Alex Salmond's council of advisers

Here is the membership of the 11-strong council, which will take a central role in the Scottish government's drive to boost the nation's competitiveness.

Sir George Mathewson, who backed the SNP during the Holyrood election campaign, will chair the council.

Once described by a newspaper as the banking world's answer to Bruce Springsteen, he built up an international reputation in the finance world during his tenure as chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland from 2001-06, which is today one of the world's largest banks, and also spent six years as the chief executive of the Scottish Development Agency.

Crawford Beveridge was chief executive of the economic development agency, Scottish Enterprise, from 1991 to 2000.

The technology industry expert is the executive vice president and chairman of Sun Microsystems in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and has also worked for Hewlett Packard.

Frances Cairncross, who serves as rector of Exeter College at Oxford University, has a long track record as a journalist, working on The Economist, The Times and The Guardian, among other publications.

The author also chaired the Economic and Social Research Council for six years, until 2007.

Prof Andrew Hughes Hallett specialises in economics and public policy at America's George Mason University and, closer to home, is a visiting professor of economics at the University of St Andrews.

He has also worked as a consultant for several organisations, including the IMF, the Federal Reserve Board and the United Nations.

Prof John Kay, a well known UK economist, is an author and regular contributor to the Financial Times.

He is a fellow of St John's College in Oxford, served as director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies and holds a visiting professorship at the London School of Economics.

Prof Alex Kemp, who specialises in petroleum economics at the University of Aberdeen, has been expanding his research to include renewable energy and carbon capture.

He has in the past been an advisor to the World Bank and the United Nations and also worked for Shell.

Prof Finn Kydland, of the University of California, won a Nobel Prize in 2004 for his work in macroeconomics.

He is also a consultant research associate for several US federal reserve banks.

Jim McColl, chief executive of Clyde Blowers, transformed the Scots company into a portfolio of international engineering companies.

He bought Glasgow-based Weir Pumps - where he had worked as an apprentice - saving it from a possible international buyout, and also serves as chairman of the Welfare to Work Forum which aims to help Scots into jobs.

Prof Sir James Mirrlees is an emeritus professor at Cambridge University and professor-at-large at the University of Hong Kong.

He was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work in economics.

Prof Frances Ruane serves as director of Ireland's Economic and Social Research Institute, having been associate professor of economics at Trinity College in Dublin.

She is also known as an author in the field of international economic and industrial development.

Sir Robert Smith is chairman of the Weir Group and Scottish and Southern Energy and serves as a non-executive director of 3i group, Standard Bank Group and Aegon UK.

Sir Robert also chairs the Smith Group, a group of education, business and civic leaders aiming to offer more opportunities to young Scots.

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