Wendy Alexander

Wendy Cowan Alexander, Baroness Alexander of Cleveden (born 27 June 1963) is a Scottish politician Life Peer and the former Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) 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 (International) 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.

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 (Hons) 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.

After her MBA, Alexander worked for Booz & Co., an international management consultancy, undertaking assignments in Europe, Asia, North America and Australasia.

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.