Ian was born in 1953 to an Irish father and Scottish mother. He has dual Irish/United Kingdom citizenship and grew up in Edinburgh. He attended the University of Edinburgh between 1971-1975, attaining a BSc in Chemical Engineering, sponsored by British Petroleum (BP). 

He 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.

Ian received a Diploma in Accounting and Finance (CDipAF) and then went on to achieve an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business in California, studying between 1979-1981.

He 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 & Defence clients. He worked with Shell, BP, Conoco, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Allied Signal among other clients.

Upon his return to the UK, Ian worked with BAe Systems, Rolls Royce and Airbus. He 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 (NDIC). He drove the merger of three trade organisations and became Chairman of the resulting trade association, Aerospace, Defence and Security (ADS), in Westminster.

Ian co-authored the successful business book Managing Without Management and co-founded two businesses. His consulting business was sold in 1999 to a German company, while his second business, Greenbrook Healthcare, grew to a £30 million operation with 10 London centres working for the NHS, and was sold in 2019.

As Executive Chairman of the AIM-listed software and consultancy business KBC Advanced Technology, he turned the company’s fortunes around over 5 years, before it was sold to a Japanese company in 2016.

Ian currently works in the Middle East, advising Governments on Oil and Gas and Defence. He is Chairman of Bristow Aviation Holdings Company UK that runs the UK’s search and rescue helicopter services, as well as a Senior Advisor to the Bristow Group in Houston. He is currently a ‘Regent of the University of Edinburgh’ and was a member of the fundraising Campaign Board for 10 years between 2004 and 2014. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society (FRAeS).

Ian has lived for many years in three countries all with the word ‘United’ in their name; the United Kingdom from 1953-1978 and again from 1985-2013, the United States of America from 1979-1984 and the United Arab Emirates from 2014-2020. Needless to say, he has a view on how ‘united’ they actually are!

He is returning to Scotland in 2021. He is married with two children and two grandchildren.

Hillary was born and grew up in Scotland. He has lived there for most of his life, travelling widely in connection with his work. After graduating with a degree in Physics from St Andrews University and an MSc in Applied Optics from Imperial College, he had a successful engineering career with Ferranti and Thales. He holds eight patents.

His appointments included Chief Engineer for Thales Optronics, Head of the UK MOD’s Integration Authority (on secondment from industry), and Systems Engineering Director for Thales UK. He is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institute of Physics. He is also an internationally recognised expert in Systems Engineering and Systems Science, and one of approximately fifty Fellows of the International Council on Systems Engineering. He has held visiting professorships at the universities of Bristol and Strathclyde. His book Architecting Systems – Concepts, Principles and Practice was published in 2014, leading to further training and consultancy work, including instructing at an annual Systems Engineering Summer School in Sweden.

Hillary is married with two grown up children, both of whom are now, to their parents’ delight, living and working in Scotland. He has always been keen on outdoor activities, ‘compleating’ the Munros in the mid-1980s. Now ‘retired’ and a grandfather, he still enjoys hill-walking, exploring wild places in Scotland and further afield, skiing, sailing, photography, birdwatching, and playing the whistle.

Dorothy was born in Kalimpong, India in 1952, at the tail end of the British Empire. Her parents were from Edinburgh. Her mother trained as a nurse and midwife and worked as one of the first Health Visitors under the NHS. Her father was a mathematician and minister. Both became missionaries and married in Pakistan. Dorothy attended boarding school in Darjeeling, which overlooked the Himalayas, and then school in Dacca, East Pakistan. She experienced North India at the time of the Chinese incursion into Tibet, which affected a number of her schoolmates and their families.

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 Ian Godden, 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. She invested in two 18^th century buildings, the Rock House in Edinburgh and another historic house in Rothiemurchus. She is a keen gardener who enjoys getting close to nature, nurturing the exquisite beauty of plants and taking pleasure from the unexpected in nature. She is also a student of British and Scottish history.

Dorothy has lived in Abu Dhabi for the last 6 years supporting Ian’s recent business interests in the Middle East. Despite having only lived in Scotland for 10 years in total, Dorothy has a passion for Scotland’s success. Her son lives and works in the tech world of Old Street, London and has a young son. Her daughter, who runs the Rock House, has moved back with her family to Edinburgh. Dorothy looks forward to retiring, returning to Edinburgh and spending more time with her two grandchildren.

Find out more about the authors in the Q&A.