Senior HR leader, Donald Mackenzie, has joined IGS, the Scottish-based agritech and smart spaces business, as Head of HR. His appointment is the latest in a series undertaken to grow the company's management team as it continues to expand to supply a growing customer base across the world.
Inverness-born Donald joins IGS following more than 23 years working with Michelin in Dundee where he started out as a Trainee Industrial Engineer before moving through various people management positions. He brings a wealth of Human Resources experience, as well as skills across learning and development, community engagement and communications in a technical environment.
Most recently, Donald was responsible for the social plan that supported 850 employees impacted by the Michelin Dundee site closure, including developing programmes to re-train, relocate and find alternative employment opportunities for all those individuals. On joining IGS, Donald's role will see him support a rapidly growing team as the company moves onto a global stage, all the while maintaining its ethos of continuous innovation and investment into research and development.
Preparing for his first day in the role, Donald Mackenzie commented: "IGS seems like a natural fit for me. The people, the organisation and the outlook all appeal to me: it feels like a positive environment with loads of exciting opportunities. The whole company is about learning and growth and expansion, ultimately driven by products that the team is fully behind and that really works."
"Obviously in a field like HR, the people side of a business is always the most important, and for me there's a real human opportunity which has been created at IGS by the development of products that could fundamentally change the way that society and whole populations live. The possibility of developing solutions able to tackle the whole food security issue is really enticing."
IGS CEO David Farquhar commented: "Being able to attract an HR professional with Donald's perspective is a major win for IGS, as we look employ new people and offer the best possible support to the immensely skilled crew we already have. We are at a very exciting point in our company history right now, and it has never been more important that we are best placed to attract, nurture and develop highly talented people.
We are delighted to have the opportunity to welcome someone of Donald's calibre to join us, and strongly believe that his wealth of experience – particularly with organisational development – is just what we need as we look to the future of the business.
“I choose to challenge because as an engineer I believe more diversity leads to more creativity.”
“I choose to challenge because we need women’s skills and insights at ALL levels in the workplace.”
“I choose to challenge because I think women should always support other women and because inequality is still a major problem in some countries around the world.”
“I choose to challenge because encouraging challenge breeds genuine innovation across our business.”
"I choose to challenge gender stereotypes and encourage constructive challenges from all."
“I choose to challenge to address imbalance.”
“I choose to challenge because we need to celebrate women's achievements and drive positive change in gender balance both in the workplace and our everyday lives.”
“I choose to challenge because everyone deserves the chance to achieve their full potential.”