William Douglas Cullen was educated at the High School of Dundee and the universities of St Andrews and Edinburgh.

[1] From 1984 to 1986 Cullen served as Chairperson of the influential Edinburgh conservationist group the Cockburn Association.

[5] In March 2002, Lord Cullen led the 5-judge tribunal at the Scottish Court in the Netherlands which heard the failed appeal of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi against his conviction for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.

On 25 June 2005, he was elected president of the Saltire Society, replacing The Right Honourable The Lord Sutherland of Houndwood, K.T.

[12] On 4 September 2009 he was also formally installed as chancellor of Abertay University in Dundee, a position he held for a decade.