Inverness campus is one of the north’s most ambitious and exciting projects for years and Ruaraidh MacNeil is delighted to have been chosen to lead it.
Not so long ago, the north of Scotland was viewed by many people as an economic backwater but those days are gone and plans for the new campus are a further sign of confidence in the Highlands and the area’s prospects.
Councillors have approved the £25million first phase of the 160-acre development, despite concerns Inverness will not cope with the expected influx of traffic.
The Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey planning committee voted 11-3 to approve the scheme, which independent researchers say could lead to as many as 6,000 jobs.
They have also forecast new investment worth around £300million being attracted to the area and a further £38million-a-year fillip for the local economy.
The expectation is that the campus will be shared by the UHI Millennium Institute, Inverness College and the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC). The long-term vision also includes a social enterprise-run hotel plus community sport and recreational facilities.
Medium-term plans include an innovation science park for private-sector research and development (R&D) in addition to business incubation.
Economic development quango Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) is driving the project forward.
Mr MacNeil is project director with HIE. The 49-year-old who joined the Highlands and Islands Development Board – HIE’s forerunner – in 1986 after a spell as a trainee at the National Audit Office in London, is under no illusions about how important the scheme is for the area.
He said: “The Inverness campus project is by far the most exciting development I’ve been involved in.
“I remember the 1960s and early 70s, when the Highlands and islands were viewed as an economic wasteland – a place the young often had to leave if they were looking for a professional career – but this is no longer the case.
“Increasingly the Highlands and islands are seen as a place to do business.
“Our economy is holding up relatively well and we are politically stable. The region also offers an unrivalled work/life balance as well as a clean environment and rich cultural identity.”
“World trends in e-commerce, the internet and the development of the knowledge and creative economy mean that geographical remoteness need no longer hinder economic growth.
“But we continue to suffer from a lack of young talent and this hampers our ability to attract businesses.
“Today, as was the case decades ago, most of our teenagers leave the region to access higher education.”
“The campus will help improve the higher education offering, providing a better choice for local youth while attracting young talent from elsewhere.”
Other major projects around Inverness, including an airport business park and harbour development, are expected to attract extra business to the region and reduce its reliance on public-sector jobs.
Mr MacNeil said: “There is a real ambition in the Highlands to develop economically. By attracting the best talent to this area we can create and draw the industries of the future to our doorstep, thereby ensuring a healthy economy and sustainable community in the long-term.”
The new campus is due to open in 2014, providing a full range of further and higher education courses.
It will share a site on the eastern edge of Inverness with the new northern headquarters for the SAC.
There will also be an extension to the Centre for Health Science, which is based at the city’s Raigmore Hospital.
For Mr MacNeil, who recently became a father, the project is the latest in a string of key economic developments he has been at the heart of during his 20-plus years – so far – at HIE.
He lists among his finest achievements the role he played in helping to diversify the Nairn business community from oil and gas activities in the wake of the 2002 shutdown at a fabrication plant at Ardersier.
As HIE’s head of operations from 1994-96, he played key roles in the establishment of American-owned biomedical manufacturing and research firm Inverness Medical in the area and the merger between two of the Highland capital’s senior football clubs.
In 1996, Mr MacNeil became HIE’s head of business development and over the next five years he became involved in a string of key infrastructure projects in the area.
He also established the first technology incubator unit in the Highlands and helped to attract nursing home and care group Westminster Healthcare to Inverness.
In 2001, he became HIE’s senior development manager for innovation. This role gave him responsibility for encouraging innovation and increasing the levels or research undertaken around the Highlands and islands. He also set up the 1st Highlands and Islands Research Challenge Fund, which was launched by the economic development agency to benefit small and medium-size enterprises.
Since 2002, Mr MacNeil has worked on a string of other key strategic projects for the region, including the current campus plans.
He describes himself as a Glasgow Highlander; one of the large number of people in Scotland’s largest city with strong Highland roots.
In Mr MacNeil’s case, it was a family connection to Barra – his parents, Morag and Angus, were from the island – that gave him a sense of Highland identity.
He is a self-taught Gaelic speaker and proud of it, and he and wife Amanda are already looking to have son Calum, who was born earlier this month, schooled in the language.
Amanda is an Aberdonian, but she moved to Brussels at the age of two after her father took a job at the European Commission.
She studied at Edinburgh University and met Mr MacNeil when she worked for a company in a business incubator unit in Inverness.
Mr MacNeil has a degree in business studies to his name from his time at Glasgow College of Technology.