Scottish Leather Group chairman retires
28/06/2019
A sixth-generation tanner, Mr Muirhead began working in the group in 1970 after completing the course at the Leathersellers’ College in London. He served as managing director of the group’s specialist automotive tannery, Bridge of Weir Leather, between 1985 and 2000. He joined the board in 1979 and became Scottish Leather Group chairman in 2003.
Further distinctions in a career that has spanned half a century include a six-year spell from 2012 to 2018 as one of the driving forces at the European Union’s representative body for the leather industry, COTANCE. Jonathan Muirhead was COTANCE president from 2014-2016 and had two spells as vice-president either side of that.
Mr Muirhead’s charm, openness, friendliness, cool head and leadership won him friends in the industry across Europe and beyond and helped COTANCE steer its way through a challenging period in its history; there appeared to be lukewarm support for its work in some important leather-manufacturing countries around this time. On taking up the presidency, Mr Muirhead said: “The challenges we have as tanners in Scotland are exactly the same as those faced by our counterparts in Italy, Spain, Portugal and elsewhere in Europe. We are all in this together, and that’s why I am passionate about COTANCE.”
In 2016, he earned a national honour, being made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). Characteristically, he said he was “completely stunned” by the award but said he hoped it would help him be a good representative of not just the Scottish Leather Group, but of the whole leather industry.
He had the satisfaction before formally stepping down of seeing both his sons, Nick and James, established in important roles in the group. Nick is now managing director of the group’s Andrew Muirhead & Son tannery in Glasgow, while James is sales manager at Bridge of Weir. Robbie Brown, Jonathan Muirhead’s cousin, succeeds him as group chairman.
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