Business couple launch their vision for Scotland for 2070
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Two authors with links to the strath and a long term interests in Scotland have recently launched their own manifesto for the country's future to coincide with the Scottish elections.
Ian and Dorothy Godden stressed they are not standing for the Scottish Parliament nor for any political party but are ‘standing for Scotland’s long term successful future’.
The couple have co-authored a book with Hillary Sillitto, entitled 'Scotland 2070 - Healthy, Wealthy and Wise' and describe it as an ambitious vision for Scotland’s future without the politics.
The Goddens, whose family own a house on the Rothiemurchus by Aviemore, have just launched their electronic version of the book on Kindle after an earlier successful launch of their printed version.
Mr Godden said they have spent 18 months researching how Scotland can succeed in the next 50 years post Covid, post Brexit and post the current short term politics of today.
He said: "We see six big opportunities for success, not least from the major new trading route from the Arctic Melting Ice, planting five billion trees, driving a wood-based economy, becoming Europe’s leading renewable energy exporter and investing in tripling research and development throughout the country."
Mrs Godden said: "We are challenging the current political parties to up their game and provide their own versions of 25-year and 50-year visions for the country.
"Watch out for our six recommended manifesto actions over the next six weeks on our website at www.Scotland2070.org for details."
Mr Godden joined BP in 1975, worked onshore and offshore in the early pioneering days of North Sea extraction, on the Magnus and Forties oilfields and Sullom Voe oil terminal, had a spell in Kuwait and was also a young engineer at the Grangemouth refinery.
He went on to achieve an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business in California, studying between 1979-1981.
Mr Godden became a consultant and then partner of Booz Allen in Houston, New York and London and a Senior Partner of Roland Berger in London and Munich, advising oil and gas, chemical and aerospace and defence clients.
He has worked with Shell, BP, Conoco, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Allied Signal among other clients.
Mr Godden has also consulted to the UK, Dutch and South African governments on industrial policy, as well as becoming Chairman of Farnborough International, the event organisers for the Farnborough and Bahrain airshows.
He was appointed as a member of the UK Government’s National Defence Industrial Council.
He co-authored the business book Managing Without Management.
Mrs Godden was born in Kalimpong at the tail end of the British Empire. She lived for a spell in the middle of rural Bangladesh and was introduced to Indian dancing and music from an early age.
She then returned to Edinburgh with her family in 1965 at the age of 13 and trained as a nurse in the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, specializing as a coronary care nurse.
After marrying, she practiced nursing in London, Houston and the Bay Area, California.
Since returning to the UK in the mid-1980s, she has raised a family and renovated a number of properties in London and Scotland.
Mrs Godden has invested in two 18th Century buildings, the Rock House in Edinburgh and another historic house in Rothiemurchus.
She has lived in Abu Dhabi for the last six years supporting her husband's recent business interests in the Middle East.
