ROBERT Crawford, the former head of Locate in Scotland (LiS) and the man tipped as the next chief executive of Scottish Enterprise, is to quit the development agency to set up what will effectively be a privatised version of LiS with a UK-wide remit.

This is a pity because he has has been a pivotal part of the machine that has sold Scotland as a site for innovative investment in hi-tech industry.

The only hope is that his private firm will continue to promote Scotland as successfully as he did when he was a "government man"