Mr R I N Gordon - University of Hertfordshire

ROBERT GORDON, CBE, DL, FRSA

Robert Gordon has been Leader of Hertfordshire County Council since 2007 and is Chairman of the countywide Local Strategic Partnership, Hertfordshire Forward. He was first elected to the County Council in 1989 and before becoming Leader, held successively the portfolios of Education, Children's Services and Resources & Performance. Robert’s local government roles extend to both regional and national stages having variously been Deputy Chairman of the Local Government Association, Chairman of the County Councils Network, Chairman of the East of England Local Government Association, Chairman of the East of England Strategic Authority Leaders, Vice-Chairman of the Improvement & Development Agency, Chairman of the National Employers Organisation for School Teachers and a member of the Workforce Agreement Monitoring Group and the General Teaching Council for England (until its abolition in March 2012). In 2011, he was ranked by the Local Government Chronicle as the 44th most influential voice in local government, two places after Boris Johnson!

Between 1995 and 1997, Robert was the first chairman of the Hertfordshire Police Authority and served as Chairman of its Audit Committee until the Authority was abolished in November 2012, and has served as an NHS non-executive director. In 2015, Robert was been appointed a full member of the Committee of the Regions, the European Union's assembly of local and regional representatives that provides sub-national authorities with a direct voice within the EU's institutional framework. Born and educated in Hertfordshire, his higher education was at the University of Sussex, the College of Law and City University. He was formerly a solicitor in private practice; sometime Director of the Society of Genealogists; a former Member and Chairman of Watford Borough Council; is a Deputy Lieutenant of Hertfordshire and Clerk to the Watford Grammar Schools Foundation. Robert was appointed a CBE for services to local government in the Jubilee Honours list, 2012.

He was appointed a Governor of the University of Hertfordshire in September 2010.