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Katherine Garrett-Cox doesn't warm to questions about gender in business, about being a "supermum", or her nickname of Katherine the Great.

The chief executive of Alliance Trust, based in Dundee, usually prefers to keep a low profile and be judged by her results. Unlike those in Iceland who say their banks were too testosterone-driven and now need women to sort them out, she plays down any difference between men's and women's approach to business.

In an interview for ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio Scotland, she does, however, point out Alliance Trust has not only a female chief executive but a woman in the chair too, Lesley Knox.

It's appropriate for Dundee, which has long been renowned for its strong women leaders, from the jute mill workers to Ma Broon.

So to focus instead on her results, there was a period last year, around the point in August when the 41-year old Surrey-born financier stepped up to the top job, when the gap, or discount, between the underlying assets and the fund's market valuation, made her "vexed". But having switched to cash, mainly UK Treasury bills, in the first half of last year, her investment strategy has brought the investment trust through the financial tempest relatively well so far.

Now in charge of Scotland's fifth biggest company, a "venerable" pillar of the nation's financial life for the past 120 years and now valued at £1.78bn, she contrasts her approach with the big boys down the road in Edinburgh: "The key to our success is that we didn't try to be too clever".

"We understand what we do and I think that's where a number of big companies went wrong. They got too aggressive. They didn't understand the risks they were taking on and I think that will take some time to unwind. And yet it provides opportunities for companies such as us".

She went on to explain the early retreat from banking stocks: "At a very early stage, we identified that a number of them were running risks that we didn't think were appropriate".

Says Garrett-Cox: "We're at a very interesting juncture of the financial services industry and Scotland in particular. For those businesses who remain focussed, keep doing what they've always done, if it's been successful, there are great opportunities.

"It's obvious the financial services sector is going to be hard hit by what's going on. There's not a day goes by you don't read depressing news about job cuts and one of the things we're keeping a close eye on is the knock-on effect.

"A lot of people will be in the unfortunate position of losing their jobs over the next 12 to 18 months. But what's quite interesting about Scotland compared to the rest of the UK, Scotland has a high percentage of dual earners in families, which we think will mean Scotland will be better protected than the rest of the country."

Being located in Dundee is no disadvantage, particularly when people are being laid off elsewhere in the finance sector and looking for new opportunities in smaller organisations where they can make a difference.

And the distance from the City of London, or even Edinburgh, has been no obstacle to recruiting some "excellent" new staff in the past 18 months, says the Alliance Trust boss.

* You can hear Katherine Garrett-Cox's full interview - including her approach as an active shareholder, and the question of taking stakes in the tobacco industry - on The Business, on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio Scotland at 10am this Sunday, 22 February.