22 Oct Interview with Jennifer Craw, CEO, Opportunity North East (ONE), Scotland
ONE was created in 2015 with an $86 million investment from the Wood Foundation to help diversify and future-proof the North East’s economy. Since then, it has steered over $200 million into the region’s most promising growth sectors. For readers unfamiliar with it, what exactly is Opportunity North East and why is it a game-changer in the long-term transformation of the north east economy?
Opportunity North East (ONE) is unique because we are a private sector-led organization. Industry leaders volunteer their time, knowledge and expertise to shape projects and investments that drive transformational change. We are not a membership body or a chamber of commerce; instead, we are a group of committed individuals supported by seed funding from the Wood Foundation, which enables us to build an expert team and deliver impactful projects. Our goal is to create a resilient, internationally focused regional economy for the post–oil and gas era. While energy remains important — particularly offshore wind, floating wind, hydrogen and other renewables — we are equally focused on strengthening traditional sectors such as food production and seafood.
Peterhead is Europe’s largest white fish landing port and we work to ensure the seafood sector is sustainable, with support for the catching sector, market access and value-added processing. In food and drink manufacturing, our focus is on growth and automation — transforming natural products like haddock into high-quality, value-added goods using advanced manufacturing. This includes automating skilled processes like filleting while maintaining the quality consumers expect. Our focus is on helping smaller, innovative businesses scale faster. Just two weeks ago, we launched ONE SeedPod — 11 manufacturing-ready units where companies can grow on-site with access to manufacturing expertise, development chefs, technical managers, market insights and entrepreneurial support.
How do you research opportunities; how do companies find you; what is your level of outreach in the wider community?
Our model works at the industry level, identifying opportunities, challenges and constraints and bringing public and private sectors together to co-invest in projects and programs. We have built a community of 450 people and are working closely with over 60 growing businesses. Scotland has world-class food brands like Walker’s Shortbread, Dean’s of Huntly and Mackie’s Ice Cream — household names locally and internationally. Food and drink is a vital part of our regional growth strategy. The drinks sector has seen rapid growth, led by craft breweries and major brands like BrewDog — the only food and drink unicorn to come out of northeast Scotland. Its founders, James Watt and Martin Dickie, are examples of the entrepreneurial drive here, building from local roots to international markets, especially North America.
The region is home to renowned products such as whisky, Aberdeen Angus beef — celebrating 150 years next year — and premium seafood. These industries are adapting to sustainability, health-conscious trends and premium markets, supported by world-class research from the Marine Lab, the James Hutton Institute and Scotland Rural College. This close-knit ecosystem, linking agriculture, fishing, manufacturing and research, creates a virtuous circle that delivers high-quality products for global markets.
Alongside energy and renewables, food and drink diversification are key, with technology, AI and digital innovation driving the future across agritech, food tech and related sectors. In digital tech, we focus on “soft tech” and deep tech — AI, software-as-a-service and products that make businesses more efficient and investment-ready. Today, demonstrating AI capability is increasingly essential to attract funding. Our largest segment is energy tech, serving offshore wind, hydrogen, oil and gas, marine and nuclear. Many solutions are transferable across sectors, helping companies scale and internationalize quickly. Development teams are based here, with customer teams built globally to access markets faster.
Our ONE Tech Hub is home to the digital tech community, from pre-start to scaling businesses. It offers space, mentoring, entrepreneur education and investor connections. We are actively bringing investors to meet our high-growth companies seeking seed-plus funding.
In life sciences, our strength lies in research excellence and close collaboration with universities to spin out smart science into commercial solutions — whether therapies, treatments, diagnostics or drug development. We have particular expertise in biologics and antimicrobials, addressing the global challenge of antibiotic resistance. Our ONE BioHub provides labs, offices and collaboration space for spinouts like NovaBiotics, led by Deborah O’Neill, and Scottish Brain Sciences, a leader in brain health research. TauRX, another standout, is developing a groundbreaking Alzheimer’s treatment targeting tau plaques, now in late-stage trials. Though small, our life sciences community is ambitious, focused on accelerating growth, attracting investment and bringing innovative solutions to market faster.
What kind of skills and training do you offer companies within your ecosystem?
Our focus across all these sectors is supporting founders to scale and grow, working closely with MIT’s entrepreneurial education program for both founders and those who support them. We offer founders forums, ongoing education and venture mentoring, while connecting them to early-stage investment. We manage small investment pots, help secure public funding and ensure access to talent from universities and colleges — covering skills from marketing to product development across food and drink, life sciences and digital tech.
Tourism in north east Scotland once relied heavily on oil and gas business travel, with hotels busy Monday to Thursday. This began to decline after the 2014 industry downturn, even before COVID, shifting the focus to leisure tourism. We support VisitAberdeenshire and invest in adventure tourism, particularly cycling infrastructure. Inspired by Boulder, Colorado, we are developing the region as an outdoor lifestyle destination — an attractive draw for visitors seeking nature, activity and quality of life. All our projects are co-developed with industry, ensuring speed, market focus and measurable impact.
We co-invest with the public sector, but bring real-time feedback from businesses to shape what works. In the coming weeks, we will receive an independent economic impact assessment of our work over the past nine years, based on feedback from hundreds of founders. We are a small team of 30, not a large government body — our role is to catalyze growth, scale businesses, create high-value jobs and drive regional economic diversification for the next 10–20 years.
You’ve partnered with MIT on entrepreneurial leadership. How is that collaboration shaping Scottish startups and what future potential do you see for expanding ties with the US ecosystem to build up tech capacities in the region?
Jennifer Craw: A key lesson from taking founders to MIT’s January program is that, while it may seem others are doing things bigger and faster, we are all facing the same challenges. MIT teaches that entrepreneurship is a craft — you can learn it. Success comes from truly understanding your customer, testing ideas through research and discovery and adapting quickly if the product or market fit isn’t right. The goal is paying customers who bring in more than it costs to deliver. This mindset and process lead to investable projects, ready for the kind of investors who can help scale growth. Many here want to grow and scale businesses, so our focus is building an ecosystem in the North East and across Scotland that gives founders the confidence to do so.
Scotland succeeds because it knows how to internationalize. North American ties are vital: Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts, are as connected to our life sciences sector as London. In energy tech, legacy oil and gas relationships support innovation, tech transfer and access to global customers. We must keep exporting products, services and know-how, while retaining the talent that underpins our strength. Whisky and beer remain strong exports, with Scotland’s trusted brand central to international trade. Our digital tech businesses have learned from time in New York and San Francisco, especially in AI, where the US leads. With major UK government investment in AI, we aim to become one of its growth zones.
Historic US links matter. Oil and gas ties center on Houston, renewables on California and Boston, and digital tech on Austin and San Francisco. Food and drink brands often start with the Scottish diaspora, then expand through strong US distribution networks. Tourism also plays a role: golf draws many Americans, including President Trump, whose Menie course in Aberdeen is adding a second course this month.
Why is US tourism so important for the region and what would you say to an American traveler considering Scotland as their next big trip?
Aberdeen offers remarkable heritage, from maritime history to more castles than any other Scottish region. For those interested in history, heritage and clans, the National Trust for Scotland manages many traditional homes here. The city has excellent accommodation, an international airport and strong connections — ideal as part of a trip that includes Edinburgh, Glasgow or the Highlands. For golfers, the East Coast is a must: after St Andrews, Royal Aberdeen and Trump’s Menie course are top attractions. The quality and uniqueness of our links courses make Aberdeen a standout golfing destination.
The USA remains Scotland’s top foreign investor and the North East is firmly in the spotlight. More than 700 American firms are already operating in Scotland, employing over 115,000 people. What makes the North East an especially attractive landing pad for foreign investors in 2025 and why are these players crucial to the region’s next economic chapter?
A welcoming environment and skilled talent are key to attracting foreign direct investment. Aberdeen offers both, with an international community built on oil and gas, strengthened by university research, medical science and now digital tech. Access to this talent pool, combined with technical know-how and proximity to key markets, makes the region a strong choice for setting up and scaling quickly.
One major opportunity is hyper-scale data centers, with renewable energy landing directly onshore and space to grow. Future AI data centers need direct green power — something we can offer now. This also supports smart technologies, from hydrogen-linked carbon capture to battery storage for offshore energy. Aberdeen combines access to green power, a welcoming business environment and top talent, making these developments virtually plug-and-play.
As co-founder and CEO of ONE, you’ve helped lead the region’s economic evolution for over three decades. Looking back on your journey, what personal principles have guided your leadership and what legacy are you most proud of as ONE enters its next chapter?
Our biggest achievement at ONE has been showing that when you harness the energy of local entrepreneurs, you can drive real growth. They give their time, ideas and passion and our role is to turn that into projects that deliver results. Future success means founders scaling their businesses and future generations having access to high-quality jobs, enabling them to build prosperous lives here in the North East of Scotland and beyond. We achieve this by staying outward-looking, targeting international markets, attracting top talent and combining the best ideas here in the region.
At Opportunity North East, we look to the future — creating, learning from the best and working together to invest in a sustainable, successful future for generations to come.