George Russell, one of the most prominent figures in the Scottish food and drink scene, has stepped down as chief executive of Scotland the Brand to concentrate on other business interests. He is being replaced by StB commercial director Theresa Houston, who has been with the organisation since the mid nineties. Martin Togneri, senior director of international operations at Scottish Enterprise, the non-department government body of which Scotland the Brand is a division, said: "George made a great contribution to the success of StB and we wish him every success for the future. "George's contract was due to expire at the end of March. We extended it for a month and would have been happy to extend it further. However, he wanted to move on to concentrate on other business interests." Scotland the Brand has been a central feature of Scottish food and drink marketing in recent years and organisations applying to join the scheme have to pass a strict quality test. {{NEWS }}