Biographies

Jim founded RPM (www.rpm247.co.uk) in 2004 and grew turnover to a spectacular £2m by 2005. Jim provides Property Maintenance solutions to the UK Retail Market through a network of 60 local service depots on an F.M structure. Born in Glasgow, he qualified as an engineer and has developed his career in Africa and the UK in sales management positions with ICI, Unilever, Unipart, Blue Circle and Rok. Jim has created two other businesses, a Project Division and Property Investment in Europe, Africa and Scotland. Jim is married with 2 kids, 2 dogs, 2 cats and three mortgages! Jim loves to work.

Murray Strachan.  Murray, who hails from the North East of Scotland, is Managing Director of Strachan & Partners, a specialist business advisory consultancy, and Chief Executive of Albyn Ventures (www.albynventures.com)  a business investment group. He also holds a number of non-executive chairman & director positions in a diverse range of companies throughout the UK, many of which he is a shareholder in, including art framing & gallery, outsourced payroll, employment law / hr consultancy, specialist landscape planning, property energy assessment, automotive latch systems, retail & oil/gas services.

Prior to February 2007, he was a Director and Chief of Staff of the Petrofac Operations Services Division, a major international oil services business. Until May 2006, Murray was the Chief Executive of the Petrofac Training Group, the leading international oil and gas training & consultancy business. Petrofac Training was established in February 2004, when Petrofac acquired the RGIT Montrose Group, which had been acquired in April 2003 by a MBO Team led by him. Prior to RGIT Montrose, he worked for divisions of Liberty Mutual and the AP Moller / Maersk Group in a number of senior management or strategic change management roles.

Murray is also a non executive director of &/or holds board positions with a number of charitable causes &/or organisations in Scotland and was a top 3 finalist for the Scottish Director of Year in 2004. RGIT Montrose, under his leadership, was the winner of the Small / Mid-size Company Deal of the Year 2003/4 and was runner up of overall Deal of the Year 2003/4. In 2007, Murray was appointed Honorary Professor of the Robert Gordon University and joined the Board of the Entrepreneurial Exchange in Scotland.

He lives between Aberdeen & Auchterarder with his partner Carol and their three children.

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