ENTERPRIZE; `Reluctant' Sir Ian wins top job.

A self-made Scots tycoon is to be given the vital task of winning jobs for Scotland.

Sir Ian Wood, head of the huge, Aberdeen-based Wood Group oil empire, will be named as the new pounds 50,000-a-year head of Scottish Enterprise.

His appointment will be a big surprise because only a few weeks ago, the craggy Sir Ian appeared to rule himself out of the race.

He said he was too busy with his own business commitments to take on the high-powered job.

Sir Ian - whose teenage son Gareth nearly died two years ago after being hit by meningitis - told journalists : "I am not a candidate."

And observers had also ruled him out because he was believed to have Tory sympathies.

His predecessor, Professor Sir Donald Mackay, was ousted in May after Labour won power. He resigned amid claims that he was being forced to go because he had been too close to senior Tories.

Sir Donald had attracted wide criticism after handing back pounds 30 million of Scottish Enterprise training cash - allegedly to help former Tory Scots Secretary Michael Forsyth meet Treasury cut-back targets.

Sir Ian, who used to sport mutton chop sideburns and loud checked ties, will be in charge of the pounds 500 million Scottish Enterprise budget.

He will oversee the crucial task of winning inward investment jobs for Scotland as well as encouraging Scots-based business through the network of local enterprise companies.

Last night, Government insiders admitted that Sir Ian "had to be persuaded" to take on the job.

But they stressed that he was already on the Enterprise board and had served as acting chairman following Sir Donald's departure.

Other names mentioned for the job included James Gordon, chairman of Radio Clyde, BT chairman Sir Ian Vallance and trade union leader Sir Gavin Laird.

Sir Ian, 53, last year won the business section of the Sunday Mail Great Scots award.

He has built up his oil services group from small-time family ship-repairing business beginnings to a world leader, with an annual turnover of more than pounds 200 million.

Married, with three sons, Sir Ian is also a director of the Royal Bank of Scotland. Educated at Robert Gordon's and Aberdeen University, he was knighted in 1994.

He is known as a workaholic, often putting in 14-hour days.

He once bemoaned his jet-setting lifestyle, saying that on some days he ate all his meals on board an aircraft.

In 1995, he was voted ideal Scots businessman in a survey carried out among directors of 500 Scots companies.

His hobbies - when he has time - include tennis and hill-walking.

HE'S GOT pounds 400m TO SPEND

Scottish Enterprise was set up in 1990 - the brainchild of Scots businessman Bill Hughes and Margaret Thatcher.

Scottish Enterprise has a budget of over pounds 400 million.

Its main role is to run the network of local enterprise companies throughout Scotland.

Its job-hunting arm is Locate in Scotland - a body that has attracted inward investment and thousands of jobs, including Motorola, Chungwa and Hyundai.

But it has also had its share of bad publicity, especially following revelations that firms run by members of Forth Valley Enterprise Board had received more than pounds 800,000 of taxpayers money from the the organisation.

And there was more criticism of the amount of cash the local companies were spending on outside consultancies.

In 1992, Scottish Enterprise was embarrassed when it had to make big cuts in its staff.

A year later, the Scottish select committee launched a probe after claims that the enterprise company network wasn't working well.