Ian Duncan, Baron Duncan of Springbank

Duncan was born in 1973 and raised in Alyth, Perthshire, where he attended Alyth High School. He achieved a degree in geology from the University of St Andrews, before earning a PhD degree in paleontology from the University of Bristol.[2]

During the late 1990s, Duncan served as a policy analyst for BP's political affairs team where he worked on the company's strategy for emerging economic prospects in post-communist eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.[3]

In 1999 Duncan became the Deputy Chief Executive, and Secretary for the Scottish Fishermen's Federation, where he developed policy and worked closely with the European Union, namely lobbying for the development of a regional management model which was later adopted by the European Commission.

From 2004-2005 he acted as the Head of Policy & Communication for the Scottish Refugee Council, a charity which offers advice to those taking asylum within Scotland.[4]

Duncan served as Head of the EU Office for the Scottish Parliament in Brussels from 2005 and 2011. Thereafter he was appointed Clerk to the Parliament's European Committee and EU Advisor to the Parliament. He resigned from his position in 2013 to pursue candidacy for the upcoming European elections with the Scottish Conservatives, following Struan Stevenson's announcement that he would not seek re-election.

Outside politics Duncan maintains a keen interest in public speaking. He is the Honorary President of English Speaking Union Scotland, previously serving as Chairman (2014–2017) and Speech & Debates Officer.[17]. Duncan is a former ESU US Debating Scholar (1995). He retains links to academia, acting as an advisor to St Andrews University's Institute of Legal and Constitutional Research. Duncan is a Fellow of the Geological Society.[18]

In 2014 Duncan was appointed to the board of advisers of the Schwarzenegger Institute at the University of Southern California, established by former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.[19]

He is a patron of LGBT+ Conservatives[20] and is openly gay.