Who will replace Amanda Harvie?

Amanda Harvie, chief executive of Scottish Financial Enterprise (SFE), resigned last month. What does Scotland need from her replacement?

Ross Leckie, director of communications at fund manager Martin Currie, says the chief executive position is a crucial role for Scotland. "The SFE job is more important than it may appear. The money managed in Scotland is sourced abroad. It's the same with the likes of Ballie Gifford and Standard Life."

"I know it is a cliché, but the new chief executive will need 'vision'," says Leckie. But he's not commending a vision for change: "The pan-UK regulatory system works well. Whoever runs SFE will need the vision to continue to extol the virtues of the status quo."

According to Nicholas Furze, a consultant with Odgers Ray & Berndtson, the headhunter with the mandate to find Harvie's replacement, a financial services background will not be essential to her successor. Before becoming chief exec of the SFE in 2003, Harvie occupied a similar position at the Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce. Says Furze: "Given the range of issues impacting on the financial services industry, from health and transport to education, candidates from a public-policy background may be suitable."

Martin Currie's Leckie says the crucial factor will be stature: "We would want a candidate who could demonstrate a strong appetite for political engagement at the highest level."

And he suggests the remuneration will have to meet the needs of such a high-profile candidate.