Jackie has generously shared information about her personal journey since leaving Albyn School in 1988 as well as reflections on the jeep runs she makes to Ukraine and diary excerpts from her December 25 and February 26 trips.
Jackie Robertson (née Muller) Class of 1988 - Be the difference
I left Albyn 1988. I went to work in the oil industry in sales and marketing for a company providing drilling equipment to the rigs offshore. I found my niche in sales and built-up a network of contacts in drilling and engineering. It quickly became apparent from speaking to my customers that there were some inherent design flaws in the equipment they were asking me to promote. I come from a family of engineers and my family had an engineering company in Aberdeen for three generations so I took these issues to them and asked how to overcome them. I then went back to the company I worked for with the solution but unfortunately they weren’t that interested at the time and so…
I decided to start up my own business, Pumps Unlimited, renting out modified pumping equipment to the offshore industry. I approached quite a few of the drilling companies I had been selling to and asked if they would take my product out on R&D having listened to their feedback and redesigned the equipment to meet their specific needs. The equipment was designed to operate in the zone one environment and recovered expensive oil based drilling mud saving the drilling companies money and also reducing environmental impact at the same time. Having overcome the engineering flaws I successfully grew my share of the rental market. Within six months I had 120 units operating in the North Sea, Norway and Yemen. At the same time I entered the Shell Livewire award for young entrepreneurs under 21. I won the Grampian award and then went on to win the Scottish shell livewire award which gave my company prominence as well as a financial award. I used the money to exhibit at the ONS exhibition in Stavanger where I was approached by a large drilling company who offered to buy me out 9 months after conception and retain me as the manager for two years under contract.
Relocation to Knoydart
During these two years, I met my partner and found myself at the age of 20 moving to Knoydart Estate, a very remote location with boat access only, where he had been appointed Game Keeper. Using the proceeds from the sale of my business I bought the Old Forge, mainland Britain’s remotest Pub in the Guinness Book of Records, and set about building the business up from the ground. The Pub had 14 staff, a seafood restaurant 10 moorings and a great reputation for live traditional folk music, seafood and Craft ales, all of which were a novelty in the Highlands at that time. The Pub won best independent pub in Scotland amongst other awards and I joined the Highland and Islands tourism awards as a judge for the hospitality sector.
At 25 I went to University in Dundee to study Scots law while running the Pub and commuting back backwards and forwards every weekend. I also set up a small dress agency Rouges in Inverness as logistically my partner was travelling from Knoydart to Inverness every week for supplies for the Pub and it made sense to have a reciprocal business in Inverness where the wholesalers were located. Rogues was pre-eBay (as this was before internet) and a place where people could buy and sell high-quality clothing for a commission with no outlay for stock. I sold this business while in my third year at university. On graduating university I was offered a law traineeship with McPhee and Partners where I practiced all areas of law. I never actually intended to be a lawyer but just wanted the discipline of going through a degree so as soon as I had qualified and finished my traineeship I was able to refocus on my businesses. If I had stayed in law, I would most definitely have remained in court work but enjoy being self-employed too much!
I then built and set up Knoydart House self catering property for 10 with a hot tub. The business won a number of awards and I ran it for 14 years alongside the Pub. In the process I had two children and decided to sell the Old Forge public house and to build a second self catering property, Knoydart Hide. We replicated the success of Knoydart House and Knoydart Hide and won the award of best self catering property in the Highlands and Islands HITA awards.
On the back of high occupancy rates, I set up another business called Best Scottish Cottages, an online platform promoting the best places to stay in Scotland. I ran the business for two years, built it up and sold it on - I still use it as an advertising platform for my own properties. Next venture was opening up Knoydart studio room self catering property with Hot Tub and then, after selling Knoydart Hide last year, I built Knoydart luxury pod, another self catering venture, which I opened in April.
After selling the Pub I spent the next seven years setting up a committee to get the Pub into community ownership of which we are all shareholders along with other members of the community. It’s great to see it going from strength to strength and a success for community ownership.
Not your average career trajectory , but gives you an insight as to what I’ve been up to since I left Albyn. I get a lot of satisfaction from setting businesses up, building them and selling them on.
Humanitarian Work
My humanitarian work came about by default. For the last 10 years, I’ve been involved on the committee and running a crowdfund for a new village hall to maintain a venue for performing arts, especially traditional folk music which is a passion of mine. Both my children play: my boy Struan plays pipes and Anna my daughter went to the Royal Conservatoire in Glasgow to study her principal instrument, Scottish traditional fiddle. She then went on to become a finalist in the Young traditional musician of the year, formed the band Dana, which means audacious or bold in Gaelic, and they won the up-and-coming traditional folk band of the year in December. They’ve just launched their first album. Keeping traditional music alive in our small community has been a catalyst to her immersion in the traditional folk scene and this way, my involvement in revitalising our village hall and folk music scene ensured that my children grew up immersed in it.
Once the hall was complete, rebuilt and on the map I was looking for another project aside from work to get involved in. All the media coverage on what was happening in Ukraine made me restless and I could not think of a reason not to support in someway. My son is a commando in the Royal Marines and with me being married to an ex infantry officer it felt only right to support the military efforts in Ukraine. Quite literally I typed into Google ’how can I support Ukraine to save lives’ and I stumbled across Jeeps for Peace - a group of ordinary people with a collective mission - to save lives in Ukraine. Their aim - to deliver 4WDs vehicles and other equipment for front-line Humanitarian Aid and to supply 1000 jeeps to the front line by the end of December 2026.
I picked up the phone and signed up for the next convoy. I had absolutely no idea at the time what was involved or that I would still be driving today. After that first trip I made a promise to keep going as long as I could. My first trip was last February and my next one heading off 26th of June will be my seventh. I self funded my first four convoys which were about £1400 per trip and then realised under the current climate I was going to be in this for the long haul. So, I set up my Just giving page to enable me to keep going. My initial target was £6000 to cover the short fall in my self-funding to complete the remainder of my convoy for this year. When I reached £6000 I immediately doubled the target and committed to doing it all over again next year as long as it is needed. One of the biggest challenges I have to overcome is that when you seek fundraising for ongoing work like this it’s not a one and done situation for as soon as one convoy finishes we’re getting ready to go again. Also with escalating fuel costs the target is a moving beast. I need to keep going with the fundraising to deliver my commitment to saving lives. The work is truly life changing at every level.
I am really looking forward to seeing all the potential that Albyn has to offer sitting together all under one roof at the Music Hall today. I owe a lot of the person I am today to my time on the Albyn hockey field, the 1st X1 and my PE teachers, Miss Nicol, Miss Tupper and Ms Fiona McNaugnton.
