Scots technology chief vows to learn lessons of the past

In an exclusive interview with The Herald, Mr Logan, who teaches technology entrepreneurship at the University of Glasgow, reveals his motivation to help ensure the country creates the jobs which will be needed by Scots for generations to come.

Mr Logan grew up in Clydebank in the 1970s and saw first-hand the devastating impact that the decline of traditional industry had on the community, with little thought having been made to replacing the employment that had been provided by the major shipyards and the Singer sewing machine factory. He also observed a similar lack of planning for the future during the Silicon Glen electronics boom which created thousands of jobs in central Scotland in the 1980s and 1990s, before the big companies eventually withdrew.

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Mr Logan said: “I was very impacted by the closure of all the shipyards and the closure of the Singer’s factory and all the heavy industry moving out of that town [Clydebank]. And that had been a very proud town. I was in a position to see my parents and grandparents and others around those generations lose all of that pride. It really established in me that it is extremely important to intensively try to create the jobs of tomorrow, because the jobs of today will probably go away. It is just so important to create that next wave of opportunity.

“It’s a conviction, rather than a hobby, of mine to be involved in this type of activity… I was grateful for the opportunity to carry out the role I have carried out [at the Scottish Government] over the last two years. I was grateful to be given the chance to directly influence those activities and I will find a way to continue to do that.”

While Mr Logan believes Scotland lost a lot of confidence after the Silicon Glen boom ended, he said the founders of start-ups today are not held back by any hangover from that episode of Scottish industrial history.

“The founders who are coming through did not live through that, they do not understand why they can’t be as successful as anybody else, and they are right about that,” he said.

“I am very much at my most optimistic that I have ever been about the sector, and for just the concept of Scotland as an entrepreneurial nation, because we have got a much stronger ecosystem since those heady days in the last century. We have a lot of belief and confidence and are seeing some really strong interesting start-ups being formed in Scotland. It is a good time to be involved in the sector, but we must never forget that being good at anything is temporary – you always have to be going over to the next wave.”

Mr Logan held his first “significant” start-up role with Atlantech in the 1990s, with the company ultimately being sold to Cisco for $180m in 2000. He said Atlantech had “played a pioneering role” and “demonstrated that you could grow a tech company in Scotland and attract interest of Silicon Valley companies”.

He added: “I was also a major figure of Skyscanner which showed you could go even further and grow a very internationally impactful company and blast through that so-called unicorn barrier when many people told us on that journey that we couldn’t.

“That also was a great confidence boost in creating a lot of belief in Scotland in the sector.”

Mr Logan created a technology entrepreneurship course at the University of Glasgow which he teaches to hundreds of students every year. He has sat on the board and been an investor in several Scottish start-ups and runs his own consultancy, through which he was worked with hundreds of founders since leaving Skyscanner, which was sold to Ctrip of China for £1.4 billion in 2016.

He said: “It’s in my blood to continue to contribute to the sector, as many other really great people in Scotland do. I intend to continue to do that, in ways I am still doing but also in other ways, but perhaps in a less politically exposed role.

“It has never really been in my personality make-up to be a visibly public figure per se. I wanted to make as big a contribution as I can.”