Master, Pembroke College, Cambridge

Lord Smith of Finsbury is the Master of Pembroke College Cambridge, a post he took up in October 2015. He was Labour MP for Islington South and Finsbury between 1983 and 2005. During that time he served as Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment, Shadow Secretary of State for National Heritage, Shadow Secretary of State for Social Security, Shadow Secretary of State for Health, and between 1997 and 2001 Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.

Upon retiring from the House of Commons in 2005 he was made a life peer and admitted to the House of Lords, where he sits as a non-affiliated member. Before taking up his current post he served as Chairman of the Environment Agency from 2008-2014, and since 2007 he has served as Chairman of the Advertising Standards Authority. He is currently also the Chairman of the Task Force on Shale Gas.

Lord Smith obtained a First Class degree in English from Pembroke College as an undergraduate, and he stayed on there to do his PhD on Romantic poetry. During his time at Cambridge he served as President of the Union Society. He then spent a year at Harvard as a Kennedy Scholar.

He is interested in culture and the arts, the environment, international affairs, rural affairs, and politics and government.