Keynote SpeakerGeorge Robertson

Lord (George) Robertson is Chancellor of the University of Dundee, Vice -Patron of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. He is a Senior Counsellor with The Cohen Group (Washington DC) (under suspension during the SDR) He leads the UK Government’s Strategic Defence Review.

He was the 10^th Secretary General of NATO and Chairman of the North Atlantic Council from 1999 to 2003 and UK Secretary of State for Defence from 1997-1999. He was Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland in the Shadow Cabinet from 1992-1997 and Principal Opposition Spokesman on Europe from 1983-92. He was named Joint Parliamentarian of the Year in 1992. He was Member of Parliament for Hamilton and then Hamilton South from 1978 -99 and joined the House of Lords in 1999. He became a member of His Majesty’s Privy Council in 1997.

He was born in Port Ellen, Islay of Islay, Scotland and educated at Dunoon Grammar School and Queens College, University of St Andrews when it became the University of Dundee where he chose to take his MA(Hons) Economics degree.

He is a Trustee of the British Forces Foundation, an Elder Brother of Trinity House, Chairs the Ohrid Group (friends of North Macedonia), is Senior Adviser to 5654 Consultancy (under suspension during the SDR), was a member of the House of Lords Select Committee on International Affairs and Defence, and previously served on the Constitution Committee and the Select Committee on Risk Management and Assessment. He is a Senior Adviser to Chatham House and is on the Advisory Council of the Centre for European Reform, and the International Advisory Board of the US Atlantic Council.  He is Patron of the Leighton Library, Dunblane.

Former positions include Chair of the Ditchley Foundation, the FIA Foundation and of the John Smith Memorial Trust, Vice Chair of the British Council and the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, a Joint President of Chatham House, a Governor of the Scottish Police College, a Board Member of the Scottish Development Agency and the Scottish Tourist Board, Trustee of the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust and Hon Colonel of the London Scottish Regiment. He was a Prime Ministerial appointee to the Advisory Board of the commemorations of World War One. He co-chaired in 2019 with former French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, a Joint Kings College/Institut Montagne study on British French defence cooperation. He co-Chaired in 2008 with Paddy Ashdown,  a Commission on National Security.

In the private sector he was Deputy Chair of TNK-BP (BP’s Russian Joint Venture) and Chaired its Audit Committee, was Deputy Chair of Cable and Wireless plc, and a Non-Executive Director of the Weir Group plc (where he was Senior Independent Director), the Smiths Group plc and Monaco Telecom SA. He was short-listed in the Sunday Times Non-Executive Director Awards.

He has a number of Honorary Doctorates including from Dundee, St Andrews, Bradford, Lincoln, Robert Gordon, Glasgow Caledonian, Cranfield and Stirling Universities, the European University of Armenia and the National Academies of Azerbaijan and Kyrgystan. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a Fellow of the Royal College of Defence Studies. He is an Honorary Professor at Stirling University and Visiting Professor at Kings College, London.

He is one of the sixteen Knights of the Thistle (KT), former Chancellor and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG), and among several high international honours received, he was awarded the highest American civilian honour, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2003.

He is married to Sandra, lives in Dunblane, Scotland has three grown up children, five grandchildren and has published two books of photographs. He has qualified as a Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society.