Personal statement

Prior to joining the University in 2022, Gillian was the Chief Executive of The Data Lab, Scotland’s innovation centre for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence with a mission to help Scotland maximise value from data and lead the world to a data-powered future.

Gillian was appointed an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2019 for Services to Information Technology and Business. In 2024, she was made a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the New Year's Honours List in recognition of her service to Business and Technology.

Gillian is also Chair of CodeBase, a tech ecosystem support organisation that has supported over 500 startups and scaleups, who have collectively raised over £4 billion. 

She was appointed Chair of Scotland’s AI Alliance, created to drive forward the recommendations in the AI Strategy for Scotland.

Formerly of IBM, Gillian is a TED speaker and was named Digital Leader 2018 for the UK, she received an Outstanding Achievement Award at Scotland’s Women in Technology Awards in 2019.

Gillian was named CEO of the year at the Digital Technology Awards 2017 and was also in the UK’s top ten most influential people in data according to DataIQ.

She is Past President of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, a trustee of Beyonder Involve Charity and an industry advisor to several Startups.

Gillian has a degree in Computing Science from the University of Glasgow, an Honorary Doctorate from Robert Gordon University and is married with a daughter.