JONATHAN FINDLAY
Specialised in high-end Business and Leisure Tourism and Event Management, Jonathan has dedicated much of his career to the representation of British and, most particularly, Scottish interests abroad.
Change Catalyst, Venue Doctor, Ideas Guy ... you decide!
Educated in Scotland and a former Captain in The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, Jonathan has headed up the organisation of many high-profile and ceremonial events, several attended by royalty.
In 1991 he moved to France where, after working as Resort Manager in Courchevel for a Luxury Ski Travel Company and as Logistics Director in Paris for a high-end Chauffeured Limousine Company, Jonathan was hired by VisitBritain to lead the 700th Anniversary Celebrations of the Auld Alliance in 1995.
A year later, he founded the first overseas agency promoting Scottish Tourism, Trade and Culture abroad, generating over £15 Million in exports and added marketing value for Scotland. He has worked with every major whisky label, themed large-scale events for over 100,000 visitors, opened the first Scottish shop in Paris, published the first bilingual quarterly promoting Scotland in France, provided market representation for numerous UK brands and positively influenced Britain’s overseas tourism strategy.
In 2007, Jonathan was chosen to spearhead the European expansion of the UK’s leading corporate events and venue-finding agency (with a database of 85,000 venues worldwide), swiftly establishing their activity in France with a £Multi-Million client base (including the agency's first global account worth 20 Million Euros in annual spend) and triggering the agency’s subsequent global expansion.​
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Upon his own initiative, Jonathan co-produced an international project to successfully provide the representation of The Royal Scots Greys at the largest ever battle re-enactment in Europe marking the Bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo in 2015. The production, involving an international cast of 7000 re-enactors, was attended by 120,000 spectators over two days and streamed to millions of viewers online.
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In 2016, Jonathan graduated from the Saltire Fellowship, a 7-month high growth executive education programme, the result of a dynamic partnership between Entrepreneurial Scotland and Babson College, Massachusetts (ranked #1 for Entrepreneurial Studies).
After 25 years in France, Jonathan moved back to Scotland to take on the Business Development of Duns Castle Estate in the Scottish Borders, rapidly securing the venue as the flagship property for HomeAway's (VRBO) 2017 global brand awareness campaign linked to Disney's Beauty and the Beast. This included the live Broadcast onsite of Today on NBC (the top morning show in the US), hailed by VisitScotland as a massive coup for Scottish tourism. Raising the venue’s national and international profile received additional recognition as Duns Castle Estate triumphed at the 2017 Scottish Event Awards to win "Venue of the Year" and "Customer Experience of the Year" as well as "Tourism and Hospitality Business of the Year" at the 2017 Scottish Borders Business Excellence Awards and "Rural Hospitality of the Year" (Highly Commended) in the 2018 Scottish Rural Awards. The property is also the only Scottish property to have been shortlisted as Best Historic Wedding Venue in the 2019 UK Wedding Awards.
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In 2018, Jonathan was instrumental in securing St. Andrews as the host city of the first UK edition of Pop in the City, a culturally immersive Urban Raid for over 500 female participants from Continental Europe.
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In 2019 Jonathan was hired to head up the Partnerships at Marchmont House in the Scottish Borders where the purpose-driven ethos is to make Marchmont a Home to Makers and Creators, achieve sustainable creativity and celebrate entrepreneurship. In the same year, Jonathan was also elected President of Clan Farquharson UK, leading the delivery of the World's first major Virtual Clan Gathering in defiance of the Covid-19 pandemic and also joined the steering group of DunsPlayFest, a new Festival celebrating contemporary dramatic writing. The Virtual Gathering achieved recognition as one of three finalists for Virtual Event of the Year at the 2020 Virtual Society Awards and won the Editor's Choice Special Award at the 2020 CovidComms Awards, celebrating "excellence in communication during the pandemic."
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In 2021, Jonathan was chosen to coordinate the largest ever Scotch Whisky Charity Auction, The Distillers One of One. Imagined by The Worshipful Company of Distillers and delivered in partnership with Sotheby's, this initiative brought together 37 companies of the Scotch Whisky Industry in a collective endeavour with the aim of raising over £1 Million through biennial auctions of ultra-rare whiskies and experiences. As well as breaking numerous records, the inaugural auction raised a whopping £3.1 Million, with £2.6 Million going to charity to transform the life chances of disadvantaged young people in Scotland.
​Thanks to his wealth of experience, Jonathan has an in-depth appreciation of client expectations and what sets a venue or event apart from the competition. Regardless of the size of your activity or even if you already have a development team in place, Jonathan can apply his skill-set either as a permanent or visiting Consultant to make a deep-dive analysis of your current operations and bring fresh ideas to help you lift your profile, reposition your strategy, boost revenue and enhance your visitor experience.
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While Jonathan is the principal figure behind EarthQuaich, he can also draw upon the support of a network of fellow Consultants with complementary skills for more complex missions if needed.