Stephen Kerr is a Member of the Scottish Parliament for Central Scotland. He was the Chief Whip of the Scottish Conservatives at Holyrood from 2021-22 and the convenor of the Education, Children and Young People Committee of the Scottish Parliament from 2022-23. He was also the Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills from 2022-23.
Stephen was elected Member of Parliament for Stirling from 2017-19 and served as a member of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee.
Born in Dundee in 1960, Stephen was brought up in Forfar, Angus, where his father, Charles Kerr, was a butcher and his mother, Sheila Harman Kerr, was a shop assistant. Leaving school at age 16, Stephen worked for The Royal Bank of Scotland as junior bank officer.
Stephen graduated from the University of Stirling in 1986 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Studies. He joined Kimberly-Clark in 1986 and held a succession of sales leadership roles over the following 11 years. In 1997, Kerr left Kimberly-Clark to become a director of Alexander Ross Holdings. In 2006 he re-joined Kimberly-Clark in a senior executive role and in 2010 was appointed General Manager of Kimberly-Clark Professional in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Benelux, and Nordic. In 2015, he was also made General Manager of Kimberly-Clark Professional in France. In 2016, he was appointed the Director of Sales Operations for Kimberly-Clark Professional, Europe Middle East and Africa, leaving Kimberly-Clark in 2017 when he was elected as Member of Parliament for Stirling.
Stephen married Yvonne Mairi Hood in 1983 and they are the parents of four children and the grandparents of ten grandchildren.