Ambassador Dato' Noor Adlan was born on 28 December 1939 in Perak, Malaysia. His professional career is as follows:

• 1963–1965: Assistant Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Malaysia
• 1965–1967: Second Secretary, Embassy of Malaysia, Addis Ababa
• 1967–1971: First Secretary and then Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Malaysia to the United Nations in New York
• 1971–1973: Principal Assistant Secretary (Political) and then Under-Secretary (Administration and Finance), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Malaysia
• 1974–1976: Deputy High Commissioner High Commission of Malaysia, Australia
• 1976: Deputy Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of Malaysia to the United Nations, Geneva
• 1976–1979: Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of Malaysia to the United Nations, Geneva
• 1979–1982: Ambassador of Malaysia to the Republic of Korea
• 1982–1983: Ambassador of Malaysia to Saudi Arabia and concurrently accredited to the Kingdom of Jordan
• 1983–1986: Deputy Secretary-General for Economic Affairs Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Malaysia
• 1986–1990: Ambassador of Malaysia to the European Economic Community, Belgium and concurrently accredited to Luxembourg
• 1990 – July 1995: Ambassador of Malaysia to the People's Republic of China and concurrently accredited to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
• 30 August 1995 – 1997: Ambassador of Malaysia to the Republic of the Philippines

He attended several international conferences and meetings including

UN Negotiations on International Commodity Agreements, 1976

Ministerial Meeting of Economic Cooperation amongst Developing Countries, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) V at Manila, 1979

1985 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting at Nassau and the ASEAN/EEC Foreign Ministers Meeting in Jakarta in 1986 and Dusseldorf in 1988

Head of Malaysia's delegation to the negotiations on the Common Fund on Commodities and the 1988 Non-Aligned Ministerial Meeting on Economic Cooperation in Harare