Chris Kerr

Harper Macleod

When Harper Macleod partner Chris Kerr relocated to Inverness in 2004 to set up the firm’s first office outside the Scottish Central Belt, he seemed to be bucking a trend.

Other Scottish firms were turning their eyes towards the south, but Kerr reckoned they were missing a trick.

And how right he was: for more than a decade, Kerr has quietly built up the Highlands and Islands practice to nearly a fifth of Harper Macleod’s corporate work. His Highlands, Islands and Moray team now represents 16 per cent of the firm’s workforce. In 2019, Kerr continued that run of growth with the takeover of a firm in Elgin, home to iconic names such as Baxters and Walkers Shortbread.

Kerr is recognised as the driving force behind Harper Macleod’s rural economy initiative, which is by no means confined to forestry or traditional agriculture but includes food, drink, energy and tech. The next 12 months will see Kerr utilise the firm’s Shetland platform and turn his gaze further afield to Norway, where there are exciting trade and commercial opportunities in infrastructure and the marine economy, and to the Republic of Ireland.