By Bill Heaney
The Ferret investigative journal has this week listed some of the richest people in the country in their Who Runs Scotland? series.
Who are these people, and how did they make their money?
Only one of them with West Dunbartonshire connections has been named in the top five. She is Lady Philomena Clark whose net worth is said to be £1.581billion, which makes her and her family 106th in UK.
Lady Philomena is in the car dealership business. She took over Arnold Clark Automobiles, after her husband Arnold’s death in 2017.
She now runs the firm, which has nearly 200 dealerships across the UK, most prominently locally on the A82 Glasgow-Loch Lomondside road at Milton, Dumbarton, and Duntocher.
Lady Philomena, pictured left with her late husband, was educated at St Andrew’s College in Bearsden, trained as a school teacher.
She has kept a relatively low profile, with her business holdings mainly linked to the automobile industry.
In 2022, the company suffered a cyber attack from a Russian ransomware group, with customers having bank details and ID documents stolen.
Her husband, Sir Arnold became the UK’s first car billionaire in 2016, and was known to race yachts and collect vintage cars
He famously owned the yacht Drum which he sailed on the Firth of Clyde out of the Royal Northern Club at Rhu, by Helensburgh, and was famously involved in a collision with a Royal Navy submarine.
Drum is a maxi yacht formerly co-owned by lead singer of Duran Duran, Simon Le Bon.
Drum competed in the 1985 Fastnet Race. It was one of the favourites to win the race, but the boat lost its keel due to a design failure and capsized. Its crew were all rescued.
Drum was designed by Ireland-based boat-builder Ron Holland and built in Finland. The maxi yacht was purpose-designed and built to be sailed in the Whitbread Round the World Race.