ROBERT Smith was born in 1944, grew up in Maryhill and attended the all-boys Allan Glen's School.

He left the secondary in 1963 and attended Glasgow University but failed his first year English exams.

The young man turned to a career in accountancy and qualified as a chartered accountant.

He went on to become chief executive officer of a number of companies and for more than a decade was chairman of global engineering company the Weir Group until stepping down in 2013.

The businessman has held numerous directorships including at MFI Furniture Group, Stakis, the Bank of Scotland and Network Rail. He was also appointed chairman of energy giant SSE.

In 1999, Lord Smith was knighted and in 2008 was given a peerage becoming an independent cross-bencher in the House of Lords.

He has been chairman of National Museums Scotland, a former BBC governor, head of the Broadcasting Council for Scotland and chairman of the BBC's Children in need.

In 2003, he was invested as chancellor of Paisley University, which became the University of the West of Scotland and was installed as chancellor of Strathclyde University in 2013.

But it was in his high profile role as chairman of the Glasgow 2014 Organising Committee of the Commonwealth Games that he hit the headlines. The Games went on to be described as the most successful ever held.

In September 2014, Prime Minister David Cameron announced Lord Smith had agreed to oversee the process to take forward the devolution commitments on further powers for the Scottish Parliament.

Two months later, the Smith Commission published its report detailing further suggested devolution of powers to Holyrood.

Lord Smith owns Inchmarnock, a small uninhabited island off the west coast of Scotland where he breeds Highland cattle.