Ewan Kerr

Ewan Robert Kerr  (born 28 April 1956) is a British Conservative politician, businessman and economist who is currently serving as the Secretary of State for Business, Industry, Education and Employment in the cabinet of Roland Julian Fairclough. He has been Member of Parliament for Dumfriesshire since 1997.



Kerr studied economics and philosophy at university and began working as an assistant economist after graduation at the Royal Bank of Scotland in 1977. In 1990, He started his own financial consultancy company in 1990, called Kerr Financial Consultancy which steadily grew into a medium sized firm with Kerr at the helm. In 1994, RBS's local rival, the Bank of Scotland approached Kerr to offer him work as a management advisor, which he duly accepted. He remained Chief Executive of Kerr Financial Consultancy throughout his time with the Bank of Scotland. From his university days Kerr was a member of the Conservative Party and a keen supporter, often assisting his local candidate in election campaigns. In 1995, he donated the sum of £250,000 to the Conservative Party's treasury and he won selection to stand as the Conservative candidate in Dumfriesshire at the 1997 uk general election.

Winning Dumfries by a sizeable majority, Kerr began to wind down his responsibility as Chief Executive in favour of his parliamentary duties. After two years of work focused on local issues, Teresa Edison, then leader of the Conservative Party apporached Kerr about a place in the Shadow Cabinet. He accepted and briefly served as Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Industry from early 1999 to the second election of that year. From there, Kerr took a break before returning to government in the cabinet of Roland Julian Fairclough. Kerr resigned as Chief Executive of Kerr Financial Consultancy in January 2000.