Gavin joined the McDonald Butler Board in December 2009 having previously worked with Maeve McDonald at Itim Group. Gavin brings with him 25 years industry experience including 5 years in retail operations where he was a Regional Director at Dixons, 15 years in professional services when Gavin originally qualified as a Chartered Accountant and was a Partner in EY’s consulting business – and 5 years in retail restructuring as an adviser, an interim board member (as Chief Restructuring Officer) and as a principal.

Gavin is currently European MD of the US listed Great American Group and his main role at McDonald Butler is to equip the business for growth and to interact with the external financial community.
Gavin is married to Carole, has 2 children Ollie aged 12 and Amber aged 9. Gavin spends much of spare time still trying to run around tennis courts, squash courts & hockey pitches!

Peter started his working life with the defence of the realm in The Grenadier Guards before becoming involved in business. Peter ‘cut his teeth’ in the raw industry of wholesaling books which taught him the need to be innovative and the importance of first mover advantage. From there he saw the emergence of the internet as a real opportunity and created a software cataloguing business in 1997. This was sold in 2004 and Peter joined Maeve and Mike on the Advisory Board, helping guide the development of McDonald Butler.

In recent times Peter has invested in, disposed of and invested in again a number (over 40) of Self Storage centres where the focus of his activities currently lie. He also has extensive rural interests in Scotland as a land owner, farmer and wind farm land lord.

Peter’s attitude to life is “If it is to be it is up to me”, an attitude he actively lives by.

Lord St John is the newest member to the McDonald Butler Advisory Board and, with a keen interest in science and technology, brings with him a highly varied and exciting portfolio of political and non political experience and interests.

Lord St John’s political career began in 1978 when he took a seat in House of Lords as a Crossbencher. He has since been the Vice Chairman of All Party Parliamentary South Africa Group and is currently a member of House of Lords Select Committee Communications. Further roles included President of Friends of South Africa, Council Member of Parliamentary Information Technology Committee and in March 1998 Lord St John was appointed Extra Lord-in-Waiting to Her Majesty The Queen with main responsibilities for the Heads of State from Africa.

Lord St John’s non-political career has been equally extensive including Patron and Council Member of SoCITM (Society of Local Government Communication and Information Technology Management), Advisory Board Member of Climate Change Infrastructure Corporation and Consultant to ITW, a discussion forum for public and private sector on best practice in IT procurement and eGovernment.

Further to this, Lord St John was Strategic Advisor to 2e2 Group PLC, Innovative IT Services and Solutions Provider specialising in managed and shared services for the public and private sector.

Brought up in South Africa, Lord St John is married to Dr Helen Westlake and has 4 children. He takes refuge from his busy schedule on the golf course and the ski slopes.