From childhood, Linda was resourceful, creative and completely fascinated by how things worked, once even taking a tape recorder apart to find out just that! She asked constant questions, read encyclopaedias and reportedly asked for a book on astronomy at the age of 8, always wanting to know more. This innate curiosity gave her the label of a ‘wayward child’, but this turned out to be a positive thing - standing her in good stead for a long career in technology, education and computers. Linda was diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of 11, after a biology teacher spotted the condition during an ‘illusions project’; she recalls that all of the information was correct but it did not make conventional sense on the page. It was perhaps from this point onwards that the importance of ‘other’ ways of learning were embedded within her understanding.

Linda had always worked within education and when computers arrived in schools, she remembers a sense of ‘just knowing’ how they worked. She went on to develop skills in computing, programming and maths via college courses and then eight years with the Open University, reportedly requesting all of the ‘hard courses’!

In 1996 an EU pilot project was launched, linking medieval European cities to develop technology-based businesses, with Lauder College in Dunfermline, where Linda was now IT Manager, acting as the education/training partner. The other cities involved in the project were Rome, Porto, Carcassane, Seville and Perugia, and Linda travelled to all of them, as well as welcoming them back to Scotland. One of the aims of the project was to engage with small companies within each city, and help them set up email accounts, websites and staff training. There were presentations on what the internet might be like professionally, as well as access, promotion and infrastructure – all of which was pioneering, given that many businesses didn’t fully adopt email until a couple of years later.

The mid-1990s marked a boom for tech start-ups as the internet moved from academia into everyday life, creating entirely new markets in e-commerce, search, and digital services. Companies such as Amazon, eBay, Google, and UK success stories like lastminute.com and ASOS emerged during this period as entrepreneurs seized the opportunities created by rapid internet adoption. Alongside these global names, the small but resilient eCom Learning Solutions, has demonstrated how businesses founded during the early digital era have continued to adapt and thrive decades later.

eCom Learning Solutions became incorporated as its own entity in 1999, and Linda left her post at Lauder College to become the full time CEO for the company, with 30 years of business adventures ahead!

The eCom journey through the years: Linda with Clive Shepard opening the new eCom office space in Dunfermline (2012); an early iteration of eNetLearn, one of the products within the eCom product suite; Linda speaking at the eCom Conference in Edinburgh (2020)