Wilf Stevenson, Baron Stevenson of Balmacara

Robert Wilfrid "Wilf" Stevenson, Baron Stevenson of Balmacara (born 19 April 1947) is a Labour Party life peer and former adviser to Gordon Brown.

Early life
Stevenson is the son of James Alexander Stevenson and Elizabeth Anne Stevenson (née Macrae). He was born with hypospadias, which he talked about in a parliamentary debate in 2018.

Education
Stevenson was educated at Edinburgh Academy, at the time an independent boarding school for boys (now a co-educational day school). He then went on to study at University College, Oxford, obtaining an MA in Chemistry, and later at Napier Polytechnic (now Edinburgh Napier University), where he received an accountancy diploma (ACCA).

Career
Stevenson began his career as a Research Officer at the Edinburgh University Students' Association (1970–74). He then spent thirteen years as a secretary at Napier College of Commerce and Technology in Edinburgh, before becoming Deputy Director (1987–88) and then Director (1988–97) of the British Film Institute. From 1997 to 2008 he was the Director of the Smith Institute, a social-democratic think-tank named in honour of former Labour Party leader John Smith. After leaving government in 2010 he became the Chairman of the Foundation for Credit Counselling, remaining in that role until his retirement in 2015.

Stevenson was a Governor of Prestwood Lodge School from 2008 to 2010. In 2008 he was awarded a Hon. DArts from Napier University.

Political career
Stevenson is a long-term friend and confidant of the former Prime Minister Gordon Brown; the two first met when Brown was an undergraduate student in the early 1970s. From 2008 to 2010, he was a Senior Policy Adviser at the Prime Minister's Office.

Stevenson was created a Life Peer on 13 July 2010, taking the title Baron Stevenson of Balmacara, of Little Missenden in the County of Buckinghamshire. He has served as an Opposition Whip since 2011.

Family
In 1972, he married Jennifer Grace Antonio, whom he later divorced in 1979. In 1991, he married Ann Minogue; they have one son, Tobin, and two daughters, Iona and Flora.