Robert Gordon has been Leader of Hertfordshire County Council since 2007. He was elected Chairman of the Conservative Councillors’ Association in February 2011; Chairman of the County Councils Network in September 2010 and Chairman of the East of England Local Government Association in April 2010, having previously chaired the East of England Strategic Leaders. He is also an elected member of the Local Government Association Conservative Group Executive.
Robert was first elected as a Borough Councillor in 1982 and was elected to the County Council in 1989, holding successively the portfolios of Education, Children's Services and Resources & Performance before becoming Leader.
He has served as party spokesman for Education on the Association of County Councils and Council of Local Education Authorities (CLEA) and as Chairman of the National Employers Organisation for School Teachers (NEOST) and remains a member of the General Teaching Council for England.
He has served (two separate terms) as Association Chairman, and as voluntary election agent in local, parliamentary and European elections. He was parliamentary candidate for Torfaen (1987) and Watford (1997) and was Euro-candidate for the Eastern Region in 1999.
Robert was the first chairman of the Hertfordshire Police Authority (of which he is now Chairman of Audit) and has served as an NHS non-executive director.
His higher education was at the University of Sussex, the College of Law and City University. He was formerly a solicitor in private practice; sometime Director of the Society of Genealogists; currently Clerk to the Watford Grammar Schools Foundation; a Governor of the University of Hertfordshire and a Deputy Lieutenant of Hertfordshire.