Ann Heron Gloag
by Radiyah Shakur
Ann Heron Gloag
is one of Scotland’s most powerful
women and one of the world’s top-50 female entrepreneurs.
 Trained to be a nurse, she temporarily abandoned
that idea and went in to business with her brother
Brian
Souter- setting up the Stagecoach bus company in 1980
using £25,000 their father received from a redundancy
payment. The company grew rapidly, in part due to the
encouragement of the British government’s deregulation
of transport. It is one of the UK’s most successful
independent transport operators with locations in 7
other countries. Both Gloag and her brother have a
combined wealth value of £1.3 billion.
In 1999, Ann Gloag experienced a personal tragedy
in her own life when her son committed suicide. From
this point, Gloag stepped back from her business, becoming
a Non-Executive Director in 2000.
She established the Balcraig Foundation to help relieve
poverty and suffering around the world, with the majority
of its projects in Sub-Saharan Africa. One of its main
initiatives is the operation and management of the
Kenya Christian Homes (KHC), which currently cares
for 140 impoverished and orphaned children. KHC, which
include the Jonathan Gloag Academy and Thomas Bernardo
House Orphanage, have a holistic approach to caring
by housing, educating and preparing the older children
towards independent living.
She has given generously to various charities, including
a £4million gift to Mercy Ships, which are floating
hospitals that deliver free medical assistance and
supplies to poor countries. Gloag, an international
Board member of Mercy Ships, purchased an old Danish
rail ferry in 1999 to be converted in to a floating
hospital. Once the ferry, renamed ‘Africa Mercy’,
is fully converted, it will become the world’s
largest NGO hospital- treating 450,000 people each
year in Africa.
The philanthropist has adopted a Kenyan boy, and has
worked as a nurse on outreach projects in western Africa.
In 2003 she was awarded for her humanitarian work from
a Texas-based Philanthropy organisation, becoming the
first international recipient of the prestigious award.
In 2004, Gloag was made an OBE (Order of the British
Empire) for her charity works.
|
|
