Evelyn McDonald

Evelyn McDonald’s journey, from walking the halls of our campus to becoming the CEO of a bi-annual business competition, is one of determination, courage and success.

Her first job after graduating with a BA in Communications from GCU was in internal communications at the Wise Group in Glasgow, a leading social enterprise working to lift people out of poverty.

Armed with entrepreneurial enthusiasm, Evelyn’s career developed into founding a company with her boyfriend, who is now her husband, until taking on more senior roles within the Prince’s Scottish Youth Business.

Evelyn became CEO of Scottish EDGE, the biggest business competition in the UK, in 2014.

She said: “I found setting up Scottish EDGE a challenge but the joy of creating a business from scratch is that it can reflect your values and your ways of working.”

Working to make a difference

When asked what inspired her to follow her career path, Evelyn said: “To be honest, I stumbled into my career. Then, I became interested in the transformative power of small businesses, for the people who run them, the employees they take on, and the communities they work in. People often mistakenly think entrepreneurs just want to make money. In my experience, they want to make a difference.”

As CEO of Scottish EDGE, Evelyn and her team attract around 400 applications a year and support around 80 winners with £3m of funding in grants and loans.

To date, they’ve helped 515 winners across Scotland, from Orkney to the Borders with over £20m in funding.

Many of Scotland’s most well-known businesses such as Ooni, Beer 52, TVSquared, Amiqus and Current Health won EDGE in their very early stages.

Evelyn added: “Personally, I get a huge kick out of our finals and handing out the funding to the very worthy winners, but it is also wonderful to delight in their achievements. Some of our winners go on to become big employers creating hundreds of jobs.”