Robert Gordon became Head of the Justice Department and Legal and Parliamentary Services in the Scottish Executive on 6 December 2004.

He was educated at the Gordon Schools in Huntly and at Aberdeen University where he read Italian. He joined The Scottish Office in 1973.

Early in his career he had a number of administrative postings in the Education, Industry and Development Departments. He was Principal Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Scotland (George Younger and Malcolm Rifkind) in the mid-eighties. He then worked in the Agriculture and Fisheries Department and various central management and change and service delivery posts until May 1997. Then he took charge of the Constitution Group set up to deliver the new Labour Government’s proposals for a Scottish Parliament. He was promoted in December 1998 to the then new post of Head of the Executive Secretariat which supported the members of the Scottish Executive in their collective responsibilities. In 2001 the Executive Secretariat was expanded to become the Finance and Central Services Department and Mr Gordon headed that until March 2002 when he became Chief Executive of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and Head of Legal and Parliamentary Services in the Scottish Executive.

Mr Gordon is married with four – mostly grown up – children and lives in Edinburgh.

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