A Scottish businessman has been revealed as the private citizen who has paid for the repatriation of Alex Salmond's body from North Macedonia.
The news comes after a statement from the former first minister's family confirmed Salmond will be repatriated to Scotland on a private plane paid for by a private citizen.
The Times has since revealed it to be Sir Tom Hunter.
The flight was paid for personally by Hunter and not by The Hunter Foundation, which manages his philanthropy.
Early life and business ventures
Tom Hunter – who is estimated to be worth around £700 million – is a Scottish businessman, entrepreneur and philanthropist born in New Cumnock in Ayrshire in 1961.
He attended the University of Strathclyde and set up his first business after graduating because he was, in his own words, "unemployable".
He started selling trainers from the back of a van after his father, a grocer, gave him a £5000 loan which the bank matched. Hunter then built the venture into Europe's largest independent retailer, Sports Division.
He sold the chain for £290m in 1998 and went on to become Scotland’s first homegrown billionaire by making other investments in property and other businesses to increase his fortune.
He was previously estimated to have an estimated wealth of £1.05 billion which was cut due to the financial crash in 2008. In 2021, he was estimated to be worth £729m.
Philanthropy
Hunter and his wife Marion established The Hunter Foundation in 1998 with a £10m cheque as a tax management vehicle. He has cited famed Scottish philanthropist Andrew Carnegie as an inspiration.
He has donated money to Band Aid, University of Strathclyde, Comic Relief, the Alzheimer's Society, Make Poverty History, and the William J Clinton Foundation.
In 2013, Hunter was awarded the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy, and in 2005, he was awarded a knighthood for "services to philanthropy and to entrepreneurship in Scotland".
Politics
Hunter was one of the Labour's Party's top 50 donors in 2001, with a donation of £100,000.
Ahead of the Scottish independence referendum, Hunter revealed a website dedicated to providing impartial sources of information related to the issue.
After the referendum, Hunter was adamant about moving on and not focussing on a second referendum, saying in 2015: "We’ve had our say, and we want to get on with our lives."
In 2020, he urged the Scottish Government to focus on Covid recovery, stating: “Another referendum on Scottish independence is inevitable and it is right but I do not think it is right now."
And in 2021, he urged: “We need bold, ambitious industrial policies. In my opinion, we need to wake up and realise now is not the time to be gambling on an independence referendum."
What did Tom Hunter say about repatriating Alex Salmond's body?
The businessman said he was covering the cost because Salmond and his family deserved the "dignity" of a private return home to Scotland.
The pair did not agree on the case for a second referendum, with Hunter stating he was remaining "resolutely apolitical" around Salmond's repartition.
“Whilst he and I disagreed on some of his ambitions, Alex Salmond devoted his life to Scotland and the Scottish people and as such he, and importantly his family, deserved the dignity and privacy of a private return to the home of his birth.", Hunter said in a statement.
"Our deepest sympathy and thoughts are with his family at this time. To be clear I remain resolutely apolitical.”
