The Honorable Mike McIntyre (D-NC ret.)

U.S. House of Representatives

Mike McIntyre served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1997 – 2015. As a Congressman, he served as Chairman of the U.S. House Agriculture Subcommittee on Rural Development. He supported and developed policies promoting economic development and business opportunities in North Carolina. Mr. McIntyre successfully championed the business and economic needs of counties and communities, as well as fire, police and EMS units, airports, schools, colleges and universities, hospitals, health clinics, senior centers, parks, and community facilities in his home district.

The Honorable John Duncan, Jr. (R-TN ret.)

U.S. House of Representatives

John James (“Jimmy”) Duncan Jr. (born July 21, 1947) served as the elected representative for Tennessee’s 2nd Congressional District from 1988 to 2019. A lawyer, former judge, and former long serving member of the Army National Guard, he is a member of the Republican Party. Duncan was born in Lebanon, Tennessee. His “paternal grandparents were small-acreage farmers in Scott County, which in 1861 left Tennessee, refusing to follow the Volunteer State into the Confederacy, and declared itself ‘the Free and Independent state of Scott.'”

Duncan graduated from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 1969 with a Bachelor of Journalism degree and subsequently received a J.D. degree from George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C. in 1973.  He was admitted to the bar that same year. He also served in the Army National Guard from 1970 to 1987. He was an attorney in private practice until he became a state court judge in Knox County, Tennessee, where he served from 1981 to 1988.

His father, John Sr., had represented the Knoxville-based 2nd District since 1965, and died in 1988. Jimmy Duncan won the Republican nomination to succeed him. He never faced a serious or well-funded challenge for reelection, and was reelected without major-party opposition in four consecutive elections (1994 through 2000). On July 31, 2017, Duncan announced that he would not run for reelection in 2018, citing to spend more time with his family.

Duncan and his wife Lynn (née Hawkins) were married in 1978. They have four children, including former Knox County Trustee John Duncan III, and eight grandchildren. Lynn died in August 2021. He is also the brother of Tennessee State Senator Becky Duncan Massey. After retiring from Congress, Duncan relocated from his home in Knoxville to neighboring Grainger County.

Committee assignments

• • Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure (Vice Chairman)
• • United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

Caucus memberships

• • Congressional Friends of Scotland Caucus (Founding Co-Chairman)
• • Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus
• • Liberty Caucus
• • United States Congressional International Conservation Caucus
• • Sportsmen’s Caucus
• • Veterinary Medicine Caucus[
• • Congressional Constitution Caucus]
• • Congressional NextGen 9-1-1 Caucus
• • U.S.-Japan Caucus

Presenters

Camilla Hellman

The American-Scottish Foundation

Camilla Hellman’s career has been transatlantic relations, undertaking projects both in Britain and the United States to further  collaboration between the two countries.

Camilla joined the American-Scottish Foundation in 2009 as Development Director, becoming  Executive Director in 2012 and was elected President in 2017. In addition to increasing the ASF’s  charitable work, Camilla has developed diverse event programs, often involving exhibits and performances, with a strong multimedia platform.

Camilla represents the ASF on the National Tartan Day New York Committee. Camilla serves on the Board of The Foreign Press Association and Make Music New York.

In 2007, Camilla was honored by HM Queen Elizabeth II and awarded the MBE for services to British-American relations.

John King Bellassai, JD

President, Council of Scottish Clans & Associations (COSCA)

John King Bellassai is an attorney and management consultant. He is a graduate of Georgetown University’s College of Arts & Sciences and the Georgetown University Law Center. He and his wife, Judith Walton, live and work in Washington, DC.

John’s maternal grandfather, John King, after whom he is named, emigrated to New York City in 1910 from the little Loch Lomond-side town of Killearn (of Rob Roy Fame) in Stirlingshire. John is fortunate to have travelled back to Scotland and met his cousins still living in Stirlingshire and neighboring Perthshire. (Both the surname “King” and its Gaelic equivalent “MacAra” (son of the king) are still common in that area of Scotland. Both are officially recognized MacGregor “aliases”, dating back to the legal proscription of the name MacGregor in the early 17 th century.)

John’s interest in his Scottish heritage has been a life-long one. He is currently President of the Council of Scottish Clans & Associations (COSCA)—which is essentially the national professional association for the Scottish clan and family societies in America, of which there are some 140. A Past President of the St. Andrew’s Society of Washington, DC and current Chairman of its Community Relations Committee, John is also Vice President of The National Capital Tartan Day Committee, Inc. He is active in his clan society (The American Clan Gregor Society, Inc. ) for which he has served as Chancellor (in-house legal counsel) as well as Chairman of its Board of Trustees (overseeing the Society’s invested charitable assets).

Peter Wilson

Founder of Great Scot International, The Scottish Weaver and The Scottish Grocer.

Great Scot International Inc was Founded and Incorporated in 1997. Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, the company was initially involved with the supply of Scottish food products and unique gift-ware and then evolved into weaving and supplying tartan plaid fabrics and merchandise in worsted wool and non-wool fabrics.

SCOTTISH HERITAGE USA was founded in 1965 by Ward Melville “to recognize and enhance the original bonds of ancestral and national character among the peoples of Scotland and North America; and to disseminate knowledge of their respective cultural heritages; and in furtherance of such purposes to support the preservation of historic sites, the maintenance of centers of artistic and literary endeavor and such other activities as may be appropriate”.

Peter is a Board Member of the Scottish Tartan Authority.