Gillian Crawford ✨

Founder/ Creative Director at Lily Blanche Columnist and Commentator at The Sunday Times. Founder/director Institute of Ecommerce. Chair of the British Association of Women Entrepreneurs (Scotland) Ambassador for Women's Enterprise Scotland. Strathclyde University Business School Growth Advantage Programme class of 2019. Strathclyde University Business School Ecommerce Scale-Up course class of 2020 Member of the National Association of Jewellers. Business of the Year (runner-up) Association of Scottish Businesswomen Awards 2019 Winner Best Use of Social Media WES/BWS Awards 2018 Columnist of the Year RBS Scottish Press Awards 2004 Columnist of the Year RBS Scottish Press Awards 2005 After completing an MA Hons in archaeology at Edinburgh University, I studied journalism at City University in London, before moving to Fleet Street and writing for The Times. At The Times, I pioneered a new kind of interview with FTSE100 chairmen and chief executives before being promoted to deputy editor of The Times Diary and then acting editor, attending the editor’s daily conference. Marriage and a move to Scotland followed. I was appointed Scottish correspondent of The Times, before becoming deputy editor at the Sunday Times Scotland. I turned the ailing Ecosse supplement into an multi award-winning section which helped drive circulation at the newspaper. After having my third child, I returned to writing and apart from a short interlude at the Scotsman, I have written features and a weekly column for The Sunday Times. Interview subjects have included: David Cameron, The Dalai Lama, Richard Branson, Dame Muriel Spark, Robert Carlyle, Sir Terance Conran, Alex Salmond, Lulu, Ian Rankin and Alexander McCall Smith. I have been named Feature Writer of the Year twice, Columnist of the Year and Team of the Year in the RBS Scottish Press Awards. I co-founded the demi-fine jewellery brand Lily Blanche before taking full control of the parent company Wow (Scotland) Ltd in 2016. The brand is thriving and we have built and optimised a successful ecommerce business http://www.lilyblanche.com/ which is on track for profitable revenue of £1m in 2026. In 2018, I joined a small group of Scottish ecommerce experts to create a new Institute of Ecommerce for Scotland. The first course for ecommerce managers went live in January 2020, funded by Scottish Enterprise and hosted by Strathclyde University Business School.