Stuart Donald was born in Aberdeen in 1971 and moved to Perth a year later when his Father got a job as a Geography teacher.
As the fortunes of Aberdeen FC waned in the late eighties, He left Perth High School to pursue an HND in business studies with languages in Dundee. Throughout the 1990s He worked regularly in Italy and France. He then attended Strathclyde University where a degree International Business led to a job working for General Electric based between London and Paris.
He returned to Scotland in 2005, where he now lives with his wife Catriona and daughter Elodie.