New business ‘mentor’ can’t hedge her bets

As an independent businesswoman, Heather McGregor is entitled to make bags of money in any way she sees fit.

If that involves preying on the poorest and most vulnerable members of society through Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs) and selling high-interest loans to desperate debtors, then so be it.

But when she took up a job on a six-figure salary running one of Scotland’s most prestigious business schools, another set of rules must apply.

In her role as Executive Dean of HeriotWatt University’s Edinburgh Business School, she is a global ambassador for the fair and honourable business ethics on which Scotland’s reputation has been built for hundreds of years.

As well as guiding some of the brightest young business minds domestically, she is also a figurehead for an institution that attracts students from around the world – many of whom will be lured to a country that claims to place social responsibility at the heart of its commercial dealings. If McGregor truly is a business “mentor”, then she has a duty to think again about the type of companies she is involved with.

International Game Technology Plc may well be on the right side of the law but the glaring moral question marks hanging over the FOBT machines that they are world leaders in producing are too great to be ignored.

Likewise, there are growing concerns over finance f irms such as Loans at Home who offer sky-high APRs of up to 733 per cent . This newspaper has been highlighting for years the destructive effects FOBTs have in already economically decimated communities.

The Government have now woken up to the issue having ordered a major crackdown.

There is no question Nicola Sturgeon knew anything of McGregor’s extra- curricular business interests when she shared a stage with her in America last year.

But it would be reasonable to expect the First Minister to pause for thought should a similar photo opportunity arise again.

It is absolutely right that the UK and Scottish governments are now talking tough on FOBTs and rapacious High Street lenders.

However, the commitment to that cause has to be absolute. It can’t be a case of strongly worded statements in public while cosying up to the people cashing in on these industries behind the scenes.

Edinburgh Business School make a huge play of their connection to the Scottish icon of economic thought, Adam Smith. But he was an advocate of free market capitalism because he viewed it as the best way of creating strong and prosperous societies.

McGregor has a duty to think again about the type of firms she is involved with

FOBTs were probably not part of his thinking when he wrote The Wealth of Nations in 1776.