A newspaper once called Marilyn Orcharton Scotland’s First Lady of Business. Modestly, she says she can’t remember which newspaper it was.

Although management consultancy is now her specialisation, she spent 20 years of her working life as a dentist. It was this experience that led her into the ground–breaking business Denplan in 1986. Marilyn was one of the founders of the scheme under which patients pay an annual fee and receive most types of dental treatment without further charge.

Denplan became highly successful but Marilyn sold her interest in 1992 to start a new business, Kite Consultants, in Glasgow.

This business is now called Isoplan. It provides management software, mainly for dentists and nursing homes at present, but Marilyn expects to introduce it soon to other professionals, including pharmacists, veterinary surgeons and hairdressers.

To earn her title she was the first woman President of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce in 1999 and was for two years Chairman of the Small Business Bureau. She remains a director of that organisation.