Who earns what - part 2

75 ANDREW FLANAGAN

Chief executive, SMG

476,000

Comparatively meagre bonuses and benefits upped a basic salary of 400,000 for the chief executive of Scottish Media Group, who has been running the show since 1996. Managed to sell off the Herald and Glasgow Evening Times to American interlopers to concentrate on television, but already had his fingers badly burned in paying over the odds for Ginger Productions, a corporate vehicle for Chris Evans's inflated ego. Evans was sacked and Flanagan breathed a sigh of relief when the broadcaster sued but saw the case thrown out of court.

74 MIKE ROSS

Chief executive, Scottish Widows. Deputy-chairman, Lloyds TSB Group

478,000

The 57-year-old chief executive of Scottish Widows would like it to be known that reports of his imminent retirement are greatly exaggerated and that he is perfectly happy running the former mutual insurer that was taken over by Lloyds TSB in 1999. Scottish Widows was set up in 1815, the year of the Battle of Waterloo, to help support women whose menfolk never returned from such adventures abroad. Ross joined Scottish Widows in 1964 working his way up through the ranks to the top job in 1991. After Lloyds TSB’s takeover he joined its board in 2000. Ross saw his overall pay packet fall by nearly 200,000 last year with combined bonus, salary and benefits totalling 478,000.

73 IAN RANKIN

Author

487,000 plus

The author of the "tartan noir" Inspector Rebus novels is one of the Scottish book scene’s best brands. The hard-bitten, laconic detective on the mean streets of Edinburgh, first appearing in Knots and Crosses in 1985 and most recently in A Question of Blood, is Rankin’s alter ego although he prefers to think of him as "pure fiction". The name was inspired by a picture puzzle that used to appear on the Merry Mac fun page of the Sunday Post. Rankin, 43, received 1.3million for a two-book deal from his publishers in March 2001 while his long backlist ensure a steady stream of royalties. There have been 14 Rebus novels so far, translated into 18 languages, and some of them turned into television series. He is chief executive and sole employee of his own company - John Rebus Ltd - set up after a tax investigation that tried to reconcile reports of multi-million pound earnings with his actual tax returns. He was given a clean bill of health. When the lawyer doing the formalities asked what he intended to pay himself, Rankin replied 15,000 a year would do the trick. "I have never been a lavish spender, I live a student life, scuttling about drinking beer and buying rock CDs." Rankin was awarded the OBE for services to literature and he moved himself and his wife and child from a tenement flat to a mansion house on the less than seedy streets of Edinburgh’s Merchiston. Brought up in Fife, he had three years at Edinburgh University, a spell working in London, and a sojourn in France before returning home to do his plotting. He sees himself, with some justification, as more than a "whodunniteer" but as a writer probing the contemporary Scottish psyche. He still patronises the Oxford Bar near the city centre, where Rebus indulges in his fictional flights of introspection, and has inspired Rebus-related tours as a permanent feature of Edinburgh’s winding tourist trails. Applying an industry standard to Rankin’s advance, we estimate he received 325,000 in the last year while royalties could have netted him 216,000 - minus agency fees.

72 KIRSTY WARK & ALAN CLEMENTS

Television presenter, producer

490,000

In January 2001 broadcasting Diva Wark signed a three-year 750,000 deal with the BBC to present Newsnight and other highbrow programmes. But that is only one string to the bow of the journalist and mother of three who has been described as the most influential woman in Scotland. It is now 10 years since she and her producer husband set up Wark Clements in Glasgow, Scotland's largest independent production company. They own 60 per cent of it. In November 2001 Wark Clements signed a two-year deal with the BBC to produce a series of programmes, and later secured a 2.6m contract to make First World War, a documentary for Channel Four. Another documentary project has been delayed. The Gathering Place, a film of the building of the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood, is a Wark Clements production and as costs at Holyrood continue to escalate - 800,000 for the film so far - the fact that she was one of the panel who chose the design gets a wee bit embarrassing.

71 MOIR LOCKHEAD

Chief executive, First Group

494,000

The 58-year-old is an amateur farmer and Highland cattle breeder. He was born in a County Durham mining village, got the bus to Aberdeen in 1985, led a successful management buy-out of Grampian Transport, and has been motoring ever since. Now the largest bus operator in the UK, First Group has a turnover of 1.5 billion, a workforce of 30,000, and 10,000 vehicles. It also has other interests; a share of Bristol airport and three rail franchises.

70 PAUL CULLEN QC

Advocate

500,000

The former Solicitor General for Scotland has reinvented himself since the Tories lost power in 1997 and he lost the "safe" Tory seat of Eastwood in his first attempt to be elected. Back in the courts, he secured record damages in an action for defamation against the Sun by Father Noel Barry, then Cardinal Thomas Winning’s right-hand man. Colleagues at the Bar place the highly-respected silk in third place in their unofficial earnings table.

69 IAN MARCHANT

Chief executive, Scottish & Southern Energy

511,000.

Marchant has been in the top job at SSE for almost a year. Prior to that he was finance director at the Perth-based energy group, having joined via Southern Electric where he had been since 1992. A trained accountant, Marchant previously worked at Coopers & Lybrand (now PwC). SSE, which reported full-year pre-tax profits of 630 million, signed its first private finance initiative contract, worth 103 million, this year.

68 HOWARD CARTER

Chief executive of ISIS Asset Management

515,000

ISIS is the rebranded Friends Ivory & Sime following its merger with Royal and SunAlliance Investments. The fund management group recently lost out to Aberdeen Asset in the bidding to take over Edinburgh Fund Managers. Mr Carter was chief investment officer prior to taking the top job in Sept 2000. His salary for the year was 220,000 topped up by a bonus of 233,000 bonus and a pension payment of 52,000.

67 E MICHAEL WALKER

Chairman, Walker Group 528,020

The privately-owned property development, land management and house-building group was established in 1969 and is based in Livingston. Proud of its home-grown management team, its private status allows it to take a long-term view of the industry without having to pander to the short-termism of shareholders. It also allowed Walker, assumed to be the highest-paid director, to almost double his salary on the previous year.

66 MARK SELWAY

Chief executive, Weir Group

544,420

A 44-year-old Australian who advocates firms being "lean and mean" is rapidly reshaping the venerable engineering giant. Weir Group was recently named in a law suit in New York, accused of supplying Saddam Hussein with the means to build his alleged weapons of mass destruction, a claim strongly denied by the group. Selway might be nominally based in Glasgow but is a regular globe-trotter, with a wife, children and Harley Davidson in Adelaide.

65 DOUGLAS I PARK

Owner, Park's of Hamilton

556,935

Best known for its fleet of luxury coaches that purr along Britain's motorways, the Hamilton-based group's activities include motor trade dealerships, principally BMW. Camera-shy Douglas Park, the chairman and managing director, has gradually built up the group over three decades, beginning with three buses. Turnover was up 10 per cent last year to 182.6 million. Assumed to be the highest-paid director, Park took home 556,935, a 53 per cent increase on 2001, although the group did not pay a dividend for the year.

64 DAVID MACKAY

Former chief executive, John Menzies

562,000

The essence of John Menzies runs through the arteries of its former chief. He worked for the company for almost 40 years, taking it from high street retailing icon to a new identity as an international airport servicing giant. Core business, however, remains its long-standing dominance in the logistical distribution of newspapers and magazines. Mackay retired in May with a golden handshake of 500,000 and a healthy pension in the bank.

63 MATTHEW THOMSON

Chairman, Thomson Litho Holdings

582,125

A bad year in the printing business, so the chairman of East Kilbride-based Thomson Litho Holdings saw his salary slashed from the 1.3m he earned the previous year. The firm lost 60 per cent of its domestic income, more than 20 million, when computer manufacturer Compaq moved production from the UK to the Czech Republic. Thomson responded by setting up its own operation near Prague, which is for now just a finishing plant but will later become a full printing operation.

62 SANDY CROMBIE

Deputy chief executive, Standard Life

586,000

Standard Life’s payments to directors came in for widespread criticism earlier this year, coming as they did at a time when Europe’s largest mutual insurer was cutting bonuses to policyholders - although as the group rightly pointed out, pay-outs remained well above the average for the industry. Crombie, 54, has been with the Edinburgh-based company more than 35 years, and is head of Standard Life Investments as well as deputy chief executive of the group. His salary of 520,000 was topped up by 66,000 from the group’s long-term incentive plan.

61 RICHARD KEEN QC

Advocate

600,000

Known as the rottweiler, Keen is the Scottish QC most other advocates least like facing in court. He left a bewigged opponent close to tears after a 1999 mauling in a committee room of the House of Lords over the proposed scrapping of hereditary peers. Keen specialises in commercial law, property law and administrative law and has made only one, pretty spectacular, intrusion into the criminal courts to defend Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah in the Lockerbie trial. Keen’s defence was faultless and his client was cleared. Keen enjoys the trappings of his wealth. He lives in Ann Street, Edinburgh, one of Scotland’s most prestigious addresses, has a small castle in Fife as a second home and a passion for sports cars.

60 DUNCAN S FLETCHER

Chairman, Forth Holdings

601,166

Fletcher and his family own 95 per cent of the Stirling-based electrical contractor. The business supplies communication and facilities management services to the engineering, property and construction industries, and last year it was voted one of 100 fastest-growing private companies in the UK. Fletcher, who we assume to be the highest-paid director, earned a salary of 367,723 with a further payment of 33,443 into his pension and a dividend which we conservatively estimate at 200,000.

59 ROBERT WISEMAN

Chief executive, Wiseman Dairies

626,000

The sharp-suited milkman, who keeps pictures of high-yield cows on his office wall, has revolutionised the milk industry from the East Kilbride base of Wiseman Dairies. The peculiarly opaque economics of milk sees periodic disquiet over the discrepancy between the price paid to the farmer and the price received from the consumer but a lengthy inquiry by the Office of Fair Trading has yet to find evidence of manipulation of the market in Scotland. A recent Sainsbury’s contract means Wiseman has 20 per cent of the British market and is hunting for a depot in the south-east of England to expand among the teeming masses down there.

58 DOUGLAS CRAIG

Managing director, George Craig and Sons

648,000

A family firm still based firmly in the heart of Aberdeen, it moved out of fishing and into oil services in 1976 when oil was discovered in the North Sea and its trawler fleet meant it was suddenly in demand closer to home. Assuming he is the highest paid director, Craig earned 548,000 with an additional 100,000 to his defined contribution pension scheme.

57 ALFRED J DUNCAN

Chairman, Grampian Country Food Group

728,000

From its Aberdeen base, Grampian Country Food has long been the UK’s leading independent agri-food business and employs 21,000 people in UK, Holland, and Asia. Fred Duncan is chairman, biggest shareholder, and we assume the highest-paid director, although his 700,000, plus 28,000 pension contribution, was down from 1 million the previous year.

56 IAIN LUMSDEN

Chief executive, Standard Life

743,000.

Standard Life’s payments to directors were criticised this year, coming at a time when Europe’s largest mutual insurer was cutting bonuses to policyholders. Lumsden, 57, has been with the Edinburgh-based company for more than 35 years, rising through the ranks after starting as a clerk. His salary of 619,000 was topped up by 124,000 from the group’s long-term incentive plan.

55 MICHAEL JONES QC

Advocate

750,000

The highest earner at the Scottish Bar and qualified to practise south of the Border as well. A former pilot, he is an expert on aviation law and has a standing contract with Boeing. He also works in the highly lucrative field of commercial law.

54 ALASTAIR FORSYTH

Golfer

750,000

Having peered into the abyss when he lost his European Tour card at the end of 2001, Alastair Forsyth responded to adversity in the best possible manner. When his management company, 110sport, negotiated a number of starts for the Paisley- based golfer on tour in 2002, he grasped the opportunity and regained his card by winning the Malaysian Open. Over the past year, Forsyth has gone from strength to strength, winning 600,000 in prize money and earning about 150,000 off the course from endorsement contracts with Pringle for clothing and Callaway for equipment. He played in the Open and the US PGA for the first time this summer and the prospect of entering more majors in 2004, as well as the challenge of qualifying for Europe's Ryder Cup side at Oakland Hills, means the 27-year-old's profile will continue to rise.

53 DONALD J MACDONALD

Executive chairman, Macdonald Hotels

828,000.

Bathgate-based Macdonald Hotels has grown rapidly since 1990 when it was just two hotels in Peterhead and Aberdeen. Today it operates more than 100 hotels and leisure resorts throughout the UK and Spain. Skye Leisure Ventures, a vehicle set up by Macdonald and his fellow founding directors to take the hotel chain private, in partnership with HBOS-owned Uberior Investments, this month paid 160 million for the group. In our accounting period, Macdonald was chief executive and earned a salary of 443,000. At that time he also owned 8.7 per cent of the chain giving him a dividend of 385,000.

52 AUDREY BAXTER

Chief executive, Baxters Food Group

878,000

Female scion of the Speyside soup family, whose indigenous north-east company has had a presence in the nation's kitchens for 135 years. The firm is currently on the acquisition trail. In July it bought CCL Foods, which makes condiments and pickles under the Simply Delicious and Mary Berry brands, and snapped up the assets of WeightWatchers’ chilled and ready-made meals ranges. It is all down to Audrey Baxter, a former corporate financier in London, who was destined to return to her roots as chairman and chief executive more than three years ago. Since then, the company has grown by more than 50 per cent. We have assumed her to be the highest-paid director: on that basis, she earned 878,000. The company has told us that amount is based on a salary and an exceptional one-off payment, but declined to break down the figure. The company also said it would not necessarily be right to assume she was the highest-paid director. However, there are only two directors listed, Audrey Baxter and her brother. Her ambition is to double turnover and top the 100 million mark - if her last three years are anything to go by, she is well on the way to achieving that aim.

51 ALEX MCLEISH

Football manager

900,000

It is no exaggeration to say that McLeish saved Rangers from meltdown when he arrived from Hibs in the midst of the 2001-2002 season to replace Dutchman Dick Advocaat. The championship was already lost to arch-rivals Celtic, and Rangers seemed incapable of getting a result against their more powerful Old Firm rivals. McLeish, as no- nonsense in the manager’s office as he was on the field during Aberdeen's glory days, dumped the slackers and resurrected a few careers that were fading away. Given that the championship was already out of reach when he arrived, McLeish could claim he has won every domestic trophy up for grabs since then, winning both cups in his first half-season and adding the domestic treble last season. With rumours of interest from Tottenham, Rangers have signed McLeish to a new improved deal. His salary was reputed to be around the 750,000 mark last season, although the silverware will have added a considerable sum in bonuses. Rangers have also qualified for the Champions League proper.