Background
Using her father"s redundancy money, and working with her brother Sir Brian Souter and her first husband Robin Gloag, Gloag established the Stagecoach Group in 1980, running buses from Dundee to London.
Using her father"s redundancy money, and working with her brother Sir Brian Souter and her first husband Robin Gloag, Gloag established the Stagecoach Group in 1980, running buses from Dundee to London.
She founded The Freedom From Fistula Foundation. After meeting Adam Friedman, became executive producer of Shout Gladi Gladi, a documentary film explaining the medical and social issues surrounding obstetric fistula in Africa. Educated at Caledonian Road Primary School and Perth High School, she qualified as a nurse and during a 20-year career worked as a burns unit sister.
She is ranked as Scotland"s richest woman.
Stagecoach
Expansion continued and in the early 1990s, Stagecoach acquired National Business Company operations in Cumberland, Hampshire, East Midlands, Ribble, Southdown and the United Counties. Stagecoach bought further bus operations in Scotland, Newcastle and London, with Manchester being added in 1993.
Manston Airport
On 29 November 2013, Gloag took ownership of Kent International Airport, also known as Manston Airport for the sum of £1. Gloag"s co-director is Pauline Bradley, a corporate lawyer and former head of joint ventures at Bank of Scotland, described by the Scottish Herald as "one of Scotland"s most powerful women".
Despite assurances to staff regarding long term investment in the airport, management announced a consultation on closure in April 2014.
Uncertainty about the airport"s future led flight operators who were using Manston to leave, notably KLM who ran a twice daily service to Amsterdam Schiphol. A number of bids were forthcoming during the consultation period to buy and run the airport, but on 15 May 2014 Manston was closed with the loss of 144 jobs in the airport and an unknown number in the surrounding area. Gloag did not appear publicly or give a reason for the airport"s closure or her refusal to sell.
The trade union Unite said it would challenge the way the consultation on closure was conducted.
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron, made a public statement in the Houses of Commons in support of Manston on 14 May 2014.
Sir Roger Gale, Member of Parliament for Thanet North, described Gloag"s actions as an act of "corporate vandalism". Sir Roger Gale and members of a number of pressure groups including Save Manston Airport and Why Not Manston continue to campaign for the reopening of the airport and have opposed alternative uses.