The Macaulay Institute announces with great sadness the death of the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Institute – Andrew Raven. Mr Raven, who had been on the Board of Governors since 1997, died on Sunday, 2 October 2005 following a brave seven year battle with cancer.

Professor Maggie Gill, Chief Executive and Director of Research at The Macaulay Institute says, “I, the Board members and the staff are greatly saddened by the news of Andrew’s untimely death and we would like to extend our deepest sympathies to his wife Amanda and his family. Andrew served on the Board of the Macaulay Institute from July 1997, taking over as Chair in July 2001. He gave great support both to the Institute and to me personally during his time as Chair and spoke up on behalf of the Macaulay quietly but effectively both within SEERAD and in other fora. Andrew was passionate about rural Scotland and integrated land use in particular, deriving from his deep affection for the family estate at Ardtornish, Morvern, Lochaber.”

Andrew Raven’s first degree was in architecture followed by a two year postgraduate Land Economy diploma at Aberdeen University, which he completed in 1985. During his career he also held the post of Director of Land Management of the John Muir Trust, until he left to become Chair of the Deer Commission for Scotland in 1999. He also sat on the steering group advising on the development of a Scottish Agriculture Strategy, was a trustee of the Millennium Forest for Scotland, a Vice Chairman, until 1998, of Rural Forum Scotland and was a Commissioner for the Forestry Commission from 2000 to 2005 and recently Chairman of the National Committee for Scotland.