod 'In the grip of the Party', Scotland on Sunday, Sun 21 Apr 2002