Susan Dickie

Employer Nominated

I’m Susan Dickie and I joined the Trustee Board as an Employer Nominated Trustee in 2020.

I am Head of Insight for VisitScotland. In this role, I lead a team responsible for global marketing and strategic research, trend-watching on tourism, consumers and markets, economic analysis, digital analytics, and customer data management/analysis. We support tourism businesses and organisations across Scotland with data and insight to help them plan their strategies and activities. I am also a member of VisitScotland’s Leadership Group.

I graduated with an honours degree in marketing from the University of Strathclyde and have since worked in several sectors including manufacturing and design. One of my roles was as Corporate Marketing Manager for a company based in Amersham, Bucks. I managed the Group’s B2B and corporate communications, employee communications and investor relations, including in relation to the pension scheme, acquisitions, our MBO and IPO. I’ve found this experience very useful for my Trustee role, especially in investment discussions.

Volunteering has been an important part of my career. I lived in Sofia, Bulgaria for over a year, working on an EU/Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) project to develop services for exporters. When I moved to Edinburgh, through a Pilotlight project, I supported a local youth charity to develop their business plan. Based on that positive experience, I volunteered for the Princes Trust, for which I help to deliver the Explore Enterprise course.

Being a keen traveller, I love my job supporting tourism in Scotland. It has given me the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people, who together ensure that visitors have an excellent and memorable experience in our beautiful country.