Matt Smith is the Scottish Secretary of UNISON. He was appointed to this post in 1993 and prior to this appointment headed NALGO in Scotland. He is a member of UNISON’s UK Senior Management Group.

He is Treasurer and a member of the STUC’s General Council and served as STUC President in 1999/2000. In 2004 he was awarded the OBE in recognition of his contribution to trade unionism.

Matt is a member of the Employment Appeals Tribunal; a lay member of the Royal College of Physicians (Edinburgh); and an Executive Member and Honorary Fellow of the Scottish Council for Development and Industry. He sits as a Justice of the Peace in North Ayrshire and was recently appointed to the Justices of the Peace Advisory Committee for North Strathclyde. Until recently he was a member of the Ayrshire Economic Forum.

Over the years Matt has served on a number of organisations. He was a member and Vice Chair of the Broadcasting Council for Scotland. He served two terms on the Committee on Church and Nation of the Church of Scotland, and currently serves on the Scottish Churches Industrial Mission. He served on the Boards of both the Scottish Local Government Information Unit and the Centre for Scottish Public Policy. He was a member of the Scottish Advisory Committee of the Equal Opportunities Commission.

Matt was very much involved in the campaign to establish a Scottish Parliament, serving on a range of bodies in that connection. As a member of the (McIntosh) Commission on Local Government and a Scottish Parliament, he was keen to promote the wider agenda on the impact of devolution.

He served as an elected Councillor and Dean of Guild in the former Stevenston Town Council and was a Parliamentary Candidate in 1979.