SCOTLAND'S first chief entrepreneurial officer has defended his salary of £2000 a day after a Tory MSP described it as “colossal”.
Former Skyscanner chief operating officer Mark Logan was appointed to the Scottish Government role last year in order to champion entrepreneurship.
Appearing before a committee of MSPs on Wednesday, he said he does not charge for much of the work he does and insisted he provides value for money.
Logan pointed to a review of the Scottish technology ecosystem he carried out, as well as a report into the participation of women and ethnic minorities in entrepreneurship.
During an Economy Committee meeting, Conservative MSP Graham Simpson confirmed with the businessman that his role consists of two days’ work a week for an annual salary of around £200,000 – more than the First Minister earns.
Simpson said: “That’s quite a colossal amount, it’s a huge amount.
“I don’t know if you’re a civil servant or on what basis you’re employed, but it’s quite a lot of money.
“I think we’re entitled to know what we are getting for our money.”
Logan said his rate is equivalent to what business consultants usually charge.
He said: “A majority of the work I do, I don’t charge the Government for, so you’re getting more than eight days a month of work.”
Logan said he had contributed 400 hours to the upcoming Stewart review into female and ethnic minority entrepreneurship.
Listing his previous roles in business working for “hundreds” of companies, he said: “You’re getting a lot of expertise for that money.”
Logan said his review of the Scottish technology ecosystem “profoundly transformed the policy direction of the tech sector in Scotland”.
He said he is currently stewarding the implementation of the review, including the Tech Scaler network of business incubators and a number of education initiatives.
Logan added: “I think you’re getting value for money for what I’m doing.”
The businessman also discussed the need to foster an entrepreneurial culture in Scotland, saying other small European counties like Finland and Estonia regularly produce tech “unicorns” – companies which grow rapidly to become valued at more than 1 billion US dollars.
He said: “We were once one of the most entrepreneurial nations on Earth… Somewhere down the line we lost our confidence to some extent as a nation in entrepreneurship.”
