Scottish Enterprise appoints Nicola Anderson as Director of Scaling Innovation

Nicola will lead Scottish Enterprise’s Scaling Innovation Mission, focused on helping ambitious Scottish companies grow faster and translate cutting-edge research and development into globally competitive businesses of scale.

The Mission will support innovation across key future industries including life sciences, industrial biotechnology, fintech, and critical technologies such as photonics, quantum and semiconductors.

The Scaling Innovation Mission aligns closely with the Scottish Government’s Innovation Strategy and the UK Government’s Industrial Strategy, with a shared focus on backing ambitious businesses to innovate, scale internationally, and transform the economy.

Nicola joins Scottish Enterprise from Fintech Scotland, where she served as Chief Executive. At Fintech Scotland, she played a central role in developing one of Europe’s most dynamic fintech clusters, at the heart of a wider financial services sector worth £14 billion to the Scottish economy.

Commenting on her appointment, Nicola said:

“Scotland has extraordinary innovation strengths and the global potential to match. I’m extremely excited to take on this role and help our companies scale faster, compete on the world stage, and succeed in high-growth sectors.

"I’m looking forward to working closely with founders, industry, investors, public sector and academic partners to drive growth, create jobs, unlock essential infrastructure, and open up international market opportunities.”

Managing Director of Innovation and Investment at Scottish Enterprise Jane Martin added: “Nicola’s appointment is a real feather in the cap for Scottish Enterprise.

“The work she has done in leading Fintech Scotland and its strong partnership with industry to establish a thriving fintech cluster here is something I am looking forward to seeing her build on across multiple key sectors where Scotland has a real internationally competitive edge.

“From our thriving life science clusters pioneering breakthrough treatments that change lives, to deeptech manufacturers engineering AI-enabled robots that redefine industries – Scotland has some amazing opportunities to build strong industries for the future and our ambition is to support growth for companies even beyond these sectors.

“By accelerating the growth of scale-ups and supporting the development of innovation regions and clusters, we have a real opportunity to fuel job creation, drive economic transformation and position Scotland internationally as a global leader in the industries of tomorrow.

 “Scottish Enterprise is the super-connector for Scotland’s economy and Nicola’s appointment and network will help to grow this further.

ENDS