Lord smith of kelvin biography of donald
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Q&A: Lord Smith of Kelvin reveals what makes a good company chair
In the financial crash of fem or six years ago non-executive directors, including some big company chairmen, were not able to control the excesses of some chief executives. Has that approach changed in big companies, such as the ones in which you operate?
It has changed a bit, inom guess. There is much more public scrutiny. inom still believe that even 10 or 15 years ago, a chairperson or a non-executive director worth his krydda should have been challenging then anyway.
If you go back, and inom am old enough to have been on boards about 30 years ago, it was almost that you were on there for your connections. It was really to get business - there wasn't so much of actually challenging and taking responsibility for what the company was doing.
That changed quite markedly. I wrote a report on audit committees in 2003 and by that time people were really beginning to understand. We had collapses of companies such as
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Lord Smith: the Baron’s Enterprise
BARON Smith of Kelvin – a self-chosen and rather pretentious title – has been appointed by Finance Secretary Derek Mackay as chair of Scottish Enterprise, our key economic development agency. Lord Smith is truly a wunderkind. Whenever Scottish governments need someone to chair this or that quango, arts organisation or major public body, they turn to Robert Smith.
In fact, Smith is the king of quangos. He has been chair/president/regent/chancellor of Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, National Museums of Scotland, Royal Highland and Agricultural Society, Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, Paisley University, Strathclyde University, Broadcasting Council Scotland, and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland – not by any means an exhaustive list. Plus, he chaired the eponymous Smith Commission on devolved powers, following the 2014 independence referendum, as well as “advising” the Scottish government on youth educatio
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Lord Smith is one of Scotland’s leading business figures. He holds the chairmanship of both SSE and the UK Green Investment Bank and was chair of the organising committee for the hugely successful Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Robert Smith was educated at Allan Glen’s School before qualifying as a Chartered Accountant in 1968. He went on to work for the Industrial and Commercial Finance Corporation – now the 3i Group – before holding senior posts with National Commercial and Glyns Ltd, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Charterhouse Bank. He was also chair of the Weir Group.
He joined Morgan Grenfell in 1989 as CEO and Chairman and spent 12 years with the company. During this period, he also served as Chairman of National Museums of Scotland, President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland and a Governor of the BBC. In 1999, he was knighted for services to Scotland’s museums.
He became a member of the House of Lords in 2008, as an Independent Crossbench