About EDGE

The EDGE Team:

Evelyn McDonald
Chief Executive Officer

BIO: Evelyn McDonald is the CEO of Scottish EDGE.  Previously run by Scottish Enterprise for four rounds, Evelyn oversaw the spin out of the competition in Autumn 2014 to the private sector led Scottish EDGE C.I.C. The introduction of lending to the winners in Round 5 has created a revolving loan fund to support future applicants. 

In addition, the small team of seven have introduced mentoring, alumni events, training and a business support package to winners as well as the innovative EDGE Pledge.  Prior to joining Scottish EDGE in November 2014, Evelyn had a long career at the Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust, and latterly the Prince’s Trust. 

In 2002, she helped set up and run a successful growth fund which assisted over 300 Trust-supported businesses providing access to loans of up to £25k and follow-on support.  Evelyn is also a board member at the Scottish Design Exchange and an assessor of the Small Business Charter Award.

FUN FACT: Evelyn is a keen music fan and in 2014, along with her music journalist husband, John, they turned their flat into a music venue hosting bands such as Simple Minds, The Vamps and Twilight Sad.

FAVOURITE QUOTE: “People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care”
- Theodore Roosevelt

Kevin Walls
Chief Operating Officer

BIO: Kevin had a long and successful career with Sainsburys for 12 years in management, leadership and senior project management before joining the world of supporting start up entrepreneurs. After joining Entrepreneurial Spark in 2015 he threw himself into the growth mindset world and demonstrated a passion for helping entrepreneurs succeed in their ventures.

After 2 years and 200+ businesses supported, it was time to join the amazing Scottish EDGE team, initially as Relationship Manager, and now COO.

FUN FACT: Not only is Kevin a fan of skydiving, he has also been developing his creative side during lockdown, by upcycling old wood into making new garden furniture.

FAVOURITE QUOTE: “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending”
- C.S.Lewis.

Tracey Ward
Relationship Manager

BIO: Tracey joins the Scottish EDGE team on a 12-month secondment from Scottish Enterprise and supports the team in role of Relationship Manager, providing advice and guidance to EDGE winners as they grow and commercialise their businesses. 

Tracey started her career on the graduate programme at Orange, holding various roles on both technical and commercial sides of the business and spending a short secondment in Thailand. Moving back to Scotland, she entered the world of supporting SMEs, first as Chief Executive of the Mobile and Wireless trade association and since 2008, within Scottish Enterprise where her focus has most recently been on helping companies identify and apply for innovation funding opportunities.

FUN FACT: Tracey loves nothing better than kitchen dancing and cherishes memories of a trip to the green room of a popular Saturday night dance show, where she was by far the least spray-tanned person.

FAVOURITE QUOTE: “I am still learning”
- Michelangelo (Age 87)

Andy Palmer
Finance Manager

BIO: Andy attended Strathclyde University, and after graduating joined KPMG in Glasgow.  After qualifying in 1993, he worked within the West of Scotland in the manufacturing, electronics and IT industries.

Progressively he worked in more senior roles, ultimately as Financial Director of ECS where the business trebled in size during his tenure.  He has completed a number of acquisitions and disposals in his career, latterly the sale of ECS to GlobalLogic in the US. 

After working on the integration of the business in to the new group, Andy joined Scottish EDGE in 2022 to look after the company’s finance function, including management of the loan book.

FUN FACT: Andy has worked tirelessly to maintain the image of an accountant created by Monty Python, with no success at all.

FAVOURITE QUOTE: “Legacy accounting: Will you have been an asset or a liability on the world's balance sheet?” 
- Ryan Lilly

Ken Whipp
Chief Learning Officer

BIO: Ken works alongside the Relationship Managers to support the leadership and commercial development of our entrepreneurs and their teams. He also works with the Hunter Foundation where he leads the Scale up Scotland Programme and supports their Social Innovation Partnership.

Prior to joining the EDGE team, he has been involved in entrepreneurial development and executive education since 2008 with organisations such as Business Link North West, Entrepreneurial Spark and Entrepreneurial Scotland.

Ken began his career on the Xerox graduate programme and subsequently worked for a number of large corporates in the oil & gas, retail and banking sectors before setting up an offshore e-commerce business which he has since exited.

FUN FACT: Ken enjoys most sports particularly golf, travelling and walking his two Border Terriers.

FAVOURITE QUOTE: “Here is what we seek: a compassion that can stand in awe at what the poor have to carry rather than stand in judgement at how they carry it. “
- Gregory Boyle

Maria McKinney
Relationship Manager

BIO: Maria is delighted to extend her 12-month secondment to the Scottish EDGE team from Scottish Enterprise for a further 12 months on a full-time basis for 2024. Maria supports the EDGE team as a Relationship Manager, advising and guiding EDGE winners as they grow and commercialise their businesses.  As well as supporting the team in Competition Rounds 23 and 24. 

Maria has several years of experience in the conference and event management sector, organising numerous high-profile conferences around the UK. She spent a further 7 years as Corporate & Events Manager in a multi-arts venue in Glasgow, managing a small team and selling this unique venue to corporate and conference clients. Following, redundancy, Maria went to work at Scottish Enterprise - starting in the Workplace Innovation team before moving to the Low Carbon team and latterly joining the Entrepreneurship and Investment Team, working with early-stage high-growth companies.

FUN FACT: Maria used to be a Holiday Rep for Airtours in the Magical Island of Majorca. In her mid-20’s, Maria was fortunate enough to spend 12 months working in Australia in her favourite city, Sydney, and then travelled around Australia, New Zealand and Asia.

FAVOURITE QUOTE: “She believed she could so she did”
- R.S. Grey

Jack Proctor
Marketing and Comms Manager

BIO: Having previously qualified as a nurse and worked in the cardiology ward of Glasgow’s Royal Infirmary, Jack’s chance secondment to the NHS’ Health Promotion Department helped uncover his desire to combine creativity with purpose.

After returning to University, Jack went on to have a strong background in both creative marketing and content creation. He joined EDGE in 2016 to assist in all areas of the organisation’s marketing efforts.

In 2018, Jack moved into the role of Marketing and Communications Manager, primarily responsible for social media marketing strategy, press relations, email marketing, and event comms management. Additionally responsible for EDGE's in-house design - including the creation of on-brand image and motion video content for digital and print media.

FUN FACT: Jack is a ‘Back to the Future’ fanatic and a keen movie prop collector. The highlight of his collection is Griff Tannen’s Pit Bull Hoverboard (unfortunately it doesn’t actually hover).

FAVOURITE QUOTE: "Your future hasn't been written yet. No one's has! Your future is whatever you make it. So make it a good one!"
- Doc Brown

Myles Bax
Relationship Manager

BIO: Myles joins the Scottish Edge team following 8 years working in Business Development and Commercial Strategy for a number of early-stage startups (including some companies that are EDGE Alumni Winners!)

Following a stint teaching at a High School in Singapore in between an undergraduate degree at the University of St Andrews and a Postgraduate at the University of Glasgow, Myles entered the world of startups by joining edtech venture Robotical as the first full-time employee of the business. He went on to work with cybersecurity firm SICCAR as Partner Sales Manager, was Commercial Lead at VC-backed robotics firm Touchlab and mentors early-stage commercial teams with Tech Scaler.

His experience of the startup ecosystem, the challenges in raising investment and the pathways to gain commercial traction gives him an empathy with Founding teams who are starting businesses from scratch.

FUN FACT: Myles was a Ski Instructor for a number of years after school where he got his first introduction to theory of business development activities. Rules to follow: Never look scruffy, ski with style and always, always ensure that you help any skier up that had fallen on the hill - and pass them a business card...

FAVOURITE QUOTE: "Never accept limitations as being permanent, because they are not.”
- Emil Zatopek