Jeremy Peat (appointed in 2005) was Group Chief Economist at The Royal Bank of Scotland, from 1993 to 2005. Prior to this he was an economic adviser at The Scottish Office, HM Treasury, the Manpower Services Commission and the Ministry of Overseas Development. In the early 1980s he worked for the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning in Botswana. In 2005 he was appointed to the BBC Board of Governors, as National Governor for Scotland, where he later became a trustee. In the same year, he also took over as director of the David Hume Institute. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a director of the Signet Accreditation Company.