Wendy Alexander
Wendy Cowan Alexander, Baroness Alexander of Cleveden is a Scottish politician Life Peer and the former Member of the Scottish Parliament for Paisley North from 1999 until 2011. She held various Scottish Government cabinet posts and was the Leader of the UK Labour Party in Scotland from 2007 to 2008.
After leaving politics, she was appointed Associate Dean of Global Business and Associate Dean for Degree Programmes and Career Services at the London Business School. From 2015 to late 2024 she was Vice-Principal and Professor of International Education by the University of Dundee.
In March 2016 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh for her work for the university sector. On 30 November 2017, she was appointed as the Scottish Government Trade and Investment Envoy for Higher Education.
Alexander is a member of UK Government's DIT/DfE Education Sector Advisory Group and chairs the Global Advisory Board of the Times Higher Education Student.
Early life and education
Alexander was born on 27 June 1963 in Glasgow, Scotland to Joyce and Douglas Alexander. She has a younger brother, Labour Party politician Douglas Alexander, who has served as a Member of Parliament and in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom.Alexander attended Park Mains High School in Erskine and won a scholarship to Lester B. Pearson United World College of the Pacific in British Columbia before studying at the University of Glasgow, where she graduated with a First Class MA in Economic and Modern History. She later gained a postgraduate MA in Industrial Relations from the University of Warwick, and an MBA from INSEAD. She was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Strathclyde in 2007.
Early career
After her MBA, Alexander worked for Booz & Co., an international management consultancy, undertaking assignments in Europe, Asia, North America and Australasia.Adviser to Donald Dewar
Following Labour's landslide victory at the 1997 general election, Alexander was appointed Special Adviser to Donald Dewar when he became Secretary of State for Scotland. She was deeply involved in the preparation of the White Paper on devolution, the Scotland Act 1998 and preparations for the establishment of the Scottish Parliament, all matters she had published on during the 1990s.Member of Scottish Parliament
Wendy Alexander served as a Member of the Scottish Parliament from its creation in 1999 until 2011.Ministerial career
From 1999 to 2002 Wendy Alexander was a Scottish Government minister, first serving as Minister for Communities, then as Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning, and subsequently as Minister for Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning.As Communities Minister she launched the free central heating installation programme for all pensioners without a system. She oversaw the creation of the first social justice report, "A Scotland where everyone matters – our vision for Social Justice", setting ambitious new targets for delivering social justice and defeating child poverty in Scotland, and an Annual Scottish Social Justice Report to measure progress towards those targets.
She set up the Homelessness Task Force, which led to radical homelessness legislation and she championed the community ownership of housing by tenants including the removal of £1.6bn of Glasgow debt. The tenants subsequently voted in a referendum 2:1 in favour of transfer – the largest of its kind in the UK, involving 89,000 homes.
As Communities Minister, Alexander fought hard to bring about the repeal of Section 28 to contribute to social acceptance and greater equality for the LGBT community by removing a ban on the promotion of homosexuality by local authorities. in the face of a sustained campaign by Stagecoach millionaire and later SNP donor Brian Souter to keep the legislation. In the end the repeal, contained in the ethical Standards in Public Life Bill was passed by 99 votes to 17. During the final debate, Alexander said, "Repeal is not, and never has been, about the promotion of homosexuality in our schools. It is not about political correctness or, even less, about marriage. It is about building a tolerant Scotland. We know that teachers are confused about the meaning of section 2A, we know that bullying exists in our schools and elsewhere, and we know that children's organisations overwhelmingly back repeal."
Alexander oversaw the Scottish Executive's response to the recommendations of the McIntosh Commission into the future of local government in Scotland, introducing a package of measures for local government including giving local authorities the lead role in developing Community Planning, creating a formal Power of Community Initiative and establishing the Renewing Local Democracy Working Party on electoral systems. Building on the work of the Best Value Taskforce, she also announced plans for a statutory duty to secure Best Value in local government services.
She also published the first Equality Statement to Parliament, established the Executive's Equalities Unit, announced the first Scottish-wide fund to tackle violence against women – the Domestic Abuse Service Development Fund – and the first national loan fund, administered by a new organisation – Social Investment Scotland – to invest in emerging social enterprises and "make it easier for the voluntary sector to emerge as an effective third force, alongside the traditional public and private sectors".
As Enterprise Minister Alexander launched Smart, Successful Scotland, a widely welcomed new economic strategy for Scotland supporting high-skill, high-value investment such as that by Rolls-Royce. She launched Scotland's first ever Science strategy and developed a better pipeline to get ideas out of labs and into businesses, including the Proof of Concept Fund and the Scottish Co-Investment Fund to stimulate private venture capital investment in emerging businesses. She also championed the first broadband strategy for Scotland and took action to tackle the 'digital divide'.
Alexander promoted a "learning, earning" nation including the doubling of the number of Modern Apprenticeships, jointly leading the Clyde Shipyards Taskforce to help modernise shipbuilding on the Clyde through investment in skills, and in the face of the global downturn in electronics hitting companies such as Motorola launched what became the PACE initiative to help those made redundant find work quickly.
As Minister with responsibility for skills and lifelong learning she promoted higher education enterprise links and championed research, modernising management and widening access to universities by those previously excluded. She also extended Educational Maintenance Allowances to support pupils from low income families to complete their schooling.
Alexander launched a new international economic strategy for Scotland called Global Connections realigning Scotland's international economic effort with the Smart Successful Scotland strategy, bringing together Scotland's previously separate inward investment and export agencies into one organisation, Scotland Development International and created the Globalscot network to develop and expand Scotland's standing in the global business community.
Alexander resigned from ministerial office on 4 May 2002. Following her resignation from Jack McConnell's Cabinet she became a visiting professor at the Strathclyde Business School and became a member, and subsequently Chair of the Scottish Parliament's Finance Committee. She inspired and led the Allander Series of seminars which had the aim of encouraging fresh thinking on Scotland's economic future. The seminars brought William Baumol, Ed Glaeser and Nobel laureates James Heckman and Paul Krugman from across the spectrum of political economy to Scotland to reflect on issues such as the returns to early intervention, supporting innovation and cities as future growth engines.
She also authored Chasing the Tartan Tiger: Lessons from a Celtic Cousin?, co-edited New Wealth for Old Nations: Scotland's Economic Prospects, edited an anthology of essays on the life of the late First Minister, Donald Dewar: Scotland's first First Minister and wrote a non-political column for young mums in the Daily Record.
Leader of the Labour Party in Scotland
Election
Following the Scottish Parliament elections in May 2007, Alexander became Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth. Following Jack McConnell's resignation in August 2007, she announced her candidacy for Leader of the Labour Party in Scotland. Alexander laid out her vision to "Renew the party organisation, reform the policies, and reconnect the Labour Party in Scotland with its electorate". Other contenders ruled themselves out and she was elected unopposed by Labour MSPs on 14 September 2007.As the leader of the Labour Party in Scotland, Alexander believed that "the people of Scotland told us loud and clear they wanted change. They didn't whisper – they shouted it. So change we must!" She argued that Labour must offer radical change to regain the trust of voters, a vision spelt out in Scottish Labour New Directions: Change is what we do, a publication outlining her views on the future policy direction for the Labour Party in Scotland. Addressing Labour's Scottish Conference as Leader she spoke of the need for Labour to be the progressive party of Scotland. Alexander argued: "'Scotland' is not a political philosophy. 'Scotland' can just as easily be Adam Smith as it can be John Smith. The world over, politics comes down to a choice: right versus left, conservatives versus progressives, nationalists versus internationalists".
Organisationally, she called for a new approach to candidate selection, including primary systems to give all Labour supporters a chance to be involved in choosing their local member. Policy initiatives included establishing a Literacy Commission with Rhona Brankin to investigate child literacy standards in Scottish schools, supporting investment in the early years, including nursery places for all vulnerable 2-year-olds, more one-on-one tuition in schools, personalised care plans for those with chronic conditions and legislation providing for a modern apprenticeship for every qualified school leaver who sought one.