Dr. Robert Dow Kilgour

Robert is an experienced business leader, entrepreneur and philanthropist who founded Four Seasons Health Care, opening its first care home in May 1989 in Fife in Scotland. He left the company in early 2000 when it was the UK’s fifth largest care home operator with 101 homes and over 7,000 staff – making his final financial exit from the company in 2004.

Robert founded and is currently CEO of Dow Investments Plc – now in its 35th year. In 2004, he founded, and is Executive Chairman of Renaissance Care which currently operates 18 care homes throughout Scotland and employs over 1,400 staff. In the same year, Robert co-founded and is still Director of NW Security Group, video and security systems specialists. He was also a founder shareholder and ultimately Chairman of Kingdom FM Radio, the local radio franchise for Fife – until he engineered its recent sale.

Robert is an Advisory Board Director of E2E (a worldwide community of circa 24,000 entrepreneurs), an Advisory Council Member of the Jobs Foundation and a co-founder and Ambassador of Local Recovery – a Scotland wide campaign group of over 9,000 active supporters working at improving Scottish community facilities and helping local groups access available UK Government funding post Brexit.

Robert was also a Member of the CBI Scottish Council and the CBI UK SME Council from 2000-03 and recently co-founded and launched The Museum of Prime Minister with historian and educator Sir Anthony Seldon.

Whenever possible, Robert raises money for Macmillan Cancer Support – over £2m during the last thirty years and he was appointed Macmillan Cancer Support’s first Ambassador in December 2018.

Robert’s long history of involvement with Macmillan includes chairing an appeal in the early 1990s that made possible the building of a hospice in Fife and personally donating the funds to enable the establishment of the first Macmillan Cancer Information and Support Centre in 2007; there are now 171 such centres throughout the UK interfacing with close to 300,000 people a year

Robert also recently founded the Social Care Foundation to encourage and support much needed social care reform and in 2023, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Stirling for his ‘outstanding contribution to entrepreneurship and philanthropy.’

Born in Edinburgh, brought up in Fife and educated at Loretto School in Musselburgh, Robert splits his time between his main home in London, where his wife works as a portfolio NED, and their home in Fife.