Brian Souter

Souter was born in the Scottish city of Perth. His father was a bus driver and as a child Brian often travelled on bus routes with his father.[4] At school he developed an interest in economics and accounts, about which he later said, "Changing my timetable from maths to include economics and accounts was one of the best things I've ever done."[5]

On leaving school, he studied at the Abertay University to become a commerce teacher.[6] On completion he studied at Strathclyde University in Glasgow, where he graduated with a CA Diploma in Accountancy and Economics. Following his graduation Souter became a Chartered Accountant at Arthur Andersen & Co.

Stagecoach Manchester bus

Using his father's redundancy money, with his sister Ann Gloag and his brother-in-law Robin Gloag he established the Stagecoach Group in 1980, running buses from Dundee to London.[7] Following the deregulation of bus services in Great Britain, expansion continued, and in the late 1980s Stagecoach acquired National Bus Company subsidiaries in Cumberland and Hampshire, and the East Midlands, Ribble, Southdown and United Counties companies. Stagecoach also bought bus operations in Scotland, Newcastle and London, with Manchester being added a few years later.[8] In 1993, Stagecoach was valued at £134 million and was floated on the London Stock Exchange to access capital for new opportunities for buses and trains overseas.

By the mid 1990s, Stagecoach developed its interests in Australia and New Zealand. The company further expanded with the purchase of Citybus, an operator of buses and ferries in Hong Kong, and Coach USA, the largest bus and coach operator in the US and Canada.[9] Souter became Chief Executive, and later sold off much of Coach USA.

Stagecoach then bought a number of the new small bus companies and ran free or low fare buses to put local rivals out of business.[7] In Darlington, Stagecoach subsidiary Busways offered bounties to recruit drivers from the existing bus service and offered free buses to deter the rival preferred bidder from taking over that service. This practice was deemed as "predatory, deplorable and against the public interest" according to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission.[10][11]

In 2009, Souter received a £1.6m bonus. Stating "it was felt that in the present economic climate it would not be right for any individual to pocket a bonus package of £1.6million", he donated £900,000 to his own charity, the Souter Charitable Trust, which assists humanitarian projects in the UK and overseas. Most of the remainder was given to the staff pension fund.[12][13]

In August 2012, it was announced that Souter would become Chairman of Stagecoach Group on 1 May 2013, finance director Martin Griffiths replacing Souter as CEO.[14] It was announced in December 2019 that Souter would step down from his role as Chairman at the end of the year, but remain on the board as a non-executive director.[15]

South West Trains Class 444

Shortly after Souter floated Stagecoach on the London Stock Exchange, he turned his attention to British railways. Initial experiments consisted of a Scotland to London service branded Stagecoach Rail with carriages attached to the Caledonian Sleeper. During the privatisation of British Rail, Stagecoach bid successfully to operate the South West Trains franchise from 1996 followed by the Island Line Trains later the same year. Stagecoach successfully bid to retain both when retendered in 2001 and 2006, before they passed to South Western Railway in 2017.[16]

In 1998, Stagecoach purchased a 49% shareholding in Virgin Rail Group that operated the CrossCountry and West Coast franchises.[17] In 2007, Stagecoach commenced operating the East Midlands Trains franchise.[18] From April 2015 until June 2018, Virgin Trains East Coast, in which Stagecoach held a 90% share, operated the InterCity East Coast franchise.[19]

In 2003, Souter added the bus and coach operator Megabus to the group.[20] With its slogan "Low Cost Inter City Travel Serving Europe", it offered discounted travel across the UK and Europe. In 2012 it operated in 31 cities in the UK with a turnover in excess of £2 billion, with annual profits of over £250 million.[21]

In April 2013 Souter announced a new Megabus overnight sleeper service from Scotland to London. The sleeper coaches cost £5 million to build, and have 53 leather seats which can be converted into 42 bunk beds. Passengers receive a onesie for sleeping in during the trip.[22] This service ended in May 2017, due to it being consistently loss-making, and the coaches are now only used on daytime services.[23]

Souter has more than 200 private investments, which are managed by his company, Souter Investments. It makes investments across a broad range of asset classes, with a primary focus on private equity and a portfolio of more than 25 direct unquoted investments. The total portfolio, excluding Stagecoach, has increased in value by 9% per annum over 12 years.

PolskiBus Van Hool Astromega TD927

Souter and his sister Ann Gloag formed Highland Global Transport in 2012. It owns a portfolio of transport related investments valued at more than £600million[24] including:

• Stagecoach Group (26%)
• Istanbul Deniz Otobusleri, a ferry operator on the Bosphoros and Sea of Marmara, Turkey (held by HGT shareholders direct)
• PolskiBus, an intercity coach service operator in Poland, sold to Flixbus in December 2017[25][26]
• Alexander Dennis, a bus and coach manufacturer in UK, Asia and North America
• Argent Energy, a biodiesel manufacturer
• Sunseeker, a luxury motor yacht manufacturer
• OnniBus (75%), an intercity coach operator in Finland purchased in May 2014,[27][28] sold October 2018[29][30]
• SuperBus.com, an intercity coach operator in Baltic states

ManaBus Kiwi Bus Builders bodied Volvo B11R

Highland Global Transport has purchased and established a number of subsidiaries in New Zealand. In August 2015, these were brought together under the one umbrella as the InMotion Group with 340 buses and coaches and 17 ferries.[31][32][33]

• Mana Coach Services, an urban bus operator in Wellington
• Howick & Eastern Buses, an urban bus operator in Auckland
• Fullers Group (Fullers360), operator of commuter and tourist ferry services on Auckland Harbour and Hauraki Gulf
• ManaBus, an inter-city coach operator
• Naked Bus, an inter-city coach operator
• Reesby Buses, 40 vehicle coach operator

ManaBus and Naked Bus ceased operation on 15 July 2018, with the bus fleets being sold to Ritchies Transport.[34] Reesby Buses was also sold to Ritchies in February 2019.[35] Mana Coach Services and Howick & Eastern Buses were sold to Transdev Australasia in October and November 2019 respectively.[36][37][38] This leaves Fullers Group (Fullers360) as Souter's only subsidiary in New Zealand as of November 2019.[39]

In April 2015, Souter was officially appointed Vice President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, alongside newly appointed President, Jim Pettigrew.[40] Souter, who qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1984, was the sole nominee for the vice-president role. In May 2017 the organisation appointed him as its president.[41]

Section 28 protestor with a Stagecoach Manchester bus in July 2000

In 2000, the Scottish Executive proposed the abolition of Section 28 laws, which forbade local authorities from "intentionally promoting homosexuality". Souter was a prominent leader of the Keep the Clause campaign, which sought to prevent its abolition. In Scotland, where Section 28 was known as clause 2A, Souter spent £1 million on the first privately funded postal referendum across Scotland to gauge public opinion. A spokesman for Souter stated "He is not in this for personal glory. He is fighting this battle because he is a father and committed Christian."[42]

3,970,712 ballot papers were posted out and 31.8% valid votes were returned, a turn out rate lower than any Scottish national election. 86.8% were in favour of keeping Clause 28, 13.2% in favour of repeal.[42]

Souter pointed out that the number of people who voted to keep the clause exceeded the number of votes cast for any single political party in Scotland at any election over the preceding ten years, although Scottish voters usually choose from four main parties, not two options. The campaign was ultimately unsuccessful.

Souter's campaign group approached the Electoral Reform Society to organise the ballot through its ballot services subsidiary. The society refused the request as it believed the poll "would not be a legitimate democratic exercise to ask people to give an opinion on the repeal of Section 28 without knowing the detail of what would replace it".[43] Many groups hostile to Souter's stance had called for a public boycott of the poll, and accordingly claimed that as only a minority voted this was a defeat for Souter and his supporters. Mainstream politicians, including the Scottish National Party (which Souter has supported) largely ignored his poll and disputed whether the result was a true reflection of public opinion, with the Scottish Executive stating that the public had been fed a diet of "misinformation and lies" by Souter's campaign group.[42] The Communities Minister, Wendy Alexander MSP, criticised the poll, stating "I think what is significant about today's ballot is that two out of three voters rejected, or binned or simply ignored this glorified opinion poll."[44] Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell stated that "Brian Souter's support for Section 28 is the moral equivalent of the business-funded campaign to maintain racial segregation in the Deep South of the USA in the 1950s." Tatchell said that Souter's campaign was "hateful" and that it is clear that he was using his vast fortune to try to keep a cruel and "bigoted law" intact.[45]

Souter was a major financial supporter of the Scottish National Party (SNP). In March 2007, he donated £500,000, citing an imbalance of funding within Scottish politics.[46] He stated that it was his intention to redress an imbalance in funding: "as long as I can remember, the case for the union has been hugely financed by cash from London, while the case for independence has lacked resources. I hope my donation will help redress this imbalance".[47] Following the donation, SNP leader Alex Salmond was criticised for "pandering to homophobia" by accepting the donation.[47] Salmond thanked Souter for his support, calling him "one of the outstanding entrepreneurs of his generation".[47] One month later, in April 2007, the SNP's commitment (made at the party's 2006 conference) to re-regulate the bus network was dropped from the 2007 manifesto, although the SNP denied any direct link.[48]

In February 2011 Souter again pledged financial support for the SNP, promising to match every pound they raised with a donation of up to £500,000. Announcing his support he said Salmond and the SNP deserved a second term in office.[49][50] The SNP won a resounding victory in the election with Salmond being returned unopposed as First Minister.[51]

The BBC reported in August 2014 that Souter had donated £1 million to the campaign for Scottish independence.[52] Since Nicola Sturgeon became SNP leader in November 2014, Souter has made no further donation, but in December 2014 he gave £3,500 to the Lewes branch of the Liberal Democratic Party.[53][54]

Souter was knighted in the 2011 Birthday Honours for services to transport and the voluntary sector.[68][69] This proved controversial, and was criticised by Scottish Labour MP Cathy Jamieson, who suggested a link between the knighthood and the large amounts of money he has donated to the Scottish National Party. In a public statement, Jamieson said: "The First Minister and his party must look seriously at the relationship they have developed with wealthy individuals handing them large sums of cash. The public will rightly be asking what's next on Mr Souter's shopping list?"[70] Salmond denied any wrongdoing in the matter and referred himself for investigation after calls for a probe by Scottish MP Jim Sheridan. An independent report, conducted by Lord Fraser of Carmyllie, cleared Salmond of any wrongdoing, asserting that "There appears to me to have been no breach of the ministerial code by Alex Salmond as First Minister and he should be wholly exonerated of any breach."[71]

Souter's knighthood was also criticised by gay rights campaigners, who felt that the honour was insulting towards the gay community and was effectively rewarding homophobia, given Souter's past campaigning. A petition to have the knighthood withdrawn received 5000 signatures by July 2011.[72]