Robert Smith, Baron Smith of Kelvin

The Lord Smith of Kelvin
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Assumed office
29 May 2008
Life Peerage
Personal details
Born
Robert Haldane Smith

(1944-08-08) 8 August 1944
Glasgow, Scotland
Political partyCrossbench
Spouse
Alison Marjorie Bell
(m. 1969)
Children2
OccupationBusinessman, parliamentarian

Robert Haldane Smith, Baron Smith of Kelvin (born 8 August 1944) is a British businessman and former Governor of the British Broadcasting Corporation. Smith was knighted in 1999, appointed to the House of Lords as an independent crossbench peer in 2008, and appointed Knight of the Thistle in the 2014 New Year Honours. He was also appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honour in 2016.

Lord Smith of Kelvin serves as Chancellor of the University of Strathclyde and Chair of the British Business Bank. He is Former Chairman of IMI plc, Scottish Enterprise and Forth Ports Limited.

On 19 September 2014, he was appointed as Chair of the newly formed Scotland Devolution Commission by Prime Minister David Cameron, following the "No" result in the Scottish independence referendum; his role being to oversee devolution commitments spelt out by the Westminster parliamentary leaders, with initial proposals drawn up by November 2014.