Angus MacDonald (Liberal Democrat politician)

Angus Francis MacDonald was born in London. The second of five children, he was brought up in the Clachaig Inn, Glencoe.^{[citation needed]}

He was privately educated at Ampleforth College and Edinburgh Academy.^[2]

After school, MacDonald attend the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst before joining the Queen's Own Highlanders as a Second Lieutenant. He served in the Falklands immediately after the ceasefire, from July to December 1982, where the regiment led the operation to restore normality on the islands, and in Northern Ireland the following year.^[3]

MacDonald left the army in 1983 and after a few years at stockbrokers Laing & Cruickshank, ran a number of publishing businesses in the financial services sector, including Edinburgh Financial Publishing, Financial News and eFinancialCareers, the latter two of which he and his co-investors sold in 2007 to a consortium including Dow Jones for £79 million.^[4] MacDonald later expanded his business interests to encompass renewable energy, online education and waste management.^[5][6][7]

MacDonald was elected as a councillor to Highland Council, representing Fort William and Ardnamurchan in the 2022 Highland Council election, with 37.5% of the vote.^[8][9]

He had previously been a Conservative Party donor, giving £40,000 to the party when the Scottish Conservatives were under the leadership of Ruth Davidson but also previously gifted the Liberal Democrats £5,000 in 2015.^[10][11][12]

MacDonald's seat, Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire, was the final constituency to declare its results in the 2024 general election due to a discrepancy. The result was declared on 6 July.^{[13][14][15][10][16][17]}

MacDonald describes himself as centre-left on social issues and centre-right on economic issues.^[18]

In the early-1990s, MacDonald took part in a 100 km race in Hong Kong along the MacLehose Trail. Taking this idea he founded the Caledonian Challenge in 1997 with a friend, Alex Blyth, to raise money for Foundation Scotland. More than 17,000 people took part in the 52 mile race down the Scottish West Highland Way and together raised over £13,000,000 for Scottish communities.^[19] MacDonald competed in the event eight times himself, though never managed to beat the time of his wife, athlete Michie MacDonald.

MacDonald has been involved with the Highland Cinema, an independent cinema in Fort William which was voted "Cinema of the year under 24 screens" in 2023,^[20][21] and Dragon's Glen, an annual competition inspired by the Dragons Den TV show that awarded £10,000 grants to aspiring local businesses.^[22][23][24]