George Robertson, Baron Robertson of Port Ellen, is best known for his tenure as the 10th Secretary General of NATO, one of the most senior roles in the organisation, acting as its spokesperson and Chair of the North Atlantic Council. He is also a distinguished Labour Party politician, serving in the Commons for two decades, in Government, and now in the House of Lords.
Robertson began his parliamentary career as MP for the Scottish constituency of Hamilton in 1978. He would go on to be elected a total of six times and to serve the constituency loyally for 21 years. He also served as the Labour Party’s Chairman in Scotland, and in 1997 became the Secretary of State for Defence and a member of the Privy Council. Now a life peer, he sits in the Lords as Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, where his interests include business, defence, and international affairs.
Robertson has sat on the advisory councils of several prominent think-tanks, and was for ten years the Joint President of the Royal Institute of International Affairs. He is currently a Senior Counsellor at the Cohen Group, a global business advisory firm founded by former US Secretary of Defense, William S Cohen. Robertson serves here alongside some of the foremost former military and diplomatic leaders from the United States.
In 2003, he became one of a select group of Britons to receive the United States’ top civilian honour, when he was awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W Bush. He has received over a dozen Honorary Doctorates, and is a trustee of the British Forces Foundation and the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust.
