Public appointment: Members reappointed to the VisitScotland Board

The Minister for Business, Richard Lochhead MSP, today announced the reappointment of Paul Easto, Shona Marsh, Dr Keith Nicholson and Steven Walker as Members of the Board of VisitScotland. 

Members 

Paul Easto is the Chief Sustainability Officer of the Active Travel Group Limited, comprising five leading international travel brands. Paul is also the founder of the Wilderness Group Limited, a specialist tour operator headquartered in Aviemore in the Scottish Highlands. He was previously an Advisory Board Member of the Adventure Travel Trade Association Advisor to the US based Adventure Travel Trade Association. He has served as a Member of the Cairngorms National Park Authority Board where he chaired the Cairngorms Tourism Partnership and led on the development of the Park’s Sustainable Tourism Plan. 

Shona Marsh began her tourism career on a tourist office welcome desk. She has held various roles since including positions in sustainable tourism, destination management organisation marketing and membership development, tourism consultancy, and commercial development for small and medium enterprises in the industry. She was the first employee of the startup, Accomable. Acquired by Airbnb, this is a global vacation rental platform for people with disabilities. At Airbnb, she managed the integration of Accomable before moving to lead commercial growth of Airbnb Experiences across Northern Europe.  She is Chair of the Board of the charity Disability Snowsport UK and runs education and accelerator programmes for tech startups in Scotland and across the UK. 

Dr Keith Nicholson is a former professor in environmental geochemistry at universities in Scotland, New Zealand and Denmark, who turned to consultancy and is now an entrepreneur and multiple award-winning subject matter expert in Cyber Security. Dr Nicholson was awarded UK Security Specialist of the Year in 2020-21. He has been a long-standing member of the Scottish Government's National Cyber Resilience Advisory Board and created the Public Sector Cyber Resilience Framework as a benchmark for Scottish public bodies. He is the founder of Cyber Security Scotland and works as an independent consultant specialising in cyber risk, audit, assurance and compliance against national and international security frameworks. 

Steven Walker is the former Chair of the Scottish digital entertainment company Blazing Griffin Limited at and has previously held the roles of Managing Director at The Scotsman Publications Limited and News UK, Scotland and while at STV Group plc held the role of Director of Corporate Development. He is also a strategy adviser to MBC Lotteries Limited a charity lottery company. Steven brings a wealth of media, digital and senior management experience to the Board. 

Reappointments 

Dr Keith Nicholson is reappointed for nine months from 1 June 2025 until 31 March 2026, Paul Easto and Shona Marsh will be reappointed for three years from 1 September 2025 to 31 August 2028 with Steven Walker reappointed for two years from 1 September 2025 to 31 August 2027. 

The reappointments are regulated by the Ethical Standards Commissioner. 

Remuneration and time commitment 

The reappointments attract remuneration of £356.00 per day for a time commitment of two days per month. 

Other Ministerial appointments 

Dr Keith Nicholson is a Member of the Board of Highlands and Islands Enterprise and receives £419.00 per day for a time commitment of 2.5 days per month. 

Paul Easto, Shona Marsh and Steven Walker do not hold any other public appointments. 

Political activity 

All appointments are made on merit and political activity plays no part in the selection process.  However, in accordance with the original Nolan recommendations, there is a requirement for appointees’ political activity within the last five years (if there is any to be declared) to be made public. 

Paul Easto, Shona Marsh, Dr Keith Nicholson and Steven Walker have had no political activity within the last five years. 

Background 

VisitScotland is a Non-Departmental Public Body and Scotland’s national agency for tourism and events. Its core purpose is to drive the visitor economy, growing its value to Scotland. It has wide statutory powers to promote tourism and has a core budget of around £40m per annum. It is funded in part by the Scottish Government and the Minister for Small Business, Innovation, Tourism and Trade makes appointments to the Board which currently has eight members including the Chair.