Alistair Moffat

Moffat found early success after university, becoming Director of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1976. Moffat's five-year tenure saw the festival grow into the largest arts festival in the world.[9]

Moffat left the Fringe in 1981 and joined STV, where he rose to become programme director, Chief Executive of Network Production and finally Chairman of STV. In 1989 he was appointed to the NSG, the group that controls UK wide scheduling for ITV. He left STV in 1999 to focus on writing.

During the 1970s and early 1980s Moffat wrote a number of papers focusing on education policy. His approach, recommending a renewed focus on primary education as the key to widening participation at secondary and higher levels, has since formed parts of the education manifestos of all three major parties in Britain.

Moffat's writing since 1999 has been focused mainly in the field of social history. Beginning with The Edinburgh Fringe (1978), he has written over twenty books including the bestselling Tyneside, The Reivers and The Wall, all of which have since been remade as television series.[10]

Since leaving STV in 1999, Moffat has served as Director of the Borders Book Festival and Lennoxlove Book Festival, both of which he also founded. He has also maintained his interest in education, serving as Director of "Book Nation", a Scottish national literacy initiative, working alongside Sir Robert Winston and Margaret Drabble to improve literacy in Scotland.

On 28 October 2011, Moffat was elected Rector of the University of St Andrews. He was appointed for a three-year term, his period of office spanning the university’s 600th anniversary celebrations which ran from 2011 to 2013.[11]

Moffat was the chief executive of the company BritainsDNA, which offered genetic analyses of the mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosomal DNA of customers who interested in their ancestry. Moffat's management and promotion of the company generated much controversy and criticism from the scientific community due to his many extraordinary and scientifically unfounded claims;[12] his use of legal threats to stifle scientific criticism; and his misuse of media and celebrity contacts to promote his business interests.[12] Ultimately both the University of St Andrews and the BBC upheld complaints against him,[12] and BritainsDNA ceased trading in 2017.[12]

On the BBC Today Programme, Moffat made numerous incorrect statements, including that the company has discovered Eve's "grandson", that prices were "heavily subsidised", and that 97% of men surnamed Cohen share a common genetic marker.[13] Geneticists at University College London including David Balding and Mark G. Thomas criticised these claims [14] as having no scientific basis and being little more than genetic astrology.[15] Balding and Thomas wrote a series of emails to Moffat and his business partners, encouraging him to retract these inaccuracies. This was met by legal threats from Moffat to silence their criticism of the underlying science.[16] The content of these messages has been since published.[17] Moffat's claims were ultimately retracted by the chief scientist of BritainsDNA.[14]

BritainsDNA was the trade name of one of several commercial companies that comprise The Moffat Partnership Limited, founded by Moffat and partners in 2012.[18] The other Moffat companies providing genetic testing included ScotlandsDNA (the first), IrelandsDNA, CymruDNAWales and YorkshiresDNA.[19]

Moffat was co-chairman and historian for the Great Tapestry of Scotland, a community arts project which produced the embroidered tapestry, designed by Andrew Crummy with contributions from around 1000 stitchers from across Scotland. It was unveiled on 3 September 2013 at the Scottish Parliament.[20]