Famous Alumni

David Eustace
Degree: CNAA Photography, 1991

David Eustace was born in Glasgow in 1961. Prior to being a photographer he served with HM Royal Navy and went on to become a prison officer at Barlinnie.

He has worked extensively in the world of art, music and cinema, photographing Sir Paul McCartney, Sir John Mills, Sophia Loren, John Hurt, Ewan McGregor, Dame Judy Dench and Radiohead  to name but a few. Eve Arnold once stated that she had only ever been photographed twice in her life where the portrait had any substance; once by Henri Cartier Bresson, and the other a portrait for Vogue Magazine by David Eustace. David’s photography is not solely restricted to portraiture - his fashion, landscape and documentary work is also widely recognised and this versatility has led to him being respected as a “photographer’s photographer”.

There are private collections of his work worldwide, including The National Portrait Gallery, London and The Glasgow Museum of Modern Art. His highly successful Deutsche Bank sponsored “EGO” Exhibition in London was described as “beautiful, calm portraiture” and was the subject of a BBC documentary.

David was a contributing photo editor for GQ magazine between 1993 and 1996. His move into directing seemed a natural progression and he has directed many successful campaigns for advertising agencies globally. At present he combines his stills career with directing commercials. Clients include Paramount Pictures, The New Yorker, Vogue, The Sunday Times, Miramax, NBC Network, The Royal Bank of Scotland Group, In Style, Esquire, Elle, and Conde Nast Traveller. David spends his time between New York and Glasgow.

Cameron Stout
Degree:  BA Languages & Export Studies in 1992

Cameron was born in Orkney and having completed his education, worked as a fish trader - first as Export Manager for a local seafood firm and then as General Manager for an American company.  He leapt to fame in 2003 when he won Big Brother. A committed Christian, after winning BB4 he bought his local church a new piano. 

Cameron has had a variety of media work, including co-presenting the BBC Scotland series Teen Commandments with Edith Bowman and writing regular columns for The Sunday Post and the Aberdeen Evening Express.  He has appeared in pantomime in Aberdeen and Glasgow and is the entertainments manager for the National Trust for Scotland cruises department.  This work takes him to destinations such as Iceland, the Arctic and Russia as well as France and closer to home too.  Recently Cameron was invited to launch a youth project in Zambia with Dr Kenneth Kaunda, founding president of the country.

Carol Kirkwood
Degree: BA in Commerce

Carol joined the BBC Secretarial Reserve in 1984, after graduating from Edinburgh Napier University. Internal moves led to her first broadcasts for the BBC's Religious Broadcasting department on Radio Scotland, Radio 2 and Radio 4. Additionally, Carol has worked as an Associate Director for a head-hunting organisation and as Training Consultant for a Management Consultancy. In 1993 she joined the BBC's Television Training department at Elstree as a presenter.

In 1996, Carol joined The Weather Channel as a presenter. She joined the team at the BBC Weather Centre in 1998, where she continued her meteorological training, initially broadcasting on News24 and then BBC One and BBC Two. She is currently the main weather presenter on BBC's Breakfast as well as presenting the Weather Show throughout the year and working as a regular reporter for BBC1’s The One Show.

In 2003, Carol was named the best TV Weather Presenter at the Television and Radio Industry's (TRIC) Club Awards, beating Michael Fish and Sian Lloyd to win the accolade. She won the award again in 2008.

Lynne Ramsay
Degree:  BA in Photography 1992

Glaswegian film director Lynne Ramsay made her feature film debut with Ratcatcher in 1999. A darkly redemptive tale set in Glasgow during the binmen's strikes of the 1970's, Ratcatcher opened the 1999 Edinburgh Film Festival, picking up a clutch of awards including the BAFTA 2000 Award for Best Newcomer. This success was followed by the highly acclaimed Morvern Callar (2001) winning her the L.A Film Critics New Generation Award 2002 along with the Prix de la Jeunesse and the Decerne par la Cicae at Cannes in the same year.

An Edinburgh Napier alumna, Ramsay graduated with a degree in Fine Art Photography in 1992 before going on to study Cinematography at the National Film and Television School.  Her graduation film Small Deaths, won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 1995, launching her directing career.

Tavish Scott MSP
Degree: BA (Hons) Business Studies 1989

Born in 1966 in Inverness, Tavish Scott attended Anderson High School, Lerwick, Shetland and Edinburgh Napier University, where he attained a BA (Hons) in Business Studies. After graduating in 1989, Tavish worked for Jim Wallace MP in the House of Commons. He became Scottish press officer for the Liberal Democrats in 1990, before returning to Shetland to run his family's farm.

From 1994 to 1999 he was a local councillor representing Lerwick Harbour and Bressay Ward on Shetland Islands Council. He was Vice-chairman of the Roads and Transport Committee and Chairman of Lerwick Harbour Trust.
Tavish was the Deputy Minister for Parliament from November 2000 until his resignation in March 2001. He held the post of Deputy Minister for Finance, Public Services and Parliamentary Business from May 2003 until June 2005, when he joined the Scottish Cabinet as Minister for Transport.

From May 2007 until August 2008, Tavish was Liberal Democrat Shadow Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth, and also Convenor of the Scottish Parliament's Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee. On 26 August 2008, he was elected leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats.

Catriona Shearer
Degree:  Journalism 2003

Cat Shearer is a successful journalist who now presents the Scottish news bulletin on BBC Breakfast. Following graduation Cat worked in the Student Recruitment team here, and thanks Edinburgh Napier for the chance to build confidence in that job.

It was during her employment here that Cat did some freelance work for BBC Radio Five Live which led her to think about her future in journalism, Cat decided move to London, where she got a job in Communications at the NHS. She also took the opportunity to follow-up with the contacts she’d made at BBC Radio Five Live and got a job with them working with Nicky Campbell and Simon Mayo – at this time she was behind the scenes and learning more and more about her trade. Cat left London, and ventured to BBC Wales where she began presenting a weekend Sports Programme before heading back to BBC Scotland to take up a role presenting online news, before taking on her current role.

Cat credits her course at Napier for giving her such a breadth of knowledge in all aspects of journalism, she also is extremely thankful for the support that her lecturers gave her throughout her time at Napier.

Julyan Sinclair
Degree:  BA Communication Studies in 1995

Julyan is an Orcadian television and radio presenter and brother of Cameron Stout, winner of Big Brother 4.  He won a BAFTA in 2002 for Best New Television Presenter for his work on various Scottish Television arts and entertainment programmes.  He has previously hosted Scotsport and has also directed network television programmes.  He now hosts the Saturday breakfast show on Galaxy FM Scotland.

Colin Baxter
Degree:  HND in Photography 1982

With over 20 books of photographs to his name and a unique talent for capturing the natural beauty of Scotland’s landscape on film. Colin Baxter is more than just Scotland’s most famous lensman. He’s also one of Britain’s most influential contemporary photographers. 

Kevin Dorren
Degree:  HND in Catering & Institutional Management 1989

Young entrepreneur and Edinburgh Napier alumnus Kevin Dorren was the founder and former Chief Executive of Orbital Software, which had a market value of £8million when it floated in October 2000. In July 2002 he launched Sowilo Partners, a specialist management consultancy his first reappearance on the corporate scene a year after he resigned from Orbital. He remains on the board.

Earlier in 2004 he set up Go Lower Products, a company producing low carbohydrate snack bars. This is Kevin Dorren's first serious business venture since Orbital. 

Godwin Oswige
Degree:  HND in Industrial Physics & Microelectronics 1990

Founder and Chief Executive Officer of i-dare Innovation Ltd. Godwin Oswige is a technology entrepreneur with extensive experience and success in taking technology from concept through to market. He was the founder of Sigtronics Limited, where he successfully raised three rounds of Venture Capital funding and grew the business significantly, and increasing headcount from 1 to 28 before leaving in May 2001.

Godwin was voted runner-up for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2001 in Technology & Communication category.

Colin Kelly
Degree:  BA Journalism in 1999

Colin is a radio presenter having worked with ScotFM, Real Radio and now with Radio Clyde.

Mark Goodier

Mark was educated at George Heriot’s School, Edinburgh. He became a mobile DJ in Edinburgh and then joined local station Radio Forth at the age of 19. After progressing through several jobs at stations in Scotland and the north east of England, he joined BBC Radio 1 in 1987 beginning a very successful 15 year stint with the station. After leaving Radio 1, Mark had a variety of jobs including stints at Classic FM and Radio 2. He now presents the weekday mid morning show on Smooth Radio in London.  He is also in high demand as a voice-over artist.

Angus Simpson
Degree: BA Journalism

Angus is best known as an ex-presenter of Scottish Television’s flagship news programme, Scotland Today. As well as that he has also presented numerous other current affairs and entertainment shows. He is also a media trainer, video producer and corporate presenter and currently presents Angus Simpson ‘On the Move’ on Saga FM. He is acting as Masters of Ceremonies at the Gala Event celebrating the inauguration of Napier University’s new Chancellor, Tim Waterstone. 

Bill McFarlan

Bill McFarlan is a journalist, author, broadcaster and Managing Director of one of Britain's leading media consultancies, The Broadcasting Business.

He has been at the forefront of British media for over 25 years  - from working in local papers in the 1970s to a broadcasting career that began in radio in 1980 and continued with reporting and presenting on Scottish Television and the BBC; anchoring Reporting Scotland, Sportscene and World's Strongest Man. He has worked on many prestigious programmes, including Breakfast News with Jill Dando and Nicholas Witchell. He has fronted sports programmes on three satellite channels and is a regular contributor to news and current affairs programmes.

He established The Broadcasting Business in 1989 with his BBC co-presenter Alan Douglas to help individuals and businesses get their message to the world in a brighter, more positive manner. He has conducted many media training and presentation skills courses in Britain, France, Spain, the USA, the Caribbean and Africa. He is a regular speaker at conferences and a passionate advocate of confidence-building techniques.

His first book Drop the Pink Elephant, a business book on positive communication, was published in 2003 and has since become a best seller. Following on from this success, Bill collaborated with leading psychiatrist Dr Alex Yellowlees on Are You Good Enough?: 15 Ways to Build a Confident Mindset which was published in 2006.

Bill lives in Glasgow with his wife and three children. In his spare time he is a keen golfer and squash player.