Nicol Stephen
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Categories: Deputy First Ministers of Scotland | Leaders of political parties in Scotland | Scottish Liberal Democrat politicians | Liberal Democrat MPs (UK) | Liberal Democrat MSPs | UK MPs 1987-1992 | Members of the Scottish Parliament | Members of the United Kingdom Parliament for Scottish constituencies | Councillors in Scotland | Scottish solicitors | Alumni of the University of Aberdeen | Alumni of the University of Edinburgh | Robert Gordon's College alumni | People from Aberdeen | 1960 births | Living people
Nicol Ross Stephen (born 23 March 1960) is leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats and the Member of the Scottish Parliament for Aberdeen South. He is a former Deputy First Minister of Scotland and Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning. He became an MSP in the first elections to the Scottish Parliament in 1999, later holding Deputy Minister positions for: Enterprise and Lifelong Learning; Education, Europe and External Affairs; and Education and Young People. Those were followed by a cabinet position as Minister for Transport in the Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition. He became Deputy First Minister upon the resignation of his predecessor Jim Wallace in 2005, and led his party in the 2007 election, where they won 16 seats (down one on 2003).
Background and family lifeBorn in Aberdeen[1], he was educated at Robert Gordon's College in Aberdeen and at the University of Aberdeen, where he obtained an LLB in 1980. He then took his Diploma in Legal Practice at the University of Edinburgh School of Law and worked for a number of years as a solicitor before moving into corporate finance as a senior manager with Deloitte & Touche. He was a former Chair of CREATE (a group campaigning for rail electrification between Aberdeen and Edinburgh); a chairperson of STAR (Save Tor-na-Dee Hospital and Roxburghe House); and the founder and director of Grampian Enterprise. He is married with 4 children. [2] Early political careerHe was elected to Grampian Regional Council in 1982 (as Scotland's youngest councillor) and was Chair of Grampian's Economic Development and Planning Committee from 1986 to 1991. He was briefly a Member of Parliament for the Kincardine and Deeside constituency, elected in the November 1991 by-election following the death of Conservative and Unionist Alick Buchanan-Smith. He was a member of the Liberal Democrat treasury team and spokesperson on small business during his time in the House of Commons. The seat returned to the Conservative and Unionists at the 1992 general election, when it was won by George Kynoch. He later stood for the Aberdeen South constituency in the 1997 election for Aberdeen South, but was defeated by the Scottish Labour candidate.[3] Scottish ParliamentMinister and Deputy Minister rolesStephen was elected as MSP for Aberdeen South in the first elections to the Scottish Parliament. He later helped negotiate the Partnership Agreements for the coalition government with the Labour Party.[4] He later served in the Scottish Executive as Deputy Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning[5] (1999 to 2000), then as Deputy Minister for Education, Europe and External Affairs (2000 to 2001)[6], and as Deputy Minister for Education and Young People (2001 - 2003). Following the 2003 election, he was appointed Minister for Transport. During his time in this post, he was responsible for approving the controversial M74 extension.[7]. Deputy First MinisterFollowing the resignation of Jim Wallace in May 2005 as leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, Stephen announced his intention to stand for the leadership.[8] He defeated rival candidate, Mike Rumbles, who advocated ending the coalition agreement with the Scottish Labour Party, winning 76.6%, becoming the Deputy First Minister on 23 June 2005.[9] Following his leadership victory, a mini reshuffle of the Scottish cabinet, saw him take on the role of Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning.[10] References
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