A former marketing manager, Jo served as MP for East Dunbartonshire for 10 years until 2015.

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In 2015 Jo founded her own consulting business advising organisations on workplace diversity. She has written a book, Equal Power, which will be published by Atlantic Books in early 2018.

As an MP, Jo worked to increase jobs locally including her Get East Dunbartonshire working initiative, successfully supported the Milngavie community against Tesco’s inappropriate store expansion, championed the views of the local community against the Lower Kilmardinny Development, won her campaign to ensure the new HMP Low Moss was not named after the town of Bishopbriggs, and fought against Labour’s local Post Office closures.

As a Minister, Jo introduced shared parental leave, extended flexible working rights, clamped down on unscrupulous payday lenders, increased penalties on employers failing to pay workers the minimum wage, improved corporate reporting, introduced new rights for consumers buying online, created the Groceries Code Adjudicator to improve supermarkets’ treatment of suppliers and won government support to bring in gender pay gap reporting.

Outside of politics, Jo enjoys running; she completed the Loch Ness Marathon in 2007 and the London Marathon in April 2011, and is running the Stirling Marathon in May 2017.