Dr Janet Lowe served as Principal of Lauder College, Dunfermline (now Carnegie College) for 10 years, retiring in 2005. During her thirty year career in further and higher education, she also held posts at the University of Hull, Napier University and Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art.
In 2005 Janet was appointed as a member of the Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council. In 2008 she was appointed to the Board of Skills Development Scotland. She now combines these two roles to promote a collaborative approach to enhancing the demand for and supply of skills, learning and employability in Scotland. She is Chair of the Funding Council’s statutory Skills Committee, now a joint Committee with SDS. Janet is also a member of the Court of the University of Dundee, a Trustee of the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland and a UK-US Fulbright Commissioner.

Janet’s previous public service has included membership of the Scottish (Garrick) Committee of the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education (Dearing), and of the Boards of Scottish Enterprise and of the Scottish Further Education Unit. She was a member of the Independent Review of Local Government Finance (the Burt Committee) which reported to Scottish Ministers in 2006.

Janet was awarded the CBE in the New Year Honours List 2003 for services to further education. She completed her research Doctorate in Education with Stirling University by part-time study in 2005.  In 2007 she was awarded an honorary doctorate by Queen Margaret University.