The Lord Stephen | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Official portrait, 2003 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Deputy First Minister of Scotland | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 27 June 2005 – 17 May 2007 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| First Minister | Jack McConnell | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Jim Wallace | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Nicola Sturgeon | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Leader of Scottish Liberal Democrats | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 23 June 2005 – 2 July 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Deputy | Michael Moore | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leader | Charles Kennedy Menzies Campbell Vince Cable (Acting) Nick Clegg | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| President | Malcolm Bruce | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Jim Wallace | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Tavish Scott[a] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | Nicol Ross Stephen (1960-03-23)23 March 1960 (age 65) Aberdeen, Scotland | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Party | Scottish Liberal Democrats | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | Caris Doig (Lady Stephen) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Children | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | University of Aberdeen,University of Edinburgh | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nicol Ross Stephen, Baron Stephen (born 23 March 1960) is a Scottish politician who served asDeputy First Minister of Scotland andMinister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning from 2005 to 2007. A member of theScottish Liberal Democrats, he was theMember of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) forAberdeen South from 1999 to 2011, and was leader of theScottish Liberal Democrats from 2005 to 2008.
Stephen was elected to theScottish Parliament in1999. Following the coalition agreement between theScottish Liberal Democrats andScottish Labour, he became Deputy Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning. Later in the same parliamentary term he became Deputy Minister for Education, Europe and External Affairs, and then for Education and Young People. Following the2003 Scottish Parliament election, he joined theScottish Executive cabinet asMinister for Transport.
In 2005, following the resignation of his predecessorJim Wallace, Stephen was elected leader of the party and also becamedeputy first minister and Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning. He led his party into the2007 election, where it won 16 seats (down one on2003). He resigned as party leader on 2 July 2008, triggering aleadership election. In 2011 he joined theHouse of Lords. He became a patron of The Aberdeen Law Project in 2011.
Born inAberdeen,[1] he was educated atRobert Gordon's College inAberdeen and at theUniversity of Aberdeen, where he obtained anLLB in 1980. He then took hisDiploma in Legal Practice at theUniversity of Edinburgh School of Law and worked for a number of years as a solicitor before moving intocorporate finance as a senior manager withDeloitte & Touche.
He was a former Chair ofCREATE (a group campaigning forrail electrification between Aberdeen and Edinburgh); a chairperson of STAR (SaveTor-na-Dee Hospital andRoxburghe House); and the founder and director ofGrampian Enterprise.
He is married with 4 children.[2]
He was elected toGrampian 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 aMember of Parliament for theKincardine and Deeside constituency, elected in theNovember 1991 by-election following the death ofConservative and UnionistAlick 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 Unionist party at the1992 general election, when it was won byGeorge Kynoch.
He later stood for theAberdeen South constituency in the1997 election for Aberdeen South, but was defeated by theScottish Labour candidate.[3]
Nicol Stephen was elected as MSP forAberdeen South in thefirst elections to the Scottish Parliament. He later helped negotiate thePartnership Agreement for the coalition government with the Labour Party.[4]
He later served in theScottish 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 to 2003).
Following the2003 election, he was appointed Minister for Transport. During his time in this post, he was responsible for approving the controversialM74 extension.[7]
Following the resignation ofJim Wallace in May 2005 as leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, Nicol 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 party leader on 23 June 2005. Four days later on 27 June 2005, he was appointedDeputy First Minister of Scotland.[9] Following his leadership victory, a mini-reshuffle of theScottish Cabinet, saw him take on the role ofMinister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning.[10]
Following the2007 general election, theSNP emerged as the largest party by one seat but short of an overall majority, they held discussions with theScottish Green Party and also intimated that it would be open to discussions with the Liberal Democrats. However, since the Liberal Democrats had indicated that they would not enter discussions with parties which continued to favour areferendum on independence, no formal talks were held. The SNP became aminority administration and officially entered government on 17 May 2007; Nicol Stephen ceased to be Deputy First Minister and began led his party to the opposition benches.
Despite being out of government, his party worked with the SNP Government on certain issues where they broadly agreed, including replacing theCouncil Tax with alocal income tax to fund a proportion oflocal government revenue. He developed a reputation among some journalists as an effective and forceful critic of some aspects of theScottish Government's policy and performance, especially atFirst Minister's Question Time.[11]
Along withWendy Alexander andAnnabel Goldie, he took his party into theCommission on Scottish Devolution chaired bySir Kenneth Calman, but was opposed to any suggestion that this would result in powers of the Parliament being returned to Westminster.[12]
On 2 July 2008, Nicol Stephen announced he was stepping down as party leader with immediate effect because of the pressures of leading a political party while having a young family based inAberdeen, some distance from Parliament inEdinburgh. Nicol Stephen's resignation took many inScottish politics by surprise, and came only four days after the resignation of the former leader of Labour in the Scottish Parliament,Wendy Alexander. He was succeeded byTavish Scott.[13]
On 24 September 2010, Nicol Stephen announced he would not be standing again at theScottish elections in May 2011.
On 2 February 2011, he was created alife peer asBaron Stephen, ofLower Deeside in theCity of Aberdeen,[14] and wasintroduced in theHouse of Lords on 7 February 2011,[15] where he sits on the Liberal Democrat benches. He said he would use his new position to help reform the House of Lords.[16]
Following his resignation as leader of theScottish Liberal Democrats, Nicol Stephen co-founded Scottish renewable energy company Renewable Energy Ventures Ltd,[17] and he was responsible for the development of several onshore wind projects.
In 2013, Nicol Stephen started work to develop theKincardine Offshore Windfarm, located 15 km off the coast of Aberdeenshire, which became the world’s largest floating windfarm when completed in 2021.[18] Construction began on the 50 MW windfarm in 2017, and the project started generating power in 2018.[19] He remains a director of Kincardine Offshore Windfarm.[20]
In 2018, Nicol Stephen founded Flotation Energy,[21] building on the previous experience of the team that developed theKincardine Offshore Windfarm and other renewables projects. Flotation Energy currently employs more than 150 staff,[22] developing major offshore projects in the UK, Europe and Asia-Pacific.[23]
In November 2022, Flotation Energy was acquired by TEPCO Renewable Power, part of theTokyo Electric Power Company,[24] with Nicol Stephen remaining at the company as Chief Executive Officer.
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forKincardine and Deeside 1991–1992 | Succeeded by |
| Scottish Parliament | ||
| New constituency | Member of the Scottish Parliament forAberdeen South 1999–2011 | Constituency Abolished |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Deputy First Minister of Scotland 2005–2007 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning 2005–2007 | Office Abolished |
| New office | Minister for Transport 2003–2005 | Succeeded by |
| New office | Deputy Minister for Education and Young People 2001–2003 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Deputy Minister for Education, Europe and External Affairs 2000–2001 | Office Abolished |
| New office | Deputy Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning 1999–2000 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats 2005–2008 | Succeeded by |
| Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by | Gentlemen Baron Stephen | Followed by |
