Derek Conway was born in 1953 in Newcastle upon Tyne.  In 1980 he married Colette and they have two sons and a daughter.
 
He was elected the Member of Parliament for Old Bexley & Sidcup in 2001 and re-elected in 2005.  Before that he represented Shrewsbury & Atcham in the Parliaments of 1983, 1987, 1992 losing that seat at the 1997 General Election.

In government he served as Vice-Chamberlain of Her Majesty's Household and Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury. As a Government Whip and Assistant Whip he served in No10 Downing Street, the Foreign Office, HM Treasury, the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.  He was Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Department of Employment and before that at the Welsh Office.

He was appointed Her Majesty's Paving Commissioner for London.

Before his election to Parliament he was Leader of forty-four Conservative councillors on Tyne & Wear Metropolitan County Council prior to which he was Deputy-Leader of the Conservative group on Gateshead Borough Council.
 
The Secretary of State for Environment appointed him to the board of Washington Deverlopment Corporation.
 
He served on the boards of the North of England Development Council, Newcastle International Airport, the Tyneside Cinema and the Tyne Tunnel
 
He was Chief Executive of the Cats Protection League, the UK's largest feline animal welfare charity with 300 employees and a £27m annual budget and a non-Executive Director of the Foreign & Colonial investment fund.
 
Commissioned from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst he served with the 6th (v) Battalion Royal Regiment of Fusiliers and the 5th (v) Battalion The Light Infantry, attaining the rank of Major and commanding HQ Company. He was awarded the Territorial Decoration by Her Majesty The Queen.