Business Ambassadors

Paul Condron

Paul Condron is the

Brand Director of Highland Park, part of the Edrington Group. As a passionate brand marketing professional, Paul’s sales and marketing career spans 20 years and includes roles in premium consumer electronics, spring water and beer before he made the move into whisky with Edrington. 

In his early career, Paul started selling Tannoy loudspeakers in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe before moving to a more global role with Linn. After 10 years, he moved into the drinks industry, initially with Highland Spring in Scotland before the lure of the alcoholic drinks sector took him into Beer and Cider as Marketing Director for C&C Group, responsible for leading brands such as Tennent’s Lager, Magners Irish Cider and Heverlee.

Paul is a keen sportsman and enjoys football, golf and cycling. He is also a coach of a children's football team, but doesn't expect this to ever develop into a full-time career in the premier league! He lives in Glasgow with his wife Dionne and their two children, Finn  and Tabatha. 

Euan Duncan

Euan has been advising on intellectual property matters and commercial contracts throughout his career. He regularly advises on all areas of law relating to intellectual property, technology and media – digital and non-digital, contentious and non-contentious. Daily, Euan is involved with drafting, negotiating and advising on commercial contracts from sale to purchase, distribution to retail and sponsorship to endorsement. Also, he is focused on helping businesses identify, protect, commercialise and drive value from their intellectual property, including by complex licensing structures.

Euan tutors on Intellectual Property and Commercial Contracts at the University of Strathclyde Law School and is a director of the Scottish Society for Computers and Law and a member of the SCL Media Board. Euan is a Partner and Co-Chair at Morton Fraser MacRoberts LLP. He is also a Director of ADVOC Europe and an ambassador for the Glasgow School of Art Development Trust. 

Geoff Ellis

Geoff started his career as a permanent Entertainments Manager at Middlesex Polytechnic in London – the highlight, booking The Stone Roses for one of their first concerts in the capital. He then moved to the world-famous Marquee Club before heading up to Glasgow in 1992 to join DF Concerts as promoter of the company’s legendary venue King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut. As the company rose to become one of the UK’s leading music promoters and event management companies and T in the Park became one of the largest and most innovative festivals in the world with huge international recognition, Geoff’s progression in turn led to his appointment as Chief Executive in 2001.
As CEO of DF Concerts and Events, Geoff and his team deliver approximately 1000 shows & festivals per year, bringing the very best live music and events to Scotland. Geoff and his team have successfully promoted artists such as Beyoncé, Take That, One Direction, The Killers, Eminem, AC/DC, The Eagles, Rihanna, Radiohead, The Stone Roses, Coldplay and the best emerging talent around as well as event managing Glasgow on Ice, The Papal Visit to Bellahouston Park and various other events. Glasgow Summer Sessions was created in 2013 and the festival has continued to grow year on year attracting world class acts to the city. DF Concerts & Events also launched Edinburgh Summer Sessions in 2018 with a series of music concerts taking place at the iconic Princes Street Gardens and more recently, Royal Highland Showgrounds, attracting audiences of 27,000. As well as Glasgow and Edinburgh Summer Sessions, the recently launched Stirling Summer Sessions will be taking place in 2024 at yet another striking location, Stirling City Park, situated at the foot of Stirling Castle.
TRNSMT, Scotland’s largest music festival, has been held annually since 2017 at Glasgow Green in the heart of Glasgow’s City Centre. The 3-day 50,000 capacity per day festival has featured headliners such as Radiohead, The Killers, Stormzy, Liam Gallagher, The Chemical Brothers and many more have all graced the stage since its inception with the festival championing new music via it’s River Stage and King Tut’s Stage. Gerry Cinnamon, Lewis Capaldi, Sam Fender, Sigrid, The Snuts and Fontaines D.C are a handful of acts who played the King Tut’s Stage in the early years of the festival and have since went on to play (and in some cases, headline) the main stage.
Geoff is an executive committee member of the UK Concert Promoters Association, a member of the Glasgow Tourism Leadership Group and NightTime Economy Commission and member of the fundraising committee for Nordoff & Robbins Music Therapy in Scotland.

Mark Hollinshead

Mark has been involved in media and marketing  all of  his working life. He is currently chief executive of  Hollicom, a strategic communications and PR consultancy which he founded in 2017. Mark was the youngest ever managing director of the Daily Record and Sunday Mail and ran that business for 14 years from 1998 to 2012.  

He was appointed managing director of Mirror Group Newspapers in 2008, while continuing to manage the Scottish publishing business, and subsequently took up the role of chief operating officer and director of Trinity Mirror Plc (now Reach Plc) joining the main board of the then FTSE 250 company.

Douglas McCrea

Having worked for a number of leading financial firms, Douglas set up McCrea Financial Services in May of 1999.  McCrea have now expanded over recent years to have assets under management of in excess of £360m which is one of the reasons that the little remaining hair Douglas has is white. McCrea were recently voted in the Top 20 Financial Adviser firms in Scotland and for the second year running has been included in the Top 100 firms in the UK. The firm has also provided sponsorship and support to many local sportsmen and women and are the longest-standing sponsors of both Partick Thistle and Glasgow Warriors.

Supporting the local community and Scottish charities has been an important part of McCrea over recent years with Douglas jumping out of a plane (never again) doing the three peaks and also walking many of Scotland’s fabulous long-distance walks. To date over £600,000 has been raised for a number of great causes.

Out with work, Douglas spent eight years on the Board of Directors at St Margaret’s Hospice and has been on the Advisory Board at Glasgow Warriors since 2008.

For his sins, he was heavily involved at Partick Thistle, having set up the Partick Thistle Business Club, being involved in Save the Jags and has also run a number of testimonials for Partick Thistle players and management.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, Douglas is a big supporter of Glasgow Warriors and Partick Thistle, another reason for having aged so badly over recent years. As you will see he has a very understanding wife and family!

Tracey McNellen

Tracey’s great love affair with radio started in 1991 when she joined Radio Clyde and rapidly moved through ranks, becoming Commercial Director and then Managing Director.  She moved to Global Radio in 2011 to take her career to the next level, taking on the role of Managing Director, Capital FM, East Midlands. 

Tracey’s love for Glasgow brought her back home in 2014 as Managing Director (Scotland) for Global overseeing Heart and Smooth FM before progressing to the role of Regional Managing Director, Scotland & The North of England.  The opportunity of setting up a radio station in Glasgow for the people of Glasgow and the West of Scotland was presented to her and so, in January 2020, Tracey left Global to set up the new GO Radio. GO (meaning ‘Glasgow’s Own’) Radio launched in April 2020 and is already building a strong following. 

Mike Smith

Mike is Group CEO of the Orb group, one of the country’s leading suppliers of promotional merchandise, corporate clothing & uniforms and Points of sale for the drinks industry. With offices in Glasgow and London as well as a JV in Australia, the company now works with many brands on a global level, as well as the “best of Scotland” including  Tunnocks,  Irn  Bru, The Macallan, Arnold Clark and Scottish Power amongst many others! 

Having graduated in 1990 in Economics and Marketing from Paisley College of Technology and always wanting to run his own business it was only a matter of time before he went out on his own starting his corporate and promotional gift business in 1994 at the age of 25. 

Mike had been involved with the “Beatson Oncology” charity in the 80’s and 90’s, and then was on the Fundraising Committee of the newly formed “Beatson Cancer Charity”. However, Mike is now very much looking forward to his new role as one of the inaugural Beatson Business Ambassadors!