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A co-founder of Friends of the Beatson and its Chairman since its incorporation in 1995, Ian Dickson is one of the co-founders of the Beatson Cancer Charity.
Ian was born and educated in Glasgow. He graduated LLB at the University of Strathclyde in 1977. Ian was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1988 and treated successfully at the Beatson and it was his keenness to give something back for the excellent treatment and care which he received which led him, with Alan Kilpatrick, to set up Friends of the Beatson with the objective of improving, and making more tolerable, the lives of cancer patients at the Beatson.
It is the determination that Beatson patients should receive the very best possible treatment and care which inspired him and his Friends of the Beatson and BOCF colleagues to establish the Beatson Cancer Charity.
A corporate lawyer for 37 years, Ian retired as Chairman of MacRoberts in 2010. He was a Governor of the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research from 2004 until 2014, a Director, then Chair, of the Scottish Ensemble from 2004 to 2015 and a member of the University of Strathclyde Audit Committee from 2010 until 2015.
He served as The Lord Dean of Guild of the Merchants House of Glasgow from May 2017 until May 2019.
He is currently Deputy Chair of the Willow Tea Rooms Trust, a Director of the Scottish International Piano Competition, a Trustee of the National Youth Orchestras of Scotland Endowment Trust and a Deputy Lieutenant for Dunbartonshire.
Ian was awarded the British Empire Medal in the 2013 New Year Honours List for services to the welfare of people with cancer in the West of Scotland and the Strathclyde University Medal in 2019 for services to the University.
