Our team

Mark Forrester - Founder, Managing Director

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Mark worked in the technology sector for 12 years in both the UK and North America before setting up the company in 2002. He is a Director of his family business, Rufflets Hotel in St Andrews, and Scotland's Hotels of Distinction.

Douglas Hunter - Internet Marketing Manager

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Dougie joined the company in 2004 to expand Occupancy Marketing's internet marketing capabilities. He has previously worked with Lastminute.com and All-hotels.com in senior internet marketing roles.

Murdoch MacRury - Internet Marketing Manager

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Murdoch joined the company in 2005 to manage the VisitScotland account and has over 10 years experience working in the e-commerce sector. Prior to joining Occupancy Marketing, Murdoch held a senior position at a leading UK travel portal.

Gillian Forrester - Partner, Management Accountant

Gillian is one of the founding partners and is responsible for management accounts and human resources.

Matthew Jackson - Senior Account Manager

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Before joining Occupancy Marketing in 2006, Matthew held a managerial position for a hotel and tourism management consultancy. He graduated in 2004 at the University of Edinburgh with a 1st class MA Honours in International Business studies with French.

Chris McGuire - Senior Account Manager

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Chris has joined Occupancy Marketing's account management team in 2008 having previously worked within web development & consultancy for 7 years. Chris also has a degree in Mathematics & Computer Science and qualifications in Software Testing.

Jonathan Ellis - Senior SEO Analyst

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Jonathan graduated in 2005 from the University of Edinburgh with a degree in Artificial Intelligence with Psychology. Jono joined Occupancy Marketing in 2006 and works primarily with the Swallow & Crerar hotel groups.

Stewart Barclay - SEO Analyst

Stewart joined the SEO Team in July 2007 having graduated from Edinburgh and Napier Universities in Astrophysics and Software Engineering respectively. 

Josef Sarmast - SEO Analyst

Josef joined Occupancy Marketing's SEO team in September 2008. Previously, Josef worked at another leading SEO agency, specialising in online PR & article distribution.

Richard Grant - SEO Analyst

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Rich joined Murdoch's SEO team in July 2009 having previously worked at another leading SEO agency in Edinburgh. He holds a degree in Artificial Intelligence & Computer Science from the University of Edinburgh.

Craig Burns - SEO Analyst

Craig joined the company in August 2009. Craig's previous work experience saw him marketing an online property guide website where he first found a passion for Search Engine Optimisation & Internet Marketing.

Sarah Farrier - SEO Analyst

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Sarah joined Occupancy Marketing in November 2009 from a background in software development. She holds a 1st class Software Engineering degree from Napier University, and a Masters in High Performance Parallel Computing from the University of Edinburgh.

Lynne Grundison - Account Manager

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Lynne joined Occupancy Marketing's account management team in March 2010. Previously Lynne worked at another leading SEO agency in Edinburgh where she specialised in analytics and reporting.