ROBERT CRAWFORD, the chief executive of Scottish Enterprise (SE) between 2000-2004, whose tenure was marred by a press campaign alleging financial mismanagement, has spoken for the first time of his "regret" over his decision to walk away from the economic development agency.

In an interview with the Sunday Herald, Crawford, who resigned from the £200,000-a-year post in January 2004 citing family reasons, said that he now wishes he had "hung on", despite the tide of media and political criticism of the agency.

"Frankly I shouldn't have left. It was a mistake. If I could do it again I wouldn't have gone. But the whole press campaign was so corrosive and sapping of energy. I should have just hung on in there.

"People constantly reassured me that I wasn't the issue but I began to think it was personal."

Crawford, whose hard-driving leadership style was seen by subordinates as a marked contrast to the "laid-back Californian style" of his predecessor Crawford Beveridge, subsequently joined the oil services company Wood Group and public-private urban renewal company Mersey Partnership in Liverpool, returning to Scotland to take up a new post of director of business development and commercialisation at Glasgow University in 2005.

"It got to the point where it no longer became enjoyable and it was having a bad effect on my personal life," he added.

Negative press stories about the financial health of SE projects are now known to have emanated from deliberate leaks by high-level colleagues at the development quango.

"Journalists used to receive this stuff in brown envelopes, including risk registers in which we would be required to list everything that could possibly go wrong with our investments. This was selectively used to make it look as if the projects were in trouble, which was nonsense."

"Clearly Scottish Enterprise had become the focal point of a deep distaste with the size of the public sector."

Crawford added that one of his proudest achievements at SE was to reduce staff numbers by 25%, without provoking a confrontation with the trade unions.

"It needed to be done," he said.