European Tour Board member Martin Gilbert will become the next chair of Scottish Golf, the national governing body of the sport in Scotland, it has been announced.
Mr Gilbert, who was appointed to the Board earlier this year, will succeed Eleanor Cannon as Chair at the end of her six-year term next March.
The 65-year-old Scot has championed golf in Scotland for over 20 years and his association with the European Tour began when Aberdeen Asset Management became title sponsor of the Scottish Open in 2012.
Martin Gilbert said: “As many people know, golf has been a lifelong passion of mine and I’m hugely excited to be taking up this role in the Home of Golf. I commend Eleanor and her team for their sterling leadership of the new, amalgamated body since its inception in 2015.
“The strategic direction that has been adopted by Scottish Golf is bold and exciting. I am very much looking forward to progressing this strategy and working closely with the board, the team and the membership in continuing to develop the game, at all levels, in Scotland.”
One of the UK’s most foremost business figures, Martin co-founded Aberdeen Asset Management in 1983 and the company became one of the world’s leading independent asset managers through a combination of organic growth and strategic acquisitions.
He was the Chairman of Aberdeen Standard Investments until his retirement in September 2020 and led AAM into a merger with Standard Life in 2017 to form Standard Life Aberdeen. Following the merger, he was appointed co-Chief Executive Officer, a role he stepped down from in March 2019. He was Vice Chairman of the group from March 2019 until May this year.
Based at the Home of Golf in St Andrews, Scottish Golf provides support to Scotland’s affiliated golf clubs and its 180,000 members. The role of Scottish Golf is to provide face-to-face support to clubs, through to staging a series of national championships for golfers of all ages and abilities, while maintaining the handicap system to enable golfers of differing abilities, men and ladies alike, to compete on a fair and equitable basis.
