Governance

Lord (George Islay MacNeill) Robertson is Chairman of the FIA Foundation.

He was NATO Secretary General from 1999-2003 and UK Defence Secretary from 1997-1999. He was Member of Parliament for Hamilton and then Hamilton South from 1978-1999. From 1979-1993 he held senior parliamentary Opposition roles including 11 years on Foreign Affairs and was Chief Spokesman on European Affairs (he was named Parliamentarian of the Year in 1992). In 1993 he was elected to the Shadow Cabinet and served as Principal Opposition Spokesman on Scotland (the Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland).

Lord Robertson was appointed to Her Majesty’s Privy Council in 1997. In 2004 he was personally appointed by the Queen as one of the sixteen Knights of the Thistle (KT) and awarded the GCMG (Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George). In 2011 he was appointed Chancellor of that Order. He was awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s top civilian honour, in 2003, and has been awarded the highest national honours from many countries. He was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2003 and has fourteen Honorary Doctorates. He is Honorary Professor of Politics at the University of Stirling and Visiting Professor at Kings College, London. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Defence Studies.

He is Special Adviser to BP and Senior Counselor at the Washington DC based Cohen Group (USA). He is Chairman of Western Ferries (Clyde) Ltd., and Vice Chairman of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. He was Deputy Chairman of the Board and Chairman of the Audit Committee of TNK-BP (BP’s £50 bn market cap Joint Venture in Russia) from 2006-2013. He was Chairman of BP Russian Investments Ltd from 2017-2020. He has also served on the Boards of Cable and Wireless plc, where he was Executive Deputy Chairman and Chairman of CW International 2004-2007, the Smiths Group plc, Monaco Telecom SA and the Weir Group plc.