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Catherine Stihler
OBE FRSE
Catherine Stihler OBE FRSE
	Stihler in 2014
Member of the European Parliament; for Scotland
	In office; 10 June 1999 – 31 January 2019
Preceded by	Constituency established
Succeeded by	Louis Stedman-Bryce
Personal details
Born	30 July 1973 (age 51); Bellshill, North Lanarkshire, Scotland, UK
Nationality	British
Political party	Labour
Spouse	David
Alma mater	University of St Andrews
Profession	CEO of Creative Commons (2020-2024)

Catherine Dalling Taylor Stihler OBE FRSE (née Taylor; born 30 July 1973) is a Scottish former politician who was chief executive officer (CEO) of Creative Commons from 2020 to 2023. A member of the Scottish Labour Party, she was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Scotland from 1999 to 2019.

After leaving the European Parliament, she first served as CEO of non-profit organisation Open Knowledge Foundation and from August 2020 to January 2024 as the CEO of Creative Commons, followed by Anna Tumadóttir.

In October 2014, she was elected as the 52nd rector of the University of St Andrews, the second woman to hold that post.

Early and personal life

Stihler was educated at Coltness High School, later going on to the University of St Andrews where she gained an MA with joint honours in International Relations and Geography and a postgraduate MLitt in International Security Studies. In 2018 she received an honorary Doctorate (D. Litt) from the University of St. Andrews.

Stihler was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2019 Birthday Honours.^[1]

In 2022, she was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.^[2]

Political career

Whilst a student at St Andrews, she was elected president of the Students' Association, serving from 1994–95. She also served on the Scottish Executive Committee of the Labour Party from 1993–95 and was the Young Labour delegate to the National Executive Committee from 1995–97. Whilst a postgraduate student, she stood at the Angus constituency at the 1997 general election. She was not elected however, and finished in third place, behind Sebastian A.A. Leslie of the Conservatives and Andrew Welsh of the Scottish National Party.

Stihler worked for Anne Begg, Member of Parliament for Aberdeen South, as a researcher. She was placed at third on the Labour Party list for Scotland in the 1999 European Parliament election, and therefore took the third Labour Party seat under the d'Hondt electoral system becoming the UK's youngest MEP at the age of 25.^{[citation needed]}

Stihler was re-elected as an MEP for Scotland in 2004 and 2009. She was the unsuccessful Labour candidate in the 2006 Dunfermline and West Fife by-election, coming second with 30.6% of the vote.^[3] She served as the Deputy Leader of the EPLP and held positions as Labour's Euro spokesperson on health and fisheries. Stihler was Labour's Euro-Spokesperson on Consumer Rights and was the only Scottish MEP on the economic and monetary affairs committee.

She supported Owen Smith in the 2016 Labour Party (UK) leadership election.^[4]

She resigned as an MEP on 31 January 2019, to take up a new role. Her seat was left vacant and not filled by the Scottish Labour Party due to the UK's [then] impending exit from The EU on 29 March 2019.

Later career

In November 2018, Stihler was appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer of Open Knowledge Foundation.^[5]^[6] She stood down as an MEP on 31 January 2019 to take up the role in February 2019. On 9 July 2020, Creative Commons announced she would be the new CEO with a starting date of 17 August 2020.^[7]

References

^ "No. 62666". The London Gazette (Supplement). 8 June 2019. p. B14.
^ Thomas, James (22 March 2022). "Academic and artistic minds honoured as RSE Fellows". Royal Society of Edinburgh. Retrieved 15 December 2022.
^ Boothroyd, David. "Results of Byelections in the 2005-2010 Parliament". United Kingdom Election Results. Archived from the original on 27 December 2015. Retrieved 27 July 2023.
^ Smith, Mikey; Bloom, Dan (20 July 2016). "Which MPs are nominating Owen Smith in the Labour leadership contest?". Mirror. Retrieved 10 November 2018.
^ "Catherine Stihler appointed new CEO of Open Knowledge International". Open Knowledge International Blog. 30 November 2018.
^ "Open Knowledge Foundation". okfn.org.
^ "Announcing Creative Commons' New CEO, Catherine Stihler". Creative Commons. 9 July 2020. Retrieved 9 July 2020.

External links

Academic offices
Preceded by Alistair Moffat	Rector of the University of St Andrews 2014—2017	Succeeded by Srđa Popović
Party political offices
Preceded by Claire Ward	Young Labour representative on the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party 1995–1997	Succeeded by Sarah Ward