Sir Robert Scott divides his time between London and the North West. In London, he is Chairman of the Government-sponsored Greenwich Peninsula Partnership, South London Business, Greenwich Theatre, the Bexley Heritage Trust and the newly formed Music and Dance Conservatoire, Trinity Laban.

In June 2003, Sir Robert led Liverpool’s successful Bid to become the European Capital of Culture in 2008, and is now the International Ambassador of the Liverpool Culture Company. In Manchester he is Chairman of the Granada Foundation.

He spent 27 years in Manchester working in the Arts and then in Sport before moving to London in 1995 to lead Greenwich’s bid to host the national Millennium celebrations.

He arrived in Manchester in 1968 via an Arts Council bursary, to be the first Administrator of the 69 Theatre Company. As the Administrator of the Royal Exchange Theatre Trust he was deeply involved in the creation and first years of that Theatre, which opened in 1976. As Managing Director of Manchester Theatres Limited he led the revival of the two major Theatres in the City – the Palace (1981) and Opera House (1984).

He was the Chairman of the Manchester Olympic Bid Committee, formed in 1985, the body which campaigned to host the Olympic Games in the years 1996 and 2000. He was also Chairman of the Committee, which, in November 1995, won the bid to host the Commonwealth Games of 2002 – the Golden Jubilee Games.

He was the founder and first Chairman of Cornerhouse, Manchester’s film and visual arts centre. He has been a Governor of the Royal Northern College of Music, a Director of the Buxton Festival, the Halle Orchestra and the Whitworth Art Gallery. He was a Board Member of the Central Manchester Development Corporation through its life, from 1988 – 1996.

He has received Honorary Degrees from Manchester University in 1988 and from Salford University in 1991. He was made an Honorary Fellow of Manchester Polytechnic (1987), UMIST (1988), the Royal Northern College of Music (1990), an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Greenwich (2003) and an Honorary Fellowship by Liverpool John Moores University (2003). He was made a Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Greater Manchester in 1990.

Among several awards he has received he is the only person to have been made “Mancunian of the Year” twice – in 1981 and 1993. Surprisingly for a man identified with Manchester,, he was named “Scouser of the Year” in 2003. He won the individual ETB England for Excellence Award for Tourism in 1993 and was named BAIE Communicator of the Year in 1994. He was appointed an ‘Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres2 by the French Government in 1991.
He was knighted in the 1994 New Year’s Honours List.

He was born in Minehead, Somerset and educated at Haileybury and Merton College, Oxford, where he was President of the Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS). He is the son of a former British Ambassador, Sir David Scott.