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Honorary graduates over the years

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Since 1967, the University has honoured more than 300 individuals from many walks of live for their varied contributions to learning, creativity and the acquisition of knowledge, to human welfare and human rights, and to the building and maintaining of a fairer society.

2023

Laya Vasudevan

An advocate for providing legal protection to vulnerable communities, as Director of Delhi-based Centre for Legal Aid and Rights, Laya played a major role in a landmark case which advanced and protected the rights of the transgender community in India. She now works with New Zealand's Ministry of Women.

Dr Sabrina Cohen-Hatton

Chief Fire Office of West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service, Dr Cohen-Hatton has also completed a PhD in behavioural psychology and is an expert on human behaviour and organisational culture. She has won awards for her research work on incident command structure in the emergency services, receiving recognition and influencing policy internationally.

Simon Cox

An award-winning investigative journalist, writer and broadcaster, Simon has reported from more than 40 countries for BBC Radio4, World Service and TV. An Essex graduate, Simon now runs an investigations team focusing on the Middle East and North Africa region. His first book is being developed into a TV drama.

Dr Jalal Bagherli

Dr Bagherli spent 16 years as chief executive of Dialog Semiconductor, a specialist chip company in mixed signal connectivity and power management products for mobile and IOT devices. An Essex graduate, his company has won multiple industry awards. He currently serves as the Chair for Williams Advanced Engineering.

Deborah Coles

Deborah is the respected leader of the influential human rights charity INQUEST, which works on state related deaths, An Essex graduate, she has established a long track record of championing social justice and equality issues and holding the state to account. She has been involved in many landmark inquests and inquiries in the UK.

Dr Jon Hastie

Dr Hastie is a disability rights activist, patient advocate and influencer who founded a user-led organisation supporting adults living with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. His work has attracted significant funding to create a lasting legacy for the Duchenne patient community. Dr Hastie completed his BA, Masters and PhD at Essex.

Professor Steve Long

Professor Long holds the Ikenberry Chair of Crop Sciences and Plant Biology at the University of Illinois and directs a multinational Gates Foundation Project that is increasing photosynthetic efficiency in crops to increases yields. He was the founding plant scientist at Essex and has maintained close links with the University.

2022

Anne Wafula Strike MBE

Paralympian athlete, sporting ambassador, author and disability rights and inclusion campaigner. IN 2020, Anne was appointed as a Commonwealth special envoy as Champion for Equality in Sports with a role to promote the Commonwealth’s values and principles around the world including peace, development and improving equality in sport. 

Charles Clover

A leading environmental journalist, Charles has covered virtually every issue that arises from humanity’s treatment of nature. It was his powerful and revealing book, The End of The Line, and the award-winning documentary film that it inspired, which brought the problems of overfishing and its impact on life in the oceans into public focus. He now leads the Blue Marine Foundation which spearheads efforts to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030. 

Clare Woodman CBE

Head of EMEA and CEO of Morgan Stanley & Co. International Plc, Clare is a member of Morgan Stanley’s global operating and management committees and also chair of Morgan Stanley Europe SE. She is one of the most senior women in international banking in the UK. She completed a BA in Government at the University of Essex. In 2020, Clare was awarded a CBE for services to finance.

David Yip

David Yip is probably the best known and successful Chinese heritage actor in the UK – having played the role of a popular TV detective, appeared in Doctor Who and taken on various roles in Hollywood blockbusters. The East 15 Acting School graduate is also a celebrated writer and director, who is continuing to create personal and inspiring work. 

Jane Gurney

Jane Gurney is the award-winning chief executive of the Essex & Herts Air Ambulance Trust, the local life-saving charity that is of huge importance to communities across Essex. Jane leads a team of 140 staff, from critical care paramedics to charity shop managers, with the Trust supported by more than 400 dedicated volunteers.   

Judith Judd

Judith Judd was Chair of our University Council, following nine years as a member of our executive governing body, only stepping down in 2019. She was a highly-respected education journalist working at The Observer, The Independent and the Times Higher Education, where she was editor and then editor-at-large.  

Lucy Scott-Moncrieff CBE

A mental health and human rights lawyer, Lucy Scott-Moncrieff CBE has made an outstanding contribution to improving access to justice for everyone, the wider legal profession and public services. She has spent the majority of her working life representing the most vulnerable in society, including those detained under the Mental Health Act. 

Nigel Roberts FBCS

A computer scientist who has made a valuable contribution to the development of the Internet over three decades, Nigel Roberts, has undertaken leading roles within the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). ICANN aims to ensure the Internet remains stable and secure. Nigel graduated from Essex in 1980 with a degree in computer science.

Professor Paul Hardaker

Widely acknowledged as one of the country’s leading commentators on climate change, Professor Paul Hardaker recently retired from his role as Chief Executive of the Institute of Physics after ten years. He completed his BSc in Mathematics and Computing, and his PhD in Mathematics at Essex. Professor Hardaker was previously the Chief Executive of the Royal Meteorological Society. 

Philip Long OBE

Chief Executive of the National Trust for Scotland and founding Director of the ground-breaking V&A Dundee, Philip Long is a proud supporter and advocate for museums, arts and culture across Scotland. He graduated from Essex in 1989 with a Masters in Gallery Studies. 

2019

Juliana Lim

Juliana Lim is a trailblazing arts manager who has helped to shape the Singapore arts scene. Throughout her career, she has enabled great things to happen – demonstrating the Essex spirit: the drive Albert Sloman described in the 1963 Reith Lectures as being “freer, more daring, more experimental.” In arts policy and arts management positions in the 1980s and 1990s, she spearheaded important initiatives such as the creation of artist assistance schemes including annual grants, theatre residency scheme and the arts housing scheme: bringing disused buildings back to life as valuable, vibrant spaces as performing arts centres. Her work in setting up arts housing programs arguably pre-figured, and definitely pre-dated, the rise of creative and cultural industries policy that would be developed in the UK in the late 1990s, as well as Singapore’s Renaissance City Plan from the early 2000s. Juliana also played a role in the development of The Esplanade Theatres. Beyond music and performing arts, Juliana also hatched the ideas of the Singapore Heritage Week and the Heritage Trail – an important development that literally put historically important buildings like St Joseph’s Institution (housing the Singapore Art Museum) and the Tao Nan School building (now The Peranakan Museum) on the map, giving them a new lease of life. Throughout her life, Juliana has shown an unswerving commitment to opening up spaces for creativity and imaginative, pushing barriers to make a difference, and enrich the community she lives in.

Harry Murray, MBE

Harry Murray is a former Catey Hotelier of the Year, and one of the leading figures in the creation of Edge Hotel School, which offers industry-led hospitality and event management degrees, based in Wivenhoe House Hotel, on the University’s Colchester Campus. A lifelong mentor and ambassador for the hotel industry, Harry is a life patron of Springboard, the charity that helps young people achieve their potential, and nurtures unemployed people of any age back into work. He is also patron of Hospitality Action, supporting people who have worked in the UK’s hospitality industry through challenging times. Harry, a master Innholder and past chairman of the Master Innholders’ livery company Chairman, received an MBE for services to the hospitality industry in 2006 and a Catey Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008.

Bruce Galleway

Bruce Galleway is an inspirational figure who has turned around his own experience of having a stroke and aphasia, aged 32, to help and support other people with similar physical and communication difficulties. Bruce works with academics at the University of Essex to develop teaching programmes in the School of Health and Social Care, and he helps students by helping them develop the expert communication skills they will need to become successful health and care practitioners. After his stroke, Bruce made personal progress through support from the charity Headway Essex, became a volunteer for the group, and in 2011 was recognised as the National Headway Volunteer of the Year.

Tony Sewell, CBE

Tony Sewell is Director of the London-based charity Generating Genius, which motivates and supports 14-to-18-year-olds to study science, technology, engineering and maths subjects at school. This is with a particular focus on black and minority ethnic boys, generally from lower-income households, who would be the first in their family to go to university. A former teacher and university lecturer, Tony was an international education consultant for the World Bank and the Commonwealth Secretariat, as well as a member of the Youth Justice Board, he makes frequent media appearances. Tony was awarded a CBE for his services to education in 2016.

Betty Makoni

Muzvare Hazviperi Betty Makoni is a gender activist from Zimbabwe who in 1999 at the age of 28 founded the Girl Child Network, an organisation that supports young victims of sex abuse. Under Betty’s leadership the charity built four refuges to provide a physical, safe space for shelter and healing, and has since supported more than 35,000 girls, by finding them places of safety. Girl Child Network has also provided mentoring to at least 60,000 girls and young women. Forced into exile from Zimbabwe, Betty has continued her work in the UK with the Girls Empowerment Initiative UK, where she continues to inspire and support thousands of young women helping Sierra Leone, Uganda, Ghana, South Africa and Swaziland to establish girls’ networks.

Max Whitlock, MBE

Max Whitlock is Great Britain’s most successful gymnast, holding 19 major medals and is the double Olympic, World and Triple European Champion. Max became a double Olympic champion on pommel and floor at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, as well as claiming the all-around bronze. His many other successes include being a four-time Commonwealth champion and holding an impressive ten Commonwealth Games medals. Driven by his passion for gymnastics, Max has set-up a network of regional Max Whitlock Gymnastics centres that provide quality, fun classes for children across the country, including one based at the University of Essex. In 2017 Max was awarded an MBE for services to gymnastics.

Phil O’Donovan

Phil O'Donovan was co-founder of Cambridge Silicon Radio Ltd, a Bluetooth technology start-up company, which from 1999 grew to become, as CSR plc, a highly successful FTSE 250 semiconductor company listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2004. Employing more than 2,000 people, across 23 global locations, CSR was acquired in 2015 by US tech giant Qualcomm for $2.5 billion. Today, Phil is Chairman of Twelve Winds, where, as an angel investor, he works with the founders, boards and management of emerging tech companies in England and Ireland, as well as with universities and business schools including the University of Essex on entrepreneurial topics including the commercialisation of their IP.

2018

Professor Dawn Ades

Dawn is an accomplished art historian and Emeritus Professor at Essex, who played a pivotal role in establishing ESCALA, the Essex Collection of Art from Latin America. A Fellow of the British Academy, a former trustee of Tate and the National Gallery, and Professor of the History of Art at the Royal Academy, Dawn was made a CBE in 2013 for her services to art history.

Siraj Ali

Siraj was a pioneering force in introducing Indian cuisine to Essex. Through his hospitality and business activities, he has raised £3 million for charities and has become a role model to the British Bangladeshi community. For eight years he was General Secretary of the Essex Jamme Masjid mosque and cultural centre in Southend-on-Sea, and he is the founding Chairman of the Thurrock Bangladesh Welfare Association.

David Boyle

David was a member of University Council for nine years. He served as a Pro-Chancellor and as Chair of Council for two years, where he brought significant experience and wisdom to help guide the University through one of the most important periods of development in its history. David’s background is in asset management, at Morgan Grenfell and Mercury Asset Management, and he has held various non-executive director roles.

Sue Buckmaster

Sue is an Essex graduate who has provided inspiring leadership in theatre direction and puppetry for Theatre-Rites, a priority Arts Council national portfolio organisation. Theatre-Rites creates high quality, pioneering and daring visual theatre, and regularly work in collaboration with other artists to engage its young audiences in complex, contemporary events – from the global financial crisis to the mass migration of refugees.

Dr Flavia Bustreo

Flavia is the Assistant Director General for Family, Women’s and Children’s Health at the World Health Organisation (WHO). Her work, focusing on developing policies around child and maternal health, has seen her lead the UN Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health and contribute to the UN Taskforce on Millennium Development Goals to reduce maternal and child mortality.

Stephen Daldry

Stephen is an acclaimed British film director and producer, responsible for blockbuster films such as Billy Elliot, The Hours and The Reader. Internationally-recognised for his work, Stephen has received three Academy Award nominations and two Golden Globe nominations. An East 15 graduate, he has been nominated for a BAFTA eight times, winning with Billy Elliot. More recently he directed the Netflix TV series The Crown.

Rena Dourou

Rena is an Essex graduate who was elected as an MP in Greece in 2012, representing the radical left-wing political party Syriza, and was later elected to the Athens prefecture, representing four million people. Until 2015, she was the only member of Syriza to hold high office. In the international media she is often portrayed as a female politician with a talent for talking to the people and succeeding in a typically male-dominated arena.

Janine Duvitski

Janine is an East 15 graduate and one of the most instantly recognisable faces on British television. She is best known for her roles in Waiting for God, One Foot in the Grave and Benidorm. Janine first came to national attention in Mike Leigh’s play Abigail's Party, which starred fellow East 15 alumna, Alison Steadman. She has been part of theatre productions at some of the country’s most prestigious theatres.

Professor Ab Hamid Khairuddin

Professor Khairuddin is currently the Vice-Chancellor of University College of Technology Sarawak. In 2008 he was appointed as Vice-Chancellor of University Malaysia Sarawak and in 2014 as Vice-Chancellor of University Malaysia of Computer Science and Engineering. An Essex graduate, his expertise in information and communications technology has seen him successfully implement a number of projects for rural communities in Malaysia and the south-east Asia region.

Francisca Hongla Epse Biaka

Francisca is a leader in women’s economic empowerment and excellence in healthcare training in her home country of Cameroon. She instigated a major, positive change at an established healthcare complex, which, under her leadership, developed into a university institution in 2016, known as the Biaka University Institute of Buea (BUIB). Francisca’s achievements involve overcoming gender and cultural barriers, working actively in supporting widows through knowledge-sharing and sponsoring under-privileged children.

Caroline Norbury

Caroline is an Essex graduate and founding Chief Executive of Creative England, which she set up in 2012 to support and invest in creativity, talent and businesses in the digital media, games, film and TV sectors. Caroline has a prominent role in championing the creative industries and is a member of the Creative Industries Council. She was awarded an MBE in 2012 for services to the film industry.

2017

This year's Honorary Graduands are:

Alun Evans

Alun Evans is Chief Executive of the British Academy, and former Director of the Scotland Office from 2012-2015. Previously, Alun was Secretary of the Detainee Inquiry, Head of Strategy at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, Director-General in the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, and Director-General at the Department for Communities and Local Government. He has been Principal Private Secretary to three Secretaries of State and Head of Strategic Communications at 10 Downing Street. Alun graduated from Essex in 1980 with a degree in Government, and completed an MPhil at the University of Birmingham before joining the Civil Service. He is also a visiting Professor at King’s College London.

Anya Hindmarch CBE

Anya Hindmarch CBE founded her luxury accessories business in London in 1987 and has since grown a global brand with more than 45 stores, including flagship stores in New York, London and Tokyo. A passionate advocate of British design, Anya is also a UK Trade Ambassador, a Non-Executive Director of the British Fashion Council and a trustee of the Royal Academy of Arts and the Design Museum. In 2017 Anya was awarded a CBE in recognition for her contribution to the British fashion industry.

Baroness Helena Kennedy QC

Baroness Helena Kennedy QC has practised at the Bar for 40 years in the field of criminal law and human rights. She chaired the British Council for six years and the UK Human Genetics Commission for eight years. She has been a member of the House of Lords for 19 years, where she chairs the Sub Committee on Justice within the European Union. She is co-chair of the International Bar Association's Institute of Human Rights and chair of Justice, the British arm of the International Commission of Jurists. She is the chair of the Booker Prize Foundation and Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford.

George Kieffer

George Kieffer has been a member of the University’s Enterprise and Industrial Advisory Boards since 2009 and is a champion of the University. He is Chair of Haven Gateway Partnership, Vice-Chair of the South East Local Enterprise Partnership, Chair of the Board of the Estuary Housing Association and a board member of Visit Essex. He is also a key member of the Greater Essex Business Board. A former City banker, his previous industry roles included Head of European operations and Deputy Chairman at Sega Enterprises Ltd of Japan, director and consultancy roles in the defence, aerospace and hospitality sectors. George is a Freeman of the City of London and Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Turners.

Frances Morris

Frances Morris is director of Tate Modern, and has a 30-year career at the gallery. Her work has involved leading on building Tate’s collection of international art, in all media, from 1900 to the present day. Joining Tate as a Curator in the Modern Collection, Tate Gallery, Frances became a curator delivering the opening collection display at Tate Modern in 2000, and acted as Head of Displays until 2006. Frances is a champion of international art, described by Tate supremo Sir Nicholas Serota as “one of the true architects of Tate Modern.” Frances’ parents live on Mersea Island, Essex and she visits the county regularly.

Annemarie Naylor MBE

As an Essex alumna with an MA in the Sociology of International Development, Annemarie Naylor MBE has a background in public policy working with local, regional and central government. She established the Asset Transfer Unit and oversaw national programmes to enable the transfer of publicly owned land and buildings to communities. Annemarie was awarded an MBE for services to community asset ownership in 2015. Whilst working in the third sector, she also developed a national network for community libraries and undertook primary research for government about library service delivery. She is now Director of Policy at Future Care Capital, contributing to national debates about health and social care.

Afsheen Rashid MBE

Afsheen Rashid MBE is founder Director of Repowering London, which installs solar-powered ‘power stations’ on community buildings, encourages local residents to invest, and funds community education and internships. An Essex alumnus, with an MEnv in Environment, Science and Society, Afsheen set up the Tower Hamlets Muslim Women’s Collective to encourage women to play a more active role in improving the environment. A former Senior Policy Advisor at the Department of Energy and Climate Change and current Chair of Community Energy England, Afsheen remains influential in both local and national community energy decision-making. Afsheen was awarded the MBE in 2016 for services to renewable energy projects in deprived communities.

Lord Phillips of Sudbury OBE

Lord Phillips of Sudbury OBE is a retired Liberal Democrat peer and solicitor who was Chancellor of the University of Essex from 2003 until 2013. Lord Phillips’ distinguished legal career started in 1957 and he founded the London firm of Bates Wells & Braithwaite in 1970. He founded (or co-founded) three national charities, The Citizenship Foundation, The Legal Action Group and LawWorks (the Solicitors’ Pro Bono Group) and all still flourish. Lord Phillips presented current affairs series’ for London Weekend Television and Anglia TV, and was for 24 years “Legal Eagle” on the BBC’s Jimmy Young Show. He has been a regular freelance contributor to the broadsheets, and Trustee of the Scott Trust (owner of the Guardian and Observer) and several charities and companies.

Philip Tolhurst

Philip Tolhurst was a University member of Council from August 2006 to July 2015 as Pro-Chancellor. As a high-profile local figure in Southend-on-Sea, he has been a prominent supporter of the development and growth of the University’s Southend Campus. He has championed the University in Southend and has acted as an ambassador within the community, playing a crucial and enabling role in establishing the partnership between the University and Southend Borough Council. Philip is a solicitor and former Senior Partner of Essex law firm Tolhurst Fisher, founded in 1891, and a board member of the University’s growing research and technology park, Knowledge Gateway. He is also Managing Trustee and Chairman of The Norman Garon Trust.

Kenny Leck

Kenny Leck, founder and co-owner of BooksActually in Singapore, was awarded an Honorary Degree at our first graduation ceremony for students with Essex degrees with Kaplan Singapore in April. He also coordinates Math Paper Press, the publishing wing of BooksActually, which publishes a wide variety of literature, poetry, and other Singaporean writing. BooksActually has developed a number of interesting innovations, including organising pop up bookstores in various locations around Singapore, and the development of book vending machines, which have been placed at the National Museum of Singapore, Singapore Visitor Centre, and Goodman Arts Centre.

Jason Leonard OBE

Jason Leonard is the most capped English men’s rugby player. He played in the England team that won the Rugby World Cup in 2003, and he has also won four grand slams. Jason is the current President of the RFU and has succeeded in his aim to get more inner city children to play rugby, signing up 400 new schools in just one year. Jason’s charity work is extensive, both in the UK and internationally, and he is committed to developing sport within deprived communities. In 2015 he founded the Atlas Foundation, which in its first year had established 11 global community sporting initiatives across five continents. Jason is from Barking, East London.

2016

Obiageli “Oby” Ezekweseli

Obiageli “Oby” Ezekweseli is a former Vice-President of the World Bank's Africa Region and a co-founder of the Bring Back Our Girls campaign to find the 300 Nigerian schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram in 2014. She has held several keys positions within the Nigerian government and her career is defined by a pursuit of transparency, accountability and policy reform, primarily in economics and education for Africa.

Ms Ezekweseli is currently Senior Advisor on African Economic Development Policy at the Open Society Foundations, where she assists the Mano River governments with international financial relations. She also works on developing a school of public policy in Abuja, Nigeria.

Holding a Masters in International Law and Diplomacy from the University of Lagos, and a Master of Public Administration degree from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, she began her career as a qualified chartered accountant with Deloitte and has served as Director of the Harvard-Nigeria Economic Strategy Program in Boston and Abuja.

Helena Morrissey CBE

Helena Morrissey CBE actively champions gender equality in business.

She is the CEO of Newton, a London-based global investment company, as well as Chair of The Investment Association (IA) and Founder of the 30% Club. Ms Morrissey joined Newton in 1994 as a fixed income fund manager and was appointed CEO in 2001. Newton manages around £50 billion for pension funds, charities and through funds available to individuals.

In June 2014 Ms Morrissey was appointed Chair of The IA, the UK’s industry trade body whose members manage £5 trillion. Recently, Ms Morrissey was appointed by the Chancellor to the UK’s Financial Services Trade and Investment Board.

In 2010, Ms Morrissey founded the 30% Club, a cross-business initiative aimed at achieving 30% women on UK corporate boards. She has been named one of Fortune Magazine’s World’s 50 Greatest Leaders. In 2013 and 2014 she was voted one of the 50 Most Influential People in Finance globally by Bloomberg Markets.

Diana Nammi

Diana Nammi has dedicated her life to campaigning for universal human rights. She spent 12 years on the frontline as a Peshmerga - the Kurdish military force - but eventually her activism in Kurdistan-Iran and neighbouring countries resulted in her facing persecution, which forced her to seek refuge as a political refugee.

She now lives in the UK and in 2002, in response to the “honour” killing of her own, British-Iraqi interpreter, she founded the Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organisation (IKWRO), an NGO providing advice, advocacy, training and counselling to women and girls from Middle Eastern and North African, Afghan and Turkish communities affected by so-called “honour”-based violence, including forced marriage and female genital mutilation as well as domestic violence.

As Executive Director, Ms Nammi leads IKWRO’s campaigning which has led to recognition from the authorities that “honour”-based violence is a crime and must never be justified under the name of culture. She was instrumental in the criminalisation of forced marriage in the UK in 2014.

William Pooley MBE

Qualified nurse William Pooley MBE contracted and survived the Ebola virus during the 2014 outbreak in Sierra Leone.

He qualified in 2013 as a nurse, and travelled to Africa to work with sufferers of cancer, tuberculosis and HIV. When there was the Ebola outbreak Mr Pooley immediately volunteered to assist at a clinic treating Ebola victims. A selfless individual who tirelessly strives to help others, Mr Pooley became ill just six weeks after he began volunteering in Sierra Leone. Mr Pooley had to be airlifted back to the UK for treatment for the virus. He was treated in a special isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London where he was given the experimental drug ZMapp.

After recovering from the disease that has killed thousands, he returned to Africa to continue his work as a nurse in an Ebola unit run by medical staff from the UK. Mr Pooley’s blood plasma was given to Pauline Cafferkey, a British aid worker who contracted Ebola in December of 2014.

Mr Pooley has since returned to England, and has campaigned for the US and UK governments to do more when it comes to international health outbreaks.

Geoff Posner

Internationally-renowned Producer and Director Geoff Posner has won six BAFTAs, two International Emmy Awards and four British Comedy Awards. Graduating from Essex with a Sociology degree in 1970, he had wanted to direct television programmes since watching Top Of The Pops, aged 12. At Essex, he became Chair of the Entertainments Committee, marking his first step into the worlds of music and comedy. He joined the BBC as a Runner and within six years he had directed his own show, ironically enough Top of The Pops. He went on to Produce and Direct some of the best-loved TV comedy shows since the 1980s, including Not The Nine O’Clock News, The Young Ones, Saturday Live and Little Britain as well as series starring Victoria Wood, Steve Coogan, Lenny Henry, Paul Merton, French & Saunders, Harry Enfield and Catherine Tate.

He directed the pilot programmes of both Blackadder and Vic Reeves’s Big Night Out. Mr Posner’s company, Pozzitive, specialises in nurturing young comedic talent, both in television and radio. He is also one of the country’s leading directors of live events, having directed the Eurovision Song Contest, two Princes Trust Concerts, events for Amnesty International and Comic Relief and both the Golden and Diamond Jubilee Concerts from Buckingham Palace. He was one of the directors of Live 8, the Royal Wedding and the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics.

He is very committed to nurturing younger generations. He is a Lecturer in Television at the University of Arts in London, and returned to Essex recently to attend the Sociology Speed Networking event, crediting Essex’s radical thinking for helping ‘position himself in the world’.

Professor John Scott CBE

World-leading sociologist Professor John Scott CBE is Chair of Section S4 of the British Academy, a Fellow of the British Academy and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.

Professor Scott is internationally renowned for publishing high quality research, particularly on class, capitalism and power. He was awarded a CBE in 2013 for services to the social sciences, and he holds a PhD on the concepts of class and status.

Calling Essex “the strongest social science University in the UK” and naming the Department of Sociology “the best in the country”, Professor Scott spent 14 years at the University. Whilst here he produced successful works Sociological Theory (1995) and Social Theory (2006). He also helped found the University of Essex Graduate Journal Of Sociology, which aims to raise the publication profile of our graduates. He is currently a Visiting Professor at Essex.

A member since 1970, Professor Scott became the President of the British Sociological Association in 2001. He has edited Sociology Review, the Sociology magazine for A-Level students, was Chair of the Sociology panel in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), and the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF).

Sir Garry Hawkes CBE

Edge Hotel School co-founder Sir Garry Hawkes CBE is described as one the greatest pioneers within the contract catering sector.

Sir Garry is now Director of the Edge Foundation, former President of Hospitality Action, President of the British Hospitality Association, former Chairman of Edexcel and former Chair of the Basic Skills Agency.

He went to Huddersfield Polytechnic and studied Hospitality Management for three years. After studying, he rose through the ranks to become chief executive of international catering company Gardner Merchant, leading the management buyout to buy the company. Sir Garry then became chairman of Edexcel, which he later sold to Pearson, the publishers of the Financial Times.

With the proceeds he set up the independent educational charity The Edge Foundation, which supports technical, practical, vocational and professional education through the UK. Sir Garry was awarded a CBE for services to tourism and the catering industry.

Gee Vaucher

Gee Vaucher is an internationally-known maverick artist, activist, filmmaker and gardener - a key figure in the art of politics and the politics of art.

Throughout most of her adult life, Ms Vaucher has lived at Dial House, a 17th century farm cottage in Essex. From its inception in 1967 as an open house, ‘open door, open heart’, the building has attracted visitors from around the globe to share ideas of art, activism and sustainable living. Between 1977 and 1985 the house was home to the anarchist punk band, Crass.

Having in the late ‘70’s taken time out for a couple of years, Ms Vaucher worked as a successful illustrator in New York, where she also published the radical broadsheet, ‘International Anthem, a nihilist newspaper for the living.’ In 1978, she returned to Dial House to join Crass as their designer and filmmaker.

Since Crass disbanded, Ms Vaucher has continued to develop her work in all mediums from painting to illustration, sculpture to filmmaking, bookmaking to gardening.

John Pullinger

Leading statistician John Pullinger is the Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority. He is also the UK National Statistician, Head of the Government Statistical Service, and has been chair of the UN Statistical Commission and President of the Royal Statistical Society.

Formerly a member of what is now the Executive Committee, a body responsible for managing the services of the House of Commons, Mr Pullinger worked closely with the Speaker and several committees to develop the connection between Parliament and the public. He was for ten years the Librarian of the House of Commons providing research and information services to MPs of all parties.

He was appointed as a Companion of the Order of Bath in the 2014 New Year’s Honours for his services to Parliament and to the community via Great Culverden Park Ltd.

Upon completing his degree in Geography and Statistics, John entered the civil service. He worked in a number of government departments before becoming Director of Planning at the former Central Statistical Office (CSO). Mr Pullinger was also instrumental in the creation of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), CSO’s successor, which he now has executive responsibility for as Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.

Danny Pecorelli

Successful hotelier Danny Pecorelli is the Managing Director of the luxury hotel group Exclusive Hotels and Venues.

Running four hotels, two venues and two golf clubs and holding an unprecedented 20 AA stars and four Michelin stars between them, Mr Pecorelli has been the recipient of numerous awards and commendations throughout his career, including Hotelier of the Year 2014.

Having worked his way up over the past 25 years through the hospitality industry, Mr Pecorelli is a firm believer in career progression and is passionate about hospitality education.

He is a keen supporter of the unique Edge Hotel School, based at Wivenhoe House. Mr Pecorelli regularly visits the School to give his popular masterclasses on the hospitality industry. Through Exclusive Hotels and Venues Mr Pecorelli also awards scholarships and mentoring support to students working towards their degrees in Hotel Management.

2015

Peter Firmin

Peter Firmin is an artist who created drawings and puppets for a number of much-loved children’s TV programmes and influenced thousands of children’s childhoods. He was honoured with the Special Award at the BAFTA Children’s Awards in November 2014.

Together with Oliver Postgate, the founder of the animation company, Smallfilms, they created several very popular series of short films using stop-motion animation, including The Clangers, Noggin the Nog and Ivor the Engine. One of their creations, Bagpuss, came top of a BBC poll to find the favourite children’s programme.

He started out getting paid £30 a week to make drawings and backgrounds for a series called Alexander the Mouse and went on working on other series for children for the next 50 years. He and Oliver were innovators in the field of children’s TV programme and their strong message of ecology and recycling continues to influence thousands of children and adults today. The toys and books which are based on these stories continue to delight adults and children to this day.

Professor Andrew Mack

Professor Andrew Mack is an Essex alumnus who helped revolutionise the field of peace research, making important contributions to the work of the United Nations and working at leading universities around the world.

He is Director of the Human Security Report Project at Simon Fraser University in Canada and a faculty member of the university’s new School for International Studies. Prior to this he directed the Human Security Centre at the University of British Columbia. Before this, Professor Mack was a Visiting Professor at the Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research at Harvard University.

From 1998 to 2001 he was Director of the Strategic Planning Office in the Executive Office of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. He held the Chair in International Relations at the Institute of Advanced Study at the Australian National University (ANU) from 1991 to 1998 and was Director of the ANU’s Peace Research Centre, Senior Research Fellow in the ANU’s Strategic and Defence Studies Centre. He has published 16 books and more than 60 scholarly articles.

Murray Melvin

Actor, director, author and archivist Murray Melvin was part of the Theatre Workshop Company at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East in London.

Under the direction of the late Joan Littlewood, he was involved in her productions including Oh What a Lovely War and A Taste of Honey, which blew a welcome wind of change through the UK theatre at the time. He was the company’s first student and was the role model for the start of the University’s East 15 Acting School.

He won the best actor Prix de Cannes in 1962 for his role in A Taste of Honey and nominated for a BAFTA Most Promising Newcomer Award. His films include Alfie, The Devils, The Boyfriend and The Phantom of the Opera.

As a theatre director, his work includes opera, recitals, drama and comedy. In 1990 he started to record the Theatre Workshop’s residency at the Theatre Royal. This work has now expanded to include the whole of the theatre’s history from 1884 to the present day. He was on the Board of the Theatre Royal for 22 years and is now a Guardian of the Theatre Workshop Trust.

Jack Monroe

Jack Monroe is an award-winning, Essex-born writer and campaigner on poverty issues, particularly food and hunger relief.

Jack started writing the blog ‘A Girl Called Jack’ in 2012, sharing how to create affordable meals on a budget of just £10 a week. The blog soon gained national coverage, and Jack became a recognisable figure who received praised in the British media for courage in the face of severe financial hardship.

The first cookbook, A Girl Called Jack, based on Jack’s blog, was published in February 2014. The second cookbook was a food diary through a rollercoaster year from anonymity to having a food column in The Guardian and a book that sat at the top of the paperback charts.

Jack is an active campaigner, fronting a petition demanding politicians debate hunger in Britain. Within four days the petition had secured 100,000 signatures and the debate was held in the House of Commons. Jack is an ambassador for Oxfam and travelled to Tanzania to learn about women and agriculture.

Jack has twice been listed on The Independent On Sunday’s Pink List 2014 of the most influential openly LGBT people in the UK. Jack writes a weekly recipe column for The Guardian, and regularly contributes political pieces to The Mirror, The Independent and The Guardian.

Andrea Stark

Andrea Stark is a founder and first Chief Executive of High House Production Park in Thurrock, a centre of excellence for creative industries. The new charity was established to advance culture-led regeneration and education for the benefit of the people of Essex. It is in the heart of Europe’s largest regeneration area.

Previously a member of the National Executive Board of Arts Council England, Andrea had responsibility for two regions and for its national work to shape public policy beyond the cultural sector. She became Chief Executive of Eastern Arts Board in 1999 where she devised a highly successful investment strategy that generated over £125 million in funding for a series of world class arts centres. She is currently involved in work on behalf of South East Local Enterprise Partnership to support development of Colchester as a creative industries hub.

Andrea is an influential advocate, generating new ideas for the role culture can play at the heart of public policy and strategy at a national and local level. She has a strong track record in driving forward the development of creative industries in the East and North East of England and in Scotland.

Casey Stoney

Casey Stoney is an Essex-born footballer who has been capped more than 100 times for the England women’s national football team since making her debut in 2000. After being a non-playing squad member at UEFA Women's Euro 2005, she was an integral part of the England teams which reached the UEFA Women's Euro 2009 final and the quarter finals of FIFA Women's World Cup in 2007 and 2011.

Casey, who plays for Arsenal Ladies is a Sky Sports Living for Sport Mentor. She was the first and is the only female member of the Professional Footballers’ Association’s management committee.

She was named Nationwide International Player of the Year for 2007-08. In 2012 she succeeded Faye White as the England captain and also became captain of the newly-formed Team GB squad for the 2012 London Olympics. In 2014 she was named 9th in The Independent on Sunday’s Pink List of the most influential openly LGBT people in the UK.

Professor Paul Thompson

Professor Paul Thompson is a pioneer in social science research, particularly the development of life stories and oral history within sociology and social history. He is the pioneer of oral history work in Europe and his book on the philosophy and practice of this method, The Voice of the Past (1978), is available in ten languages and entering its 4th edition.

Now Professor Emeritus in Sociology at Essex, he founded the journal Oral History in 1971 and the Oral History Society in 1973. Between 1970 and 1973 he carried out a project titled 'Family Life and Work Experience before 1918' which was the first national oral history interview study to be carried out in Britain.

Thompson set up the 450 interviews for The Edwardians as an archive in a storeroom at Essex, which was subsequently much used by other researchers, resulting in many key publications by others. This provided the model for the setting up of Qualidata (now part of the UK Data Archive at Essex). From 1994 he was Qualidata’s founder and first Director. In 1987 Thompson also founded the National Life Story Collection (now known as National Life Stories) at the British Library. This is now the largest oral history archive in Europe, including collections on artists and architects, scientists, Holocaust survivors, financiers, oil workers, the Post Office, etc.

Thompson’s other books include Living the Fishing, on family and work in Scottish fishing villages. He is co-author of Pathways to Social Class and Growing Up in Stepfamilies, and most recently, Jamaican Hands Across the Atlantic. Since retirement he has also worked for a variety of community projects, including with Moroccan migrants to Britain, a neighbourhood in middle class North Oxford, and close by, three Essex coastal villages.

2014

Dr John Ashdown-Hill

Dr Ashdown-Hill was instrumental in one of the most exciting British archaeological projects of recent times – uncovering and identifying the lost remains of King Richard III. He was the leader of genealogical research and historical adviser on the Looking for Richard Project, which led to the rediscovery in August 2012 under a car park in Leicester. It was his nine years’ extensive research on Richard III’s burial and the subsequent fate of his gravesite, together with his study of the layout of medieval Friaries, and his discovery of Richard III’s DNA sequence by tracking down a living all female line descendant of Richard’s mother, which led to the University of Leicester Archaeological Services being commissioned to explore the gravesite, and subsequent confirmation that the remains found were King Richard.

An Essex alumnus, after a first degree in history and French from the University of East Anglia, Dr Ashdown-Hill gained an MA in Applied Linguistics in 1981 and a PhD in History in 2008. A former language teacher, for the past two decades he has concentrated his work on being a freelance historian, with particular expertise on fifteenth-century England.

Lord Currie of Marylebone

Lord Currie of Marylebone made an outstanding contribution to the University of Essex in his role as Chair and member of University Council, bringing a wealth of experience to the role from his work in business, as an academic and as a Government adviser. He is Chairman of the new UK competition authority, the Competition and Markets Authority, and also a member of the Governing Body of the Institute for Government and a member of the Board of the Dubai Financial Services Authority. He was founding Chairman of Ofcom, an assessor on the Leveson Inquiry, and conducted a major review of defence procurement.

After Ofcom, he sat on the boards of a range of companies, including Royal Mail, until his appointment as Chairman of the Competition and Markets Authority. He also sits on the cross benches in the House of Lords. He stepped down from University Council duties in December 2013 after being appointed as the Chairman of the Competition and Markets Authority. During his time as Chair, Lord Currie has seen the University complete several strategic capital projects including The Forum Southend-on-Sea, Wivenhoe House and The Meadows student accommodation.

John Elkington

John Elkington is a world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development. He is a Founding Partner and Executive Chairman of Volans, a future-focused business driving market-based solutions to the future’s greatest challenges. He was also co-founder of Environmental Data Services (ENDS) in 1978 and SustainAbility in 1987. An Essex alumnus, Mr Elkington gained a BA in Sociology and Social Psychology in 1970, and an M Phil in Urban and Regional Planning from University College London in 1974.

Described by Business Week in 2004 as "a dean of the corporate responsibility movement for three decades", Mr Elkington coined such terms as “environmental excellence”, “green consumer”, the “triple bottom line”, and “People, Planet and Profit”. In 2009, a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) International survey of the Top 100 CSR leaders placed Mr Elkington fourth - after Al Gore, Barack Obama and the late Anita Roddick of the Body Shop, and alongside Muhammad Yunus. He has written or co-authored 18 books, including the million-selling Green Consumer Guide and Cannibals with Forks: The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business, which brought his triple bottom line concept of profit, social and environmental concerns to a wider audience.

Martha Lane Fox

Martha Lane Fox co-founded Europe’s largest travel and leisure website lastminute.com with Brent Hoberman in 1998, they took it public in 2000 and sold it in 2005. Martha was appointed a crossbench peer in the House of Lords in March 2013. She is currently chair of Go On UK, a coalition of public and private sector partners that are helping millions more people and organisations online. In March 2014 she was appointed Chancellor of the Open University.

Martha co-founded and chairs LuckyVoice, revolutionising the karaoke industry. She chairs MakieLab and Founders Forum for Good. She is a non-executive director at Marks and Spencer and the Women’s Prize for Fiction. In 2007 Martha founded her own charitable foundation Antigone.org.uk and also serves as a Patron of AbilityNet, Reprieve, Camfed and Just for Kids Law. In 2013 Martha was awarded a CBE.

Dr Jan Pinkava

Dr Jan Pinkava is an Oscar-winning film director who made important contributions at Pixar Animation Studios from 1993 to 2006 and has recently pioneered new techniques in interactive storytelling at Google. Escaping communism after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, his family settled in Colchester, where he developed an interest in animation; garnering national recognition for his amateur films while still attending the Colchester Royal Grammar School.

After studying Computer Science at university, and postgraduate research in Robotics, Dr Pinkava returned to animation as a profession, eventually joining Pixar as a director in 1993. He received the 1997 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for Geri’s Game, the first Pixar film to feature a human main character. After working on several of the studio’s films he was invited to develop an original feature and created Ratatouille, which went on to earn him a second Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. He has always been a keen sculptor and the University of Essex is the proud custodian of one of Dr Pinkava’s youthful works: Big Cat.

Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury

Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury is the first ever female Speaker of Jatiyo Sangshad (Bangladesh Parliament), the supreme legislative body of Bangladesh. Having gained a prestigious Commonwealth Scholarship, Dr Chaudhury graduated from the University of Essex in 2000 with a PhD in Constitutional Law and Human Rights. She held a distinguished legal career for 15 years at the Supreme Court, where she worked on many human rights cases involving constitutional issues.

Before taking up the post of Speaker, Dr Chaudhury served as State Minister for Women and Children Affairs which saw her involved in efforts to tackle violence against women, including the finalisation of a law on domestic violence. Dr Chaudhury was awarded Asia Society’s Humanitarian Service Award in 2010 in recognition of leadership in advocating the elimination of violence against women and supporting women’s empowerment in Bangladesh.

Professor Colin Riordan

Professor Colin Riordan - was Vice-Chancellor at the University of Essex for five years until he took up the post of President and Vice-Chancellor at Cardiff University in 2012. Professor Riordan spearheaded the University’s £200 million-plus capital investment programme and its international strategic agenda. He joined Essex in 2007 from Newcastle University, where he was Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Provost of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences

He is currently Vice-President and Board member of Universities UK, the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education, the Edge Foundation, UCAS and the Equality Challenge Unit. In 2013 he became chair of Higher Education Wales. As chair of the International Policy Network of Universities UK, he is active in promoting the role of UK universities abroard. He is also chair of the UK Higher Education International Unit and is a member of the International Education Council.

Loyd Grossman

Loyd Grossman was the first honorary graduate for the Edge Hotel School at the University of Essex. He was recognised for his work and achievements in the culinary and hospitality industry and his extensive work on sustainability issues in the sector. After starting a career in journalism he was diverted into television where he worked as a writer, presenter or devisor on a range of programmes, including Through the Keyhole and MasterChef. He also wrote and presented a series, Composers at Home, for Radio 3.

He is a former Commissioner of the Museums and Galleries Commission, a former Commissioner of English Heritage, a former Commissioner of the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, a founding member of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, past Chairman of National Museums Liverpool and of the Public Monuments and Sculpture Association. He is a member of the board of the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions. His fascination with food led him to create his own brand in 1995, which became Britain’s most successful new premium food brand.

Born in Boston, Loyd Grossman graduated from Boston University (BA cum laude), the London School of Economics (MSc Econ) and Magdalene College, Cambridge (PhD, MPhil).

2013

Lord Dyson

As Master of the Rolls, Lord Dyson is the Head of Civil Justice, the second most senior judicial position in England and Wales after the Lord Chief Justice. Educated at Leeds Grammar School and Wadham College, Oxford, Lord Dyson was called to the bar in 1968, and made a bencher for Middle Temple in 1990. Appointed as a Queen’s Counsel in 1980, his first judicial appointment was as a Recorder from 1986 and 1993.He was appointed as a Judge of the High Court of Justice for 1993-2001; as a Lord Justice of Appeal in 2001; and as Justice of the Supreme Court in 2010. He succeeded Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury as Master of the Rolls in October 2012. Since 1998 he has been a Fellow Honorary of the Society of Advanced Legal Studies and of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2004.

Alastair Cook

The world-renowned opening batsman Alistair Cook has broken several English cricket records since becoming captain of the Test team in August 2012. He became England's leading Test century-maker in December 2012 after making a hundred against India, and is the youngest player to pass 7,000 runs. He has also scored a record-breaking five successive centuries in his first five games as captain. Brought up in Essex, 28-year-old Mr Cook had his first-class debut for Essex County Cricket Club in 2003 and previously played for Maldon Cricket Club.

Annie Lennox

Named as one of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time by Rolling Stone magazine, Annie Lennox rose to fame in the Eurythmics in the early ‘80s and achieved more than 20 international hits before launching a highly-successful solo career in the ‘90s. In 2003, Lennox performed at the inaugural concert for Nelson Mandela's HIV/AIDS Campaign, 46664. Her experience in South Africa inspired her to found the SING campaign, supporting women and children affected by HIV/AIDS. An Ambassador for UNAIDS, Oxfam, Amnesty International, and The British Red Cross, she is also Special Envoy for Scottish Parliament and the City of London. She received the Woman of Peace Award at the 2009 World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, and in 2011 was awarded an OBE in recognition of her humanitarian work.

Paul Lewis

Paul Lewis is an investigative freelance journalist, public speaker and broadcaster specialising in personal finance, business, tax, and consumer rights. He presents BBC Radio 4’s Money Box and is a champion of consumer interests, campaigning for greater openness by the banks and utility companies. He is a regular guest on BBC Breakfast, the News Channel, and many Radio 4 programmes. He has written six books on money matters and received more than a dozen awards, including Headline Money Journalist of the Year in 2010, Association of Investment Companies Best Broadcast Journalist in 2011 and Rose’s Best Provider of Advice and Information in 2012. He is also an expert on the Victorian writer Wilkie Collins and one of the editors of the first complete edition of his letters, published in 2005.

Professor Denise Lievesley

Professor Denise Lievesley, one of the UK’s most eminent social statisticians, was Director of the UK Data Archive and Professor of Social Research Methods in the School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science at the University of Essex from 1991 to 1999. She subsequently established and led UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics and set up the Information Centre for health and social care in the NHS. After working in the UN Economic Commission for Africa, she joined King’s College London where she is Head of the School of Social Science and Public Policy, and Professor of Statistics. Throughout her career she has established a reputation for upholding the principles of professional integrity, policy relevance and methodological transparency, with her contributions recognised through elections to the Presidencies of the Royal Statistical Society (1999-2001) and the International Statistical Institute (2007-2009), the first woman ever to hold this office.

Sir Keith Mills

Sir Keith Mills was key to the successful delivery of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in London. Born in Brentwood, Essex, he founded Air Miles International Group to develop the Air Miles programme in 1988. In 2003 he was appointed International President and CEO of London 2012, the company that was created to bid for the 2012 Olympic Games, and remained as Deputy Chairman alongside Lord Coe to oversee operations. Sir Keith is also a non-executive director of Tottenham Hotspur plc. In 2005 Sir Keith received a number of awards including Master Entrepreneur of the Year, Chief Executive of the Year and the Sports Industry Businessman of the Year. In the 2013 New Year Honours he was awarded the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire for delivering a successful Olympic and Paralympic Games.

James Murphy

James Murphy, an Essex graduate, founded leading creative agency adam&eve, which sold in May 2012 for a reputed £55 million to Omnicom Group's DDB Worldwide. Currently he is CEO of the newly merged agency adam&eve DDB. With Mr Murphy at the helm, adam&eve enjoyed massive success with clients including John Lewis, Sony, The Telegraph, Halifax, Save the Children, Google and YouTube. With clients enjoying huge commercial and creative success, adam&eve was named both Marketing and Campaign magazine’s Agency of the Year in 2010 and was voted the UK’s top agency in the YouGov agency reputation survey. He graduated from the University of Essex in 1989 with a BA Politics.

Laura Trott

Laura Trott, a double Olympic Champion, did not have the start to life one would usually associate with a world class athlete. Born a month prematurely, in Harlow Essex, with a collapsed lung, she was later diagnosed with asthma and was recommended by doctors to take up sport to help regulate her breathing. She is now an elite level track and road cyclist, who set world records at the London 2012 Olympic Games, winning a gold medal in the team pursuit and in the women’s omnium. Ms Trott is also a triple world champion in the team pursuit having won the UCI title in 2011, 2012 and 2013, and won the silver medal at the 2013 championships.

2012

Bill Gore

From 2008, he was Chair of Council and Pro-Chancellor, bringing extensive financial and business expertise to the role and helping to steer the University through its significant capital investment programme. He is still involved with the University today as a director of the Knowledge Gateway project. A chemical engineer and accountant, Mr Gore has undertaken chairman or chief executive level roles in investment opportunities across sectors from traditional British manufacturing to technology, property and green activities. He is a founding director of Manfield Partners, a London-based private equity company, and also Treasurer of the Coram Children’s Legal Centre, an independent national charity based at the University, concerned with law and policy affecting children and young people.

Charles Garraway

Professor Charles Garraway CBE is a Visiting Fellow in the Human Rights Centre at the University of Essex and an Associate Fellow at Chatham House. He is a Vice President of the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission. He served for 30 years as a legal officer in the UK Army Legal Services, initially as a criminal p rosecutor but latterly as an adviser in the law of armed conflict and operational law. He represented the Ministry of Defence at numerous international conferences and took part in the negotiations to establish the International Criminal Court. He was also the senior Army lawyer deployed to the Gulf during the 1990/91 Gulf Conflict. On retirement, he worked in Baghdad on transitional justice issues for the Foreign Office and later as a Senior Research Fellow at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law. He has also held the Stockton Chair in International Law at the United States Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island.

Lucy Kellaway

In her 20 years on the FT, she has been interviewer, energy correspondent, Brussels correspondent and a writer on the Lex column. She is also a regular contributor on the BBC World Service programme Business Daily. She has won the British Press Awards Columnist of the Year 2006, the Industrial Society WorkWord Award (twice), Best Commentator, Business Journalist of the Year Awards 2007 and the Wincott Young Financial Journalist Award. In 1999, Lucy invented the FT’s satirical Martin Lukes column, which purported to be the e-mails of a fictional senior manager. A spin-off novel Martin Lukes: Who Moved My BlackBerry was published in 2005 and described by the Guardian as “a more effective and certainly more enjoyable indictment of corporate power than a shelf-load of anti-capitalist, anti-globalisation protest books”. Her comic novel In Office Hours was published in 2010.

Ruth Lister

Professor the Baroness Lister CBE, FBA, AcSS is Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at Loughborough University and a former Professor and Head of the Department of Applied Social Studies at the University of Bradford. From 1971 to 1987, Baroness Lister worked for the campaigning organisation Child Poverty Action Group. For the last eight of those years, she was its Director, and became the organisation’s Honorary President in 2010. In 2011, she joined the House of Lords as Labour peer the Baroness Lister of Burtersett. Baroness Lister graduated from the University of Essex in 1970 with a BA Sociology, took an MA Multi-Racial Studies from the University of Sussex and has Honorary Doctorates from the University of Manchester and Glasgow Caledonian University. Her academic work has focused on poverty and the social security system and on a feminist approach to citizenship, with publications including Poverty and Citizenship: Feminist Perspectives.

Chris Pissarides

Professor Christopher Pissarides is School Professor in Economics and Political Science at the London School of Economics (LSE). He graduated from the University of Essex with a first class BA Economics in 1970 and an MA with Distinction in 1971. Professor Pissarides took a PhD in Economics at LSE in 1973, and after a brief spell away he has been a member of the LSE faculty ever since. In 2005 he became the first European economist to win the IZA Prize in Labor Economics and, in 2010, he won a Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his analysis of markets with search frictions. He is an elected fellow of the British Academy and has published widely on macroeconomics and the theory of labour markets. His book Equilibrium Unemployment Theory is a standard reference in the economics of unemployment. He has been President of the European Economic Association and a consultant on employment policy and other labour issues for several international organisations and national governments.

Dr Tony Rich

Dr Tony Rich was an exemplary and popular Registrar at the University of Essex for 12 years until summer 2011. His 12 years at Essex coincided with a period of significant growth and development, with Tony leading the way in developing key partnerships across the region. As a firm believer in the power of education to liberate minds, to open up opportunities and to change lives, he worked tirelessly to help widen opportunities to access higher education. He served as a Governor of Colchester Institute, helping to establish a productive validation partnership with Essex. He was involved in overseeing the establishment of Essex’s first regional campus, through a merger with East 15 Acting School in Loughton. He played a pivotal role in developing Essex’s partnership with South Essex College and, subsequently, the University’s own Southend Campus, through fostering links with Southend Borough Council, funding agencies and organisations with an interest in the development of the Thames Gateway. He engaged with an even broader range of partners to help improve access to higher education in Suffolk, leading to the establishment, with the University of East Anglia, of University Campus Suffolk. Tony also led the project to enhance Essex’s economic impact through the development of a research park at our Colchester Campus, the infrastructure of which was recently completed. He made a significant contribution the professional development of staff at Essex, through the Graduate Trainee Scheme, the senior management programme, and through his unswerving support for the Association of University Administrators (AUA), which included serving the maximum two terms on its Executive Committee.

Rosie Stancer

Rosie Stancer is a polar explorer who holds the world record for being the woman who has got the closest to the North Pole on a solo expedition. In 1997 she joined the first all-British women’s expedition to relay to the North Pole. Two years later she was in an all-British women expedition to the South Pole and in 2004, she walked alone and without resupplies to the South Pole in 43 days, smashing all previous records. In 2007, Rosie reached within 89 nautical miles of the North Pole, three times further than any other female solo explorer, before conditions forced her to be airlifted from the ice. Rosie is an honorary board member of Special Olympics GB (SOGB) which provides sports training and Olympic-style competition for people with learning disabilities. Her next polar expedition in February 2013 is in aid of SOGB and will also take meteorological measurements and undertake physiological research.

Kwok Yue (Ellen) Poon

Kwok Yue Ellen Poon is an acclaimed expert in the high-tech visual effects field with more than 25 years of professional experience. She founded her own visual effects company, Lancet Films, in 2007. Previously, she was Visual Effects Supervisor at George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic (ILM). She joined ILM 20 years ago, and her work included developing cutting-edge digital effects, for some of the most successful films of all time including Star Wars - Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, Men In Black and Jurassic Park. She has also worked as visual effects supervisor and co-producer for Chinese blockbusters such as Hero, and at Electronics Arts (EA) she was a Senior Art Director contributing to some of its best-selling games including Tiger Woods PGA Tour. She received a BSc Computer Science from Essex in 1984 and then completed a PhD at the University of London. She has co-authored two leading textbooks and taught and lectured at top universities across the world

David Yates

David Yates is an award-winning film and television director who directed the last four Harry Potter films – bringing the blockbuster film series to an epic conclusion. He grew up in St. Helens and completed a BA in the Department of Government at the University of Essex before studying in Washington, DC at Georgetown University. David won his first BAFTA TV Award for his work on the BBC mini-series The Way We Live Now a period drama starring Matthew Macfadyen and Miranda Otto. In 2003, he was nominated for another BAFTA TV Award and won the Directors Guild of Great Britain (DGGB) Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement for State of Play. He won another BAFTA Award and a second DGGB Award nomination for the gritty two-parter Sex Traffic before earning an Emmy Award nomination for his work on the 2005 HBO movie The Girl in the Café, a love story starring Bill Nighy and Kelly Macdonald.

2011

Professor the Baroness Afshar

Prominent Iranian feminist Professor the Baroness Afshar, OBE, AcSS teaches Politics and Women’s Studies at the University of York and serves as a Crossbench Peer in the House of Lords. She studied at York before completing her PhD at the University of Cambridge. She launched her writing career as a correspondent for Kayhan International, a daily English language newspaper in Tehran before returning to the UK in the mid – 1970s where she worked for the University of Bradford and then York. She has served on several bodies including the British Council and is currently Honorary President of the United Nations Association International Service and the Muslim Women’s Network (UK). She received an OBE in 2005 for her services to equal opportunities and was made a life peer in 2007. She has written and edited over 15 books on Iran, Iranian politics, women and the developing world.

Sir John Ashworth

Sir John Ashworth was a founding member of the Department of Biology (now Biological Sciences) at the University of Essex. He was educated at Exeter College, Oxford and the University of Leicester where he was also a lecturer and reader before coming to Essex in the 1970s. He was seconded to the Cabinet Office in 1976 where he was later an under-secretary and chief scientist. In 1981 he returned to higher education as Vice-Chancellor at the University of Salford and between 1990 and 1996 he was Director of the London School of Economics. He has held a number of other notable posts including Chairman of the British Library Board (1996-2001); Deputy Chairman of The Institute of Cancer Research (2003-07); Chairman of the Barts and the London NHS Trust; a Governor of the Ditchley Foundation; and a non-executive Director of Colchester Hospital University Foundation NHS Trust. He is currently President of the Council for the Assistance of Refugee Academics. He was knighted in 2008.

Joan Bakewell

Writer and broadcaster Baroness Joan Bakewell studied at Newnham College, Cambridge, before launching a television career in the 1960s. She shot to fame on BBC’s Late Night Line-Up, having already built up her profile on programmes such as ITV's Sunday Break. For her television work, she is perhaps best known for presenting Heart of the Matter (1988-2000) My Generation (2000) and Taboo (2001). She was also BBC Television's arts correspondent from 1981 - 1987. She is a columnist for The Independent and has previously written for The Sunday Times, The Guardian and The Times. She published her autobiography, The Centre of the Bed, in 2003. She published her first novel All the Nice Girls in 2009. She was appointed a CBE in 1999 and was Chairman of the British Film Institute from 1999 to 2003. In 2008 she was made a Dame and was later appointed Britain’s ‘voice for the elderly’ by the Labour government. In November 2010 she was awarded a Life Peerage joining the Labour benches.

Ignacio Duran Loera

Ignacio Durán Loera, an acclaimed filmmaker, was the Mexican Embassy’s Cultural Attaché responsible f or promoting Mexican arts and culture in the UK. Minister Durán read law at the National Autonomous University in Mexico and worked for several years as a lawyer specialising in labour law. In the early 1970s he studied at the London Film School and worked for the BBC and ITV. He returned to Mexico in 1975 where he worked in the film industry as a director and producer of feature films, documentaries and television programmes. A year later he became Deputy Director of the National Institute of Fine Arts and was later appointed Head of the Education and Cultural Production Unit at the Ministry for Education. He has served as Director General of the Mexican Film Institute and as Vice President for Production at TV Azteca, one of the largest television networks in Mexico. Before coming to the UK he served as General Director of the Mexican Culture Institute in Washington D.C.

Chris Mullin

Chris Mullin is an author, journalist and former politician who is currently a member of the 2011 Man Booker Prize judging panel. Mr Mullin grew up in Essex and was educated at St Joseph’s College, Ipswich, and the University of Hull. In the 1970s he worked as a journalist - for the BBC World Service and as a freelance – and travelled extensively in Indo-China and China. He was Member of Parliament for Sunderland South between 1987 and 2010 during which time during which time he held ministerial positions in several government departments. He was Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee (1997-99 and 2001-03) and was a member of the Standards and Privileges Committee (2006-10). He was also a board member of the Prison Reform Trust ((2996-10). His books include two volumes of diaries (Decline and Fall and A View from the Foothills) and three novels, including A Very British Coup.

Keir Starmer

Keir Starmer QC is currently Director of Public Prosecutions and joint head of Doughty Street Chambers. He was educated at Leeds University and St Edmund Hall, Oxford, and has been a Fellow of the University’s Human Rights Centre since 1998. He was Human Rights Advisor to the Northern Ireland Policing Board (2003-08) and was a member of the Foreign Secretary’s Advisory Panel on the Death Penalty (2002-08). His appeals to the Privy Council on behalf of death row prisoners from Caribbean states were instrumental in the abolition of the mandatory death penalty in those states, and as Director of Public Prosecutions he issued guidelines regarding the prosecution of those involved in assisted suicide. In 2001 he received the Human Rights Lawyer of the Year award, and in 2007 he was voted QC of the year in the field of public law and human rights by Chambers Directory of Legal Practitioners.

2010

Rt Hon John Bercow

After graduating from Essex in 1985, Mr Bercow was elected National Chairman of the Federation of Conservative Students before being appointed Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Collegiate Forum to head the campaign for student support in the run-up to the 1987 General Election. He became a Conservative councillor in the London Borough of Lambeth in 1986 and was deputy leader of the Conservative Opposition Group - at the time making him the youngest deputy group leader in the country. A Member of Parliament since 1997, Mr Bercow has worked across a range of areas including education and employment, home affairs, work and pensions, and international development. Awarded ‘Backbencher to Watch’ in The Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year Awards in 1998, Mr Bercow was named Opposition MP of the Year 2005 in the Channel Four/Hansard Society Political Awards following a ballot of parliamentary colleagues. Mr Bercow was elected Speaker in June 2009. Since his appointment, he has supported calls for reform of the Commons and to increase public engagement with parliament in the wake of the expenses scandal.

Hanif Lalani

Hanif Lalani OBE, an Essex graduate, has enjoyed a successful career with telecommunications giant, BT. He stepped down earlier this year as Chief Executive of BT Global Services. Born in Uganda, Mr Lalani graduated from the University in 1983 and took up a post with BT. Over the next 26 years he worked his way around the business in a variety of finance and management roles in the group’s UK and international divisions. Between 1998 and 2002, he worked in Northern Ireland first as Finance Director of BT Northern Ireland, and then within a year he was promoted to Chief Executive. He returned to London in September 2002 where he took up the post of Chief Financial Officer at BT Wholesale and in January 2003 was awarded the OBE for services to business in Northern Ireland. He was appointed group finance director in February 2005 when he joined both the Board and the Operating Committee and was appointed Chief Executive of BT Global Services in 2008.

Dr Katherine Rake

Dr Katherine Rake OBE has been described as ‘one of the country’s most prominent feminist voices.’ Currently Chief Executive of the Family and Parenting Institute, Dr Rake has worked to influence change and public debate nationally and to inform policymaking right across government Before joining the Institute in 2009, Dr Rake spent seven years as Director of the UK’s leading campaigning organisation for women’s rights, the Fawcett Society. Here she campaigned for equal pay, fair political representation and better treatment within the justice system. Dr Rake also fought to put an end to sexism in the city, pregnancy discrimination and the prejudices faced by women from ethnic minorities. Prior to her role at the Fawcett Society, Dr Rake lectured in social policy at the London School of Economics; was seconded to the Women's Unit in the Cabinet Office; and was Director of Studies at the Institut de Gestion Sociale in Paris. A regular broadcaster and contributor to the media, she was awarded an OBE for services to equal opportunities and was short listed for the 2009 Women in Public Life Awards.

Griff Rhys Jones

Educated at Brentwood School, Essex and Emmanuel College, Cambridge, Griff Rhys Jones’ career began as a trainee radio producer at the BBC. Mr Rhys Jones first came to prominence when he joined the Not The Nine O’Clock News team where he met Mel Smith. Together he and Mel formed one of the country’s most successful comedy partnerships with several television series throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Their partnership also founded one of the UK’s leading production companies, Talkback Productions. Mr Rhys Jones has worked extensively in the theatre, most recently in the West End production of Oliver! and as a television presenter. In addition to his charitable work, Mr Rhys Jones has interests in conservation, town planning and communities. In 2008 he was appointed President of the Civic Trust and was instrumental in the foundation of the Civic Society Initiative which replaced the Trust in 2009. He has spoken widely about the need for civic societies to champion the opinions of local people as their built environments undergo change.

Lord Triesman of Tottenham

Lord Triesman of Tottenham is an Essex graduate and former Chairman of the Football Association (FA), the governing body of football in England. Following his days as a student radical at Essex and a career in academia, Lord Triesman took up a post at the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE) in 1984. In 1993 he became General Secretary of the Association of University Teachers before being appointed General Secretary of the Labour Party in 2001. Made a Life Peer in 2004, Lord Triesman moved into government, initially as a Whip and then at the Foreign Office before being appointed the first Minister for Students at the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills. Appointed as the first independent Chairman of the FA in 2008, Lord Triesman has played an integral role in the bid to bring the 2018 Football World Cup to England. A keen football fan and former grassroots player, coach and referee, he is Patron of the Tottenham Hotspur Charitable Foundation which undertakes a range of community and education projects throughout North London and in Africa.

2009

Professor Sir Ivor Crewe

Professor Sir Ivor Crewe was the University’s Vice-Chancellor for twelve years. During this time, Essex grew from 5,500 students to almost 9,000, while the University engaged in the largest building programme since its foundation and won recognition as one of the UK's leading academic institutions. Sir Ivor, knighted in the 2006 New Year's Honours, also served as President of Universities UK which represents heads of UK universities. He joined Essex’s Department of Government from Oxford and served as Director of the Social Science Data Archive, Head of Department and Pro-Vice-Chancellor. Sir Ivor has featured regularly as a political commentator in the media, directed the British Election Study from 1973 to 1981 and published ten books. He is currently Master of University College, Oxford.

Dora Love

Dora Love is a Holocaust survivor, born in Lithuania and now settled in Colchester who educates younger generations about the Holocaust. She was deported to the Stutthoff concentration camp near Danzig (Gdansk) with her mother, sister and one brother. All, except Dora, perished. Although Stutthof was the only camp never liberated, Dora was one of a group that reached Neustadt/Holstein, on barges, on 3 May 1945. There she worked on translations for war crime trials for the British Army, UNRRA (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration) and the American Joint Distribution Committee. After her marriage to Frank Love, a member of the British Army, she was reunited with her father in 1946. Her husband’s work took her to South Africa, where her two children were born. Her daughter became a freedom fighter in the South African Underground movement and later a member of the parliament led by Nelson Mandela. Dora’s son is Professor of Neuropathology in Bristol.

Neil McArthur

Neil McArthur graduated from Essex with a degree in telecommunications in 1979. He set up his first business providing control systems and robotic automation in 1981. Following industry de-regulation he went onto create Opal Telecom, which was acquired by The Carphone Warehouse plc in 2002 and resulted in the launch of the TalkTalk consumer fixed-line and broadband business. Neil is Chairman of TalkTalk Technology, the networks operating division, and has seen revenue expand from £100 million to over £1 billion today. The network supports over 4 million residential and business customers. In 2005, the company won the Queen’s Award for Innovation. Neil is also Chairman and a trustee of the Hamilton Davies Trust, a charity awarding grants to education, youth, sport and community projects.

Nuala Mole

Nuala Mole is an internationally renowned human rights lawyer and advocate who led two of the world’s principal pro bono legal advice and advocacy organisations: Interrights and the AIRE Centre, which she founded. Initially specialising in immigration and asylum, her work now includes all aspects of international human rights law. Nuala was chosen by the Council of Europe to represent human rights NGOs at the 50th anniversary of the European Convention and was Law Society Human Rights Lawyer of the Year (2001). Nuala was part of the legal team in over 70 cases before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Since 2001 she has assisted in curriculum development and implementation for judicial training centres.

Doug Richard

Doug Richard, who appeared in the first two series of Dragons' Den, is founder of School for Startups, Chairman and CEO of Trutap, founder and member of the Cambridge Angels, Chairman of the Conservative Party Small Business Task Force and non-executive director of AlertMe, VizWoz and BeatsDigital. Doug is a successful entrepreneur with 20 years' experience in the development and leadership of technology and software ventures in the US and the UK. Between 1996 and 2000 he was President and CEO of Micrografx, a US publicly quoted software company. Prior to that he founded and subsequently sold two other companies, Visual Software and ITAL Computers. Doug holds a BA Psychology from University of California, Berkeley and a Juris Doctor at the School of Law, University of California, Los Angeles. In 2006 Doug was an Honorary Recipient of The Queen's Award for Enterprise Promotion and in 2007 became a fellow of the RSA.

Juliet Stevenson

Juliet Stevenson CBE is one of the UK’s most prominent theatre, film and television actresses. Born in Essex, she was trained at RADA and later spent almost a decade with the Royal Shakespeare Company. She has worked regularly at the Royal National Theatre, most recently in The Seagull (2006), the Royal Court Theatre and in the West End. She is perhaps best known for her film work, specifically her roles in Drowning by Numbers (1988), Truly, Madly, Deeply (1991), Emma (1996) and Bend It Like Beckham (2002). She has also undertaken work for BBC Radio and has worked on television, including the 2003 drama Hear the Silence in which she played the mother of an autistic boy. Recently she appeared alongside Colin Firth and Jim Broadbent in the film And When Did You Last See Your Father? She was awarded the CBE in 1999.

Professor John Francis Toland

Professor John Francis Toland is a distinguished mathematical scientist who worked at Essex between 1973 and 1979. Now professor at the University of Bath, he is a Royal Society-Wolfson Merit Award Holder and Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. As well as editing journals, Professor Toland is Scientific Director of the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences (ICMS).

2008

Sir Jack Petchey, CBE

Jack Petchey OBE, born in the east end of London, is a prominent businessman and property developer who, in the last decade, has devoted much of his time and energy to supporting young people in east London and Essex. His Petchey Group started out in the motor trade, before diversifying into property development and timeshare management. His greatest achievement however is perhaps the Jack Petchey Foundation which he established in 1999. It gives grants to programmes and projects that benefit those aged between 11 and 25 and has committed £150 million to schools and youth projects over the next decade.

Professor Derrick Swartz

Professor Derrick Swartz, an Essex graduate, is a leading figure in South African higher education and a former anti-apartheid activist. Professor Swartz was a teacher, and later a community researcher and political activist before coming to the UK to study for a Masters and PhD at Essex. On returning to South Africa he founded the Institute of Government at the University of Fort Hare and in 1998 was appointed Professor and Chair of Inter-Governmental Relations at Fort Hare. Between 1999 and January 2008 he was Fort Hare’s Vice-Chancellor. He is currently serving as Vice-Chancellor and CEO of Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.

Tim Melville-Ross

Tim Melville-Ross CBE FCIS FCIB, has been instrumental in the recent successes of the University, having joined the University Council in 1994 and taken on the role of Chair in 2001. He also served as a Pro-Chancellor from 1995 to 2007. In January 2008 he was appointed Chair of the Higher Education Funding Council for England. He is also Chair of the Board of Directors of Manganese Bronze plc, Royal London Mutual Insurance Ltd, DTZ Holdings plc and Bovis Homes Group plc. He was previously Chief Executive of the Nationwide Building Society (1987 to 1994), Director-General of the Institute of Directors (1994 to 1999) and Chair of Investors in People UK (1999 to 2006).

Philip Crummy

Philip Crummy MA FSA MIFA, has been Director of the Colchester Archaeological Trust since 1971. During that time he has overseen numerous archaeological digs, including the discovery of the first Roman chariot racing track in Britain. He has published widely on the archaeological history of Colchester in various academic and popular publications with his most well-known work being City of Victory: The Story of Colchester – Britain’s first Roman Town (1997 and reprinted in 2002). He has also edited the annual publication The Colchester Archaeologist for the last 20 years.

Dee Evans

Dee Evans has been Chief Executive of Colchester’s Mercury Theatre since 1998 during which time she has helped transform it into one of the region’s most respected theatres. In 1998 she launched the Mercury Theatre Company which is committed to performing classical repertoire. She has driven the Theatre’s extensive educational and outreach initiatives and developed strong links with other theatres in the region. In addition to her work at the Mercury, she has made a significant contribution to the local strategic partnership Colchester 2020, chairing its board for two years and championing major building projects in the town.

Her Excellency President Michelle Bachelet

Michelle Bachelet Jeria, is Chile’s first female President and only the second woman to be elected to lead a South American nation. Having spent much of the 1970s in exile, she returned to her home country in 1979 where she completed medical training. Following a career in paediatric medicine she became Senior Assistant to the Deputy Health Minister in 1994. She was later Senior Assistant to the Defence Minister and a member of the Socialist Party Executive Committee. In 2000 she was appointed Health Minister and in 2002 became the first woman in Latin American history to hold the defence portfolio. In 2004 she stood as presidential candidate and was named President in 2006.

2007

Richard Mabey

Richard Mabey is a naturalist and author who has written and edited more than 30 books. He has won numerous awards including the New York Academy of Science Children’s Book Award in 1984 for Oak and Company, the Whitbread Biography Award in 1986 for Gilbert White: A Biography, and the British Book Awards Illustrated Book of the Year prize in 1996 for Flora Britannica. His most recent work, Nature Cure (2005), was shortlisted for the Whitbread Biography Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje, and JR Ackerley Autobiography Prizes. He has also written for various national newspapers and specialist magazines.

Karen Pickering, MBE

Karen Pickering, MBE was the first British female swimmer to win a world championship title. In 20 years representing her country she won eight World Championship medals (four gold), 14 European Championship medals, 38 British Championship medals and 13 Commonwealth Games medals (four gold). Karen is an Ambassador for Sport for Ipswich, Vice-Chair of the British Athletes Commission, is on the executive boards of both the English Institute of Sport and British Olympic Association, and is on Ipswich Town Football Club’s Community Trust Board. She is also the founder of the Splash Awards – the only swimming awards held in the UK – and in 2006 set up her own swim school to encourage youngsters to take up the sport. She was awarded an MBE in 1994.

Dominique Tropeano

Dominique Tropeano is Director of Colchester Zoo which, since he bought it over 20 years ago, has been transformed into one of the UK’s most respected zoos and one of the top tourist attractions in the east of England. In recent years the Zoo has won a number of awards in recognition of its dedication to the preservation of endangered species, its breeding and educational programmes. Dominique has pioneered the drive to create an in situ conservation project which has seen the Zoo establish the UmPhafa Private Nature Reserve in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, where, since August 2006, three different groups of animals have been translocated.

Professor George Monbiot

Professor George Monbiot is a journalist, author, academic and environmental and political activist. He writes a weekly column for The Guardian, and is the author of various works including Heat, The Age of Consent, Captive State, and the investigative travel books Poisoned Arrows, Amazon Watershed and No Man’s Land. He has held visiting fellowships and professorships at a number of universities including Oxford, Bristol and Oxford Brookes. In 1995 he received the United Nations Global 500 Award, for outstanding environmental achievement, from Nelson Mandela. He has also been the recipient of the Sony Award for Radio Production (1987), Lloyds National Screenwriters Award (1987), the Sir Peter Kent Award (1991), and the OneWorld Trust Media Award (1996).

James Dodds

James Dodds is a local painter and printmaker born in Brightlingsea. He trained as a shipwright in Maldon before enrolling at the Colchester School of Art in 1976. He later studied painting at Chelsea School of Art and the Royal College of Art. James regularly exhibits at Messum’s Fine Art in London, the Aldeburgh Festival, Royal Academy and Mystic Seaport: The Museum of America and the Sea in America. In 2001, firstsite in Colchester hosted a major retrospective show entitled Shipshape, which went on to tour the country. He also founded and runs Jardine Press Ltd which has published approximately 30 titles.

Professor Hugh Brogan

Professor Hugh Brogan, an expert on the history of the United States, taught in the University’s Department of History for 24 years before his retirement in 1998. Before coming to Essex Professor Brogan was a Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge (1963 to 1974), a Staff Writer for The Economist (1960 to 1962) and a Harkness Fellow in the USA (1962 to 1964). He has written on French history, British history and the life of Arthur Ransome, as well as his main area of expertise, the political history of the US. Most recently he has published a biography of Alexis de Tocqueville. His other works include The Life of Arthur Ransome (1974), Mowgli’s Sons: Kipling and Baden-Powell’s Scouts (1987), Kennedy (1996) and Signalling from Mars: Selected Letters of Arthur Ransome (1997).

The Right Honourable Lord Justice Sedley

The Right Honourable Lord Justice Sedley has been a Lord Justice of Appeal since 1999 and is renowned as a strong supporter of human rights and civil liberties. He practised at the Bar for 28 years, principally in the fields of civil liberties and discrimination law, until 1992 when he was appointed as a Judge of the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court. He holds honorary professorships at the University of Warwick and Cardiff University, and is a Judicial Visitor at University College London. He is also President of the British Institute of Human Rights.

The Honourable Mr Justice Erik Møse

The Honourable Mr Justice Erik Møse is President of the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and a distinguished human rights lawyer. He was a judge at the Court of Appeals in Oslo from 1993 to 1999 and Vice-President of the ICTR from 1999 to 2003. He has previously been involved in the drafting of Protocols six to eleven of the European Convention on Human Rights and pleaded cases before the European Court and Commission of Human Rights. He also chaired the Council of Europe’s Steering Committee for Human Rights and the Committee which drafted the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture.

2006

Dr Nick Broomfield

Nick Broomfield is a British documentary filmmaker who graduated from the University with a BA in Politics. His films include The Leader, The Driver, Kurt and Courtney, and the critically acclaimed Aileen: The Life and Death of a Serial Killer which was, in part, the inspiration for the Oscar-winning movie Monster. Since making this documentary, Nick has become involved with anti-death penalty groups Amicus and MC International. Nick's latest film, His Big White Self, a follow-up to The Leader, was broadcast on Channel 4.

Anne Owers, CBE

Anne Owers, CBE is the first woman to hold the post of HM Chief Inspector of Prisons. She is a veteran human rights campaigner, and was Director of Justice, an all-party legal organisation dubbed the ‘conscience of the legal profession'. As Director of Justice, Anne was a member of various government committees, including the Home Office Task Force on the implementation of the Human Rights Act. Perhaps her greatest triumph has been the setting up of the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which investigates miscarriages of justice, such as the case of Derek Bentley.

Dame Rose Tremain, CBE

Rose Tremain is the author of nine novels and four collections of short stories, the latest of which is The Darkness of Wallis Simpson. Her 1989 novel Restoration, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the Sunday Express Book of the Year Award, was made into a film in 1995. Rose has won the Whitbread Novel Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Prix Femina Etranger. Her most recent novel, The Colour, which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize in 2003, is now being made into a film. Rose taught on the Creative Writing scheme at the University of East Anglia from 1988 to 1995. She was a Booker Prize judge in 1998 and 2000. Her works have been published in 25 countries worldwide.

Stewart Till, CBE

Stewart Till, CBE graduated from Essex with an MA in American Politics and is now Chairman and CEO of United International Pictures (UIP), the world's leading distributor of feature length motion pictures. He is responsible for overseeing the distribution of Paramount, Universal and DreamWorks productions. Stewart previously worked in advertising, before moving to hold positions at WEA Records and CBS/Fox Video. He helped orchestrate the launch of Rupert Murdoch's Sky Television network and was Head of Movies at BSkyB. Stewart is Chairman of the UK Film Council, which is a government-backed strategic agency for film in the UK, and was awarded a CBE in the 2000 New Year's Honours.

Shami Chakrabarti

Shami Chakrabarti became Director of Liberty, one of the UK's leading human rights and civil liberties organisations, in September 2003. She worked as a barrister at the Home Office before joining Liberty in 2001. Shami spent the next two years campaigning against the increasingly severe anti-terrorist measures that followed 9/11 and is a prominent opponent of counter-terrorism legislation.

The Right Honourable Sir Philip Otton PC

The Right Honourable Sir Philip Otton PC is a retired judge of the Court of Appeal. He was appointed a High Court Judge (Queen's Bench Division) in 1983, to the Court of Appeal in 1985 and to the Court of Appeal in Gibraltar in 2004. He continues to sit in the Privy Council and the Court of Appeal on occasions. Sir Philip was President of the Society of Construction Law, President of the Personal Injury Bar Association and is an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Judicial Administration at Birmingham University. In 2004 he was re-appointed, by the Prime Minister, as a Surveillance Commissioner, a post he will hold until 2007. He has also been a Visitor to the University since 2000.

Sir John Tusa

Sir John Tusa has been Managing Director of the Barbican Centre since 1995. He studied at Trinity College, Cambridge before joining the BBC in 1979 to work on Newsnight. He was named Royal Television Society's TV Journalist of the Year in 1983 and received BAFTA's Richard Dimbleby Award in 1995. In 1982 he launched the pioneering BBC2 history programme Timewatch. Sir John was made Managing Director of the BBC External Services, later BBC World Service, in 1988, where he established BBC World Service Television. He has co-authored two books of contemporary history and writes for national newspapers. In 2003 he gave the University's Annual Burrows Lecture on East Tilbury's Bata Shoe Factory. In 1998 he received the Order of the White Rose of Finland, Knight First Class.

Professor Simon Schama, CBE

Professor Simon Schama, CBE studied History at Cambridge before lecturing at Cambridge and Oxford. After 13 years as a professor at Harvard University, he is now at Columbia University. He has produced numerous publications, as well as writing and presenting the fifteen-part series A History of Britain for the BBC and the History Channel, for which he was nominated for an Emmy. He also wrote three books to accompany the series. After the publication, in 2005, of Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution, he began work on an eight-part television and book series, The Power of Art, to be broadcast in spring 2007. Professor Schama also writes for The New Yorker, where he was art critic between 1995 and 1998.

2005

Sarah Tyacke CB

Sarah Tyacke CB has been Keeper of Public Records for the UK government, Historical Manuscripts Commissioner and Chief Executive of The National Archives of England and Wales since 1992. In 1973 she joined the British Library where she later held the post of Director of Special Collections. From 1996 to 2000 she was Vice-President of the International Council on Archives and she also held the position of President of the Hakluyt Society between 1997 and 2002.

William W Gould

William W Gould is founder and President of StataCorp LP, one of the world's top statistical software companies. He also developed the company's leading product, Stata, which in just two decades has become the statistical software of choice, increasing the productivity of scientists worldwide. He is one of the world's leading experts on the design of computer languages and application of computer science to statistical computing.

Sir Nicolas Bratza

The Honourable Sir Nicolas Bratza is a Section President at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). He has enjoyed a successful legal career and was appointed High Court Judge in 1998, the same year he received his knighthood. In 1998 he was elected as a Judge of the new permanent ECHR and was recently re-elected for a third term as one of the four Section Presidents of the Court.

Professor Dorothy E Smith

Professor Dorothy E Smith, one of the founding members of Essex's Department of Sociology, is a world-renowned scholar on the standpoint of women in sociology. Since co-editing the groundbreaking Women Look at Psychiatry: I'm Not Mad, I'm Angry in 1975, she has published many books and papers. She joined the University of Victoria in 1994 and is also Professor Emeritus at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto.

Dr Charles Saumarez Smith

Dr Charles Saumarez Smith was Director of the National Portrait Gallery for eight years before taking up the position of Director at the National Gallery in 2002. Between 1979 and 1981, he taught first-year students in the Department of Art History and Theory at Essex. He also worked at the Victoria and Albert Museum, first as an Assistant Keeper and then as Head of Research, before joining the National Portrait Gallery in 1994.

David Dimbleby

David Dimbleby, current affairs presenter for the BBC, is one of the best-known faces on television. He has presented, among other programmes, Panorama and Question Time and has been anchorman for all general election night coverage since 1979, as well as budgets, local, European and American elections. He has been the commentator for BBC coverage of numerous events including the State Opening of Parliament and the Queen's Jubilee celebrations

The Rt Hon Baroness Hale of Richmond

The Right Honourable The Baroness Hale of Richmond DBE is one of the UK's most distinguished lawyers who, in 2004, was the first woman to be made a Law Lord. In 1984 she was the youngest person and first woman to be appointed to the Law Commission. Over the course of a decade she instigated a number of key reforms and in 1989 was made a Queen's Counsel. In 1994 she became a High Court judge and in 1999 was made a Lady Justice of Appeal.

2004

Lindsey Hilsum

Lindsey Hilsum is International Editor for Channel 4 News. In 1996 she won an Amnesty award for her reporting of the genocide and its aftermath in Rwanda. She has spent extended periods in Zimbabwe and the Middle East and in 2003 won the Royal Television Society Specialist Journalist of the Year award for her reports from the Palestinian refugee camp at Jenin.

Ian Marks, CBE, DL

Ian Marks, CBE, DL is Founder Chairman of the Essex Community Foundation, an independent charitable trust which aims to strengthen community involvement and development in Essex. He was formerly Chairman and Managing Director of Trebor Ltd and is involved in a number of community related charities including the AIM Foundation and The Prince of Wales' Foundation for Integrated Health. He was awarded the CBE in 1994 for services to the food industry.

Dame Helen Mirren

Dame Helen Mirren, who grew up in Essex, has appeared in over 50 films and has twice been nominated for an Academy Award. She has won the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress awards at the Cannes Film Festival. On television she is best known for her role in the detective series Prime Suspect, for which she won the BAFTA Best Television Actress award several years running.

Professor John O'Reilly

Professor John O'Reilly took up the post of Chief Executive of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council in October 2001. He chairs the UK's Network Interoperability Consultative Committee for Ofcom. He has also served as a specialist advisor to the government and the European Commission and is President of the Institution of Electrical Engineers.

Professor Susie Orbach

Professor Susie Orbach is one of the UK's leading psychotherapists, and is best known for her book Fat is a Feminist Issue, published in the 1970s. She co-founded The Women's Therapy Centre in London in 1976 and in 1981 The Women's Therapy Centre Institute in New York. She is also a Visiting Professor in the Department of Sociology at the London School of Economics.

Dr Radhika Coomaraswamy

Dr Radhika Coomaraswamy is Director of the International Centre for Ethnic Studies in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and held the position of United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women from 1994 to 2003. She is currently the Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka.

Professor Linda Colley, FBA

Professor Linda Colley, FBA is a leading authority on British history since 1700. She has held posts at Yale University and the London School of Economics and is currently Shelby MC Davis 1958 Professor of History at Princeton University. She was the first female elected a Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge and in 1999 was made a Fellow of the British Academy. She is also Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Professor Thomas Ades

Professor Thomas Ades is widely regarded as one of Britain's most creative young composers. He has held positions as Music Director of the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and Britten Professor at the Royal Academy of Music, and is currently Artistic Director of the Aldeburgh Festival. In 2000 he became the youngest composer to win the Grawemeyer Prize and in February 2004 his second opera, The Tempest, premiered at the Royal Opera.

2003

Professor Stanley Cohen

Professor Stanley Cohen is one of the UK's foremost experts in sociology, criminology and human rights. Having studied at the University of Durham, Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and the University of Essex, he joined London School of Economics in 1994, where he is now Martin White Professor of Sociology. In 2002 he won the British Academy book prize for his book States of Denial: Knowing about Atrocities and Suffering.

Sir Robin Saxby

Sir Robin Saxby, founder of ARM, Architecture for the Digital World, has made an outstanding contribution to the electric engineering industry. Since founding ARM, the world's leading provider of 16/32-bit embedded PISC microprocessor solutions, he has been Chairman, President and Chief Executive and is now Executive Chairman. In 2002 he received his knighthood and was also awarded the Faraday Medal for his services to the advancement of electrical science, by the IEE.

Lord Parekh

Lord Parekh, Professor of Political Theory, is one of the most eminent Asian academics in Britain. He was elected British Asian of the Year in 1992, and won the BBC's Special Lifetime Achievement Award for Asians in 1999. Between 1985 and 1990 he was Deputy Chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality and in 1998 chaired the Commission on the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain. Lord Parekh is currently Vice-President of the UK Council for Overseas Student Affairs.

Alison Steadman

Alison Steadman OBE trained at East 15 Acting School before making her professional stage debut in 1968. She has performed in numerous theatre production including The Rise and Fall of Little Voice for which she won the Olivier Best Actress Award, and is still remembered for her acclaimed role in the stage and television productions of Abigail's Party. Most recently she has appeared in films including Mike Leigh's Oscar-winning Topsy Turvy, and starred in the television series Fat Friends.

Professor Germaine Greer

Professor Germaine Greer, writer, academic, and broadcaster, is one of the world's best known and most outspoken feminists. Having held academic posts at a number of international universities, she is now Professor of English and Comparative Studies at the University of Warwick. She has written a number of influential books during her career, but is best remembered for her first book, published in 1970, The Female Eunuch.

Ian Martin

Ian Martin, a Fellow of the Human Rights Centre, was formerly Secretary General of Amnesty International and Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace in Washington. In 1993 he joined the UN where he held positions such as Director of Human Rights for the UN/OAS International Civilian Mission in Haiti and Special Advisor on Human Rights Field Operations to the UN. He has also operated UN activities in Bosnia-Herzegovina, East Timor, Ethiopia and Eritrea

2002

Ronald Blythe

Ronald Blythe was born and brought up in Suffolk and has been writing for more than 40 years. In 1970 he won the Heinemann Award for his most celebrated work Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village, a study of an East Anglian village evoked through a series of tape recordings of conversations with its inhabitants. In 1985 he received the Angel Prize for Literature for his book entitled The Stories of Ronald Blythe.

Professor George Brown

Professor George Brown OBE is an eminent sociologist of medicine who has made a major contribution to the study of the social factors leading to depression and other illnesses. For 30 years he has been a pioneer of methodologies for investigating the impact of life events and difficulties on subsequent depression. His best-known study is the Camberwell Study, conducted between 1969 and 1975.

Orla Guerin

Orla Guerin is currently the BBC's principal television news reporter in the Middle East. She was previously the BBC's Southern European Correspondent, a position which saw her cover some of the major areas of international conflict across the world. She reported exclusively on the ETA ceasefire in Spain in 1998 and from Chechnya and Kosovo. Orla Guerin has been praised for her ability to present genuine analysis in sharp and graphic ways.

Mike Leigh, OBE

Mike Leigh is one of Britain's most renowned film and theatre directors. Following 17 years working in the British film industry he shot to fame in 1989 when his film High Hopes won the Venice Film Festival's FIPRESCI Prize. Greater success followed in 1993 when Naked won him the best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival and Secrets and Lies won the Palme d'Or at Cannes and a BAFTA for Best Film in 1996.

Ben Okri

Ben Okri, Booker Prize winning author and former Essex student, was born in Nigeria and began writing at the age of 14. By the age of 18 he had completed his first novel, Flowers and Shadows and in 1991 he won the Booker Prize for his novel The Famished Road. More recently he was asked to chair the panel of judges for the first Caine Prize for African Writing.

Sir Nicholas Serota

Sir Nicholas Serota has been Director of the Tate Gallery since 1988 and was the mastermind behind the development of Tate Modern. His career as a leading figure in the visual arts has spanned many years and has included Directorships of the Whitechapel Art Gallery and the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford. For six years he chaired the Visual Arts Advisory Committee of the British Council, as well as chairing the board that judges the Turner Prize.

Sir John Sulston

Sir John Sulston was responsible for sequencing the first complete animal genome in 1998. He joined the Medical Research Council's Laboratory of Molecular Biology in 1969, where he produced one of the earliest genome maps. In 1992 Sir John was one of the founders of the Sanger Centre in Cambridge. He is now a member of the Human Genetics Commission which advises the Government on developments in human genetics.

Rt Rev John Waine

The Right Reverend John Waine KCVO is a former Pro-Chancellor of the University and Chair of Council. He was Bishop of Chelmsford between 1986 and 1996 and is currently a member of the Press Complaints Commission. He first became a member of the University Council in 1994 and was appointed Chair of Council and Pro-Chancellor in 1995.

2001

Theodoros Angelopoulos

Theodoros Angelopoulos, the Greek born director and screenwriter, has been described as being one of the most important film makers working today. His early work as a director was largely historically based and includes a trilogy charting the history of Greece from the mid-1930s onward. His later work draws more on ancient history and myth but retains a key political dimension. During his career Mr Angelopoulos has won many of the major international film awards including the much coveted Palme d'Or in 1998 at the Cannes Film Festival.

Sir Peter Bonfield, CBE

Sir Peter Bonfield, CBE Chief Executive of British Telecommunications, began his career in information technology and the electronics industry at Texas Instruments Inc. in 1966. He moved to ICL in 1981 and joined BT in 1996. During his career Sir Peter has received many accolades including the Mountbatten Medal from the National Electronics Council for his work in the electronics field. In 1994 he was asked to participate in the High Level Working Group established by the European Commission to consider the creation of the information society.

Sir Trevor Brooking

Sir Trevor Brooking, CBE, former England football international and FA Cup winner, is chairman of Sport England. A well known football commentator on both radio and television, Sir Trevor Brooking enjoyed a distinguished footballing career, scoring more than 100 goals and playing more than 640 matches, including 47 international caps.

Dr Andrei Vladimir Gnezdilov

Dr Andrei Vladimir Gnezdilov, is joint founder of the first Russian hospice. Since its development over ten years ago, Dr Gnezdilov has devoted time and energy in developing the hospice movement in Russia and raising the resources to keep the hospice functioning. Dr Gnezdilov has worked with the terminally ill since the early 1970s and particularly on the development of art therapy. He is founder of the KanTeMuk Psychotherapy Theatre where music and bell therapy, psychodrama and shadow theatre are used to relieve stress experienced by the terminally ill.

Lord Slynn of Hadley

The Right Honorable The Lord Slynn of Hadley, PC sits in the House of Lords as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary. Called to the Bar as a member of Gray's Inn in 1956, he was made QC in 1974. During the 1980s he began an international academic career and was Visiting Professor in Law at a number of universities, including Cornell, Durham, Sydney and the National University of India. Lord Slynn was visitor of the University between 1995 and 2000.

Patricia Hodgson, CBE

Patricia Hodgson, CBE is currently Chief Executive of the Independent Television Commission. Her career in television began at the BBC as a producer and she was also part of the team which pioneered distance learning techniques at the Open University. In 1993 she was appointed Director of Policy and Planning and played a key role in many initiatives, including the original concept for BBC Prime and BBC World. Patricia Hodgson also led the BBC team which planned the launch of new digital and online services between 1997 and 2000.

Professor David Lockwood, CBE

Professor David Lockwood, CBE first joined the Department of Sociology at the University in 1968 and was Pro-Vice-Chancellor between 1989 and 1992. Professor Lockwood has been one of the most internationally influential sociologists of the past 50 years. His most noted publications include The Black Coated Worker, and The Affluent Worker in three volumes. Professor Lockwood is a fellow of the British Academy and recently has been involved in rewriting the census classification with the National Office of Statistics for the 2001 census.

Cyril Ndebele

Cyril Ndebele, retired Speaker of the Parliament of Zimbabwe, played an important role in promoting democracy within the unpredictable and often violent political environment of his homeland. He stood forthrightly for the rights of Parliament against external interference, and established the Parliamentary Reform Committee to strengthen democracy in Zimbabwe. He was honoured for his commitment to democratisation and for his personal and moral courage which has helped to leave Zimbabwe with a strong commitment to democratic values.

Gail Rebuck, CBE

Gail Rebuck, CBE, once described in The Observer as being the 91st most powerful person in the country, is currently Chairman and Chief Executive of the Random House Group, Britain's biggest selling book publisher. Gail Rebuck is also a member of the Creative Industries Taskforce.

Alphabetical list of all graduates

Key

(d.) Deceased
(B) Conferred in Beijing
(CI) Conferred at Colchester Institute
(E) Conferred at Edge Hotel School
(SEC) Conferred at South Essex College
(TAV) Conferred at Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust
(UCS) Conferred jointly with the University of East Anglia
(WrC) Conferred at Writtle College

A

Professor Dawn Adès  CBE FBA (2018)
Professor Thomas Adès (2004)
Baron Victor Adebowale CBE (2018) (TAV)
Baroness Professor Heleh Afshar OBE AcSS (2011) (d.)
Siraj Ali (2018)
Dr David Elliston Allen, MA, PhD (1995)
Sir Geoffrey Allen, FRS FREng (1986)
Peter Allen (2015) (SEC)
The Rt Hon the Lord Alport, PC TD DL (1997) (d.)
Theodoros Angelopoulos (2001) (d.)
The Rt Hon the Lord Annan, OBE MA DLitt, FRHistS (1967) (d.)
Dame Margaret Joan Anstee, DCMG BA BSc MA (1994)
The Rt Hon Lady Justice Arden, DBE (1997)
Dr John Ashdown-Hill, MBE PhD FSA FRHistS (2014) (d.)
Sir John Ashworth, PhD (2011)
Phil Askew (2012) (WrC)
Sir Michael Francis Atiyah, MA PhD FRS (1985)
Professor Sir Anthony Barnes Atkinson, CBE MA FBA (1995)
Sir David Frederick Attenborough, CBE MA FRS (1987)
Gary Avis (2011) (UCS)

B

The President of Chile, Her Excellency Michelle Bachelet (2008)
Baroness Joan Bakewell DBE (2011)
Helen Bamber OBE (1998) (d.)
Alan Barber (2005) (WrC) (d.)
Professor Alan D Baddeley, CBE FRS (1999)
Professor George A Barnard, MA DSc HonARCS FIMA (1994) (d.)
Roderic Barrett (1997) (d.)
Derek Donald Barron (1989)
Professor Sir David Robert Bates (1989) (d.)
Edward Bawden, CBE RA (1974) (d.)
Sir Terence Norman Beckett, KBE DL Dsc DSc (Econ) DTech FEng FIMechE (1995) (d.)
John Bercow, MP BA (2010)
Leila Berg (1999) (d.)
Sir Timothy Berners-Lee (1998)
Francisca Hongla Epse Biaka (2018)
The Right Honorable the Lord Bingham, PC MA (1997) (d.)
Professor Jean Fernand Pierre Blondel, BLitt (1992) (d.)
Ronald Blythe, CBE (2002) (2015) (UCS)
Geoffrey William Bone, MA (1991) (d.)
Sir Peter Bonfield, CBE FIEE FBCS FCIM FREng FEng (2001)
Joseph Borg (2003) (WrC)
David Boyle JP DL (2018)
Sir Michael Brady, PhD FEng FIEE (1996)
Jo Brand (2009) (UCS)
Sir Nicholas Bratza, (2005)
William John Bray, CBE, CEng MSc (Eng), FIEE FCGI (1976) (d.)
Liam (Billy) Brennan (2008) (UCS)
The Rt Hon the Lord Braybrooke (2000)
Sir Samuel Brittan (1994)
Professor Joseph Brodsky (1989) (d.)
Professor Hugh Brogan (2007) (d.)
Professor Ralph Anthony Brooker, MA BSc ARCS (1990) (d.)
John Brookes, MBE (2006) (WrC)
Sir Trevor Brooking, CBE (2001)
Nick Broomfield (2006)
Arthur Frederick James Brown, MA DipEd (1976) (d.)
Professor George Brown, OBE, FBA (2002)
June Brown MBE (2011) (UCS)
Sue Buckmaster (2018)
Alan Bullard (2008)
The Rt Hon the Lord Bullock, Kt MA DLitt FBA Chev Légion d'Honneur (1992) (d.)
Christopher Bushby (2013) (UCS)
Dr Flavia Bustreo
Sir David Edgeworth Butler, CBE, MA DPhil (1993) (d.)

C

Henry Thomas Cadbury-Brown, OBE, RA, AA Dip Hons, FRIBA Hon FRCA 1989) (d.)
Mark James Walter Cameron, HonDLitt (1978) (d.)
Sir Andrew Hunter Carnwath, KCVO DL (1983) (d.)
The Rt Hon the Lord Carrington, KCMG MC (1983)
Sir Bryan Carsberg, MSc (Econ), MA (Econ) Hon ScD Hon DLitt (1995)
The Rt Hon the Lord Carter BLitt FRAgS (1998) (d.) (WrC)
Professor Kenneth William Cattermole, BSc CEng MIEE (1992)
The Rt Hon Baroness Chakrabarti, CBE (2006)
Beth Chatto, OBE (1988) ((d.)
Saskia Clark (2013) (CI)
Professor Richard Charles Cobb, CBE FBA (1981) (d.)
Dr Shirin Chaudhury MP, PhD LLB LLM (2014)
Simon Clegg CBE OBE (2011) (UCS)
Professor Peter Cochrane, BSc MSc PhD DSc FEng FIEE Professor Sir FIEEE (1996)
Professor Stanley Cohen, PhD, FBA (2003) (d.)
Professor Linda Colley, CBE FBA (2004)
Professor Patrick Collinson, CBE FBA (2000) (d.)
Sheila Gillian Colvin, Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres FRSA (1994)
Sir Alastair Cook, MBE OBE CBE (2013)
Richard Cooke, MA Dip Ed (1996)
Dr Radhika Coomaraswamy (2004)
Sir Alan Howard Cottrell, ScD FRS (1982) (d.)
Jill Cowley (2004) (WrC) (d.)
Danny Crates (2007) (SEC)
Professor Sir Ivor Crewe FAcSS (2009)
David John Croft OBE (2010) (UCS) (d.)
Philip Crummy (2008)
Lord Roger Cunliffe, RIBA (2008)
Lord David Currie, BSc MSocSci PhD (2014)

D

Stephens Daldry (2018)
Elizabeth David, OBE (1979) (d.)
Professor Donald Alfred Davie, MA PhD, FBA FRSL (1990) (d.)
The Rt Hon John Emerson Harding Davies, MBE, FCA, DTech (1967) (d.)
Professor Grenville Davey (2015) (WrC))
Sir Robin Day, MA Hon LLD (1988) (d.)
Dr Kenneth George Denbigh, MA PhD DSc FRIC FRS (1968) (d.)
Professor Jacques Derrida, LesL Dipd'EtSup DPh DrEtat Officier Des Palmes Académiques (1987) (d.)
Philippe Arthur de Seynes (1982) (d.)
L B Dillingham (2001) (WrC)
Mr David Dimbleby (2005)
James Dodds (2007)
Jimmy Doherty PhD (2010) (UCS)
Sir John Francis Donaldson, MA (1983) (d.)
Professor Mary Douglas, DPhil FBA (1992) (d.)
Rena Dourou (2018)
Professor Jacques Drèze, PhD (1980) (d.)
Professor Greg Duncan (1999)
Peter Dury, MBE (2002) (WrC)
Janine Duvitski (2018)
Lord (John) Dyson (2013)

E

Mr John Elkington, BA MPhil (2014)
Professor Sir Roger James Elliott, MA DPhil DSc FRS (1993) (d.)
Frederick George Emmison, MBE FSA FRHistS (1971) (d.)
Roger Eno (2018) (CI)
Lady Clare Euston (2008) (UCS)
Alun Evans, BA MPhil (2017)
Dee Evans (2008)
George Ewart Evans, BA (1982) (d.)
Sir William Vincent John Evans, GCMG MBE QC MA BCL (1986) (d.)
Obiageli Ezekwesili, MILD MPA (2016)

F

Professor Samuel Edward Finer, MA DLitt (1982) (d.)
John Brian Finney CBE (1999) (WrC)
Peter Firmin (2015) MA(h), (2015) (d.)
Tony Fisher (2018) (CI)
Sir Denis Forman, OBE, DUniv, DL (1986) (d.)
Michael Foreman (2016) (UCS)
Joanna Katharine Foster, CBE (1993)
Christina Agnes Lilian Foyle (1975) (d.)
Professor Jean Franco, PhD (1992) (d.)
Professor Carlos Fuentes, DLitt LLD (1987) (d.)

G

Bruce Galleway (2019)
Will Gardner (2016) (UCS)
William John Poulton Maxwell Garnett, CBE, MA (1977) (d.)
Professor Charles Garraway, CBE (2012)
Dr Hans-Dietrich Genscher, (1993)
John Alexander Georgiadis (Gabrieli Quartet) (1990)
The Rt Hon the Lord Gilmour, PC (1995) (d.)
The Rt Hon the Lord Gladwyn, GCMG GCVO CB, DCL (1974) (d.)
Dame Evelyn Glennie CH, CBE, DBE (1998)
Dr Andrei Vladimir Gnezdilov, MD PhD (2001)
Sir Ernst Hans Josef Gombrich, OM CBE MA PhD FBA FSA (1977) (d.)
Mark Goodall (2016) (UCS)
Professor Dame Julia Goodfellow DBE, CBE (2004)
Elinor Goodman (2000)
Bill Gore (2012) (d.)
Colonel Richard Bennett Gosling, OBE MA CEng FIMechE (1993) (d.)
William W Gould (2005)
Victor William Gray, MBE MA (1993)
Professor Chris Green, OBE (2009) (UCS)
Professor Germaine Greer, PhD (2003)
Loyd Grossman OBE (2014)
Steve Groves (2010) (CI)
The Hon Anthony Roy Gubbay, BA MA LLM (1994)
Orla Guerin, MBE (Honorary) (2002)
Sally Gunnell, OBE (2010) (WrC)

H

The Right Honorable Baroness Brenda Hale of Richmond, DBE (2005)
Dr Elizabeth Hall, OBE MB BS, MRCS LRCP DRCOG, JP (1996)
Professor David Hall (2009) (UCS)
Sir Peter Reginald Frederick Hall, KT CBE MA Hon DLitt Chevalier de L'Orde des Arts et des Lettres (1995)
The Rt Hon the Earl of Halsbury, BSc DTech FRIC FIP FRS (1968) (d.)
Professor Ab Hamid Khairuddin (2018)
Charles Handy (2000)
Brian Hanrahan, BA (1990) (d.)
Jerry Harpur (2004) (WrC)
Professor Sir Martin Best Harris, CBE MA PhD LLD (1993)
Sir Wilson Harris (1996) (d.)
Ralph David Hart, OBE BSc CPhys MInstP (1995) (d.)
Anthony Keith Harvey, FRAM (Gabrieli Quartet) (1990)
The Rt Hon the Lord Haskins (2000)
Ray Hawes, OBE (1997)
Sir Garry Hawkes, CBE (2016)
Ian Hay (CI) (2009)
Dame Rosalyn Higgins, JSD, QC (1996)
Lindsey Hilsum (2004)
Anya Hindmarch, CBE (2017)
Sir Charles Antony Richard Hoare, MA CertStats HonDSc FRS (1991)
Penelope Hobhouse, MBE (2003) (WrC)
Professor Eric Hobsbawm, BA PhD FBA (1996) (d.)
Jan Hodges, OBE BA MA (2012) (SEC)
Dame Patricia Hodgson, CBE, MA LRAM (2001)
Jane Holderness-Roddam, CBE LVO (2001) (WrC)
Imogen Holst, FRCM (1968) (d.)
Sir John Austin Hungerford Leigh Hoskyns, HonDSc (1987) (d.)
Tim How (2008) (UCS)
Jeremy Hulme (2012) (WrC)
Professor Robert Arthur Humphreys, OBE MA PhD DLitt (1973) (d.)
Baroness James of Holland Park, OBE FRSL JP (1996) (d.)
Steven Huckle (2019) (CI)

J

Richard Jacques (2013) (CI)
Sir Alex Jarratt, CB DL (1997) (d.)
Sir George Rowland Jefferson, Hon BSc, FEng Hon FIMechE FRAeS FBIM FCGI FRSA (1985)(d.)
The Rt Hon Roy Harris Jenkins, BA HonDPhil (1978) (d.)
Ian Douglas Jewel, ARCM (Gabrieli Quartet) (1990)
Hugh Johnson, OBE (1998)
Professor Ron Johnston, OBE MA PhD (1996)
Professor Stephen Jones (1999)
Lady Barbara Judge, CBE BA JD (2008) (UCS)
Phill Jupitus (2010) (SEC)

K

Kenji Kawakatsu, Blue Ribbon Medal of Japan, Commander of the Order of the Crown of Belgium (1991)
Lucy Kellaway (2012)
Paul Kelly (2012) (WrC)
George Kieffer (2017)
Maurice George Kendall, MA ScD FBA (1968) (d.)
William Kendall, DL (2011) (UCS)
Baroness Helena Kennedy, QC (2017)
John Kerr, MBE (2002) (WrC)
Professor Tom Kilburn, CBE MA PhD DSc, FIEE FRS (1968) (d.)
Mat Kirby (2016) (UCS)
Professor Sir Hans Leo Kornberg, MA PhD DSc ScD FIBiol FRS (1979) (d.)
Sergei Kovalev (1996) (d.)

L

Hanif Lalani, OBE BA (2010)
Baroness Martha Lane-Fox, CBE (2014)
The Rt Hon the Lord Leatherland, OBE JP DL (1973) (d.)
Kenny Leck (2017)
Professor Ilse Lehiste, MA PhD (1977) (d.)
Rosamond Nina Lehmann, CBE (1988) (d.)
Mike Leigh, OBE (2002)
Annie Lennox, OBE (2013)
Jason Leonard, OBE (2017)
Leah Sarah Levin, BA(SocSc) BSc(Econ) (1992)
Paul Lewis (2013)
Admiral Sir Andrew Mackenzie Lewis, KCB (1990) (d.)
John Frederick Norman Lewis (1987) (d.)
Daniel Libeskind (1999)
Professor Denise Lievesley, CBE (2013)
Professor Sir Michael James Lighthill, BA DSc FRAeS FRS (1967) (d.)
Professor Richard Lipsey, BA MA PhD Order of Canada FRSC, Fellow Econometric Society (1996)
Professor the Baroness Lister, CBE FBA AcSS (2012)
Professor David Lockwood, CBE BSc PhD (2001) (d.)
Ignacio Duran Loera (2011)
Professor Hugh Christopher Longuet-Higgins, MA DPhil DUniv FRS FRSE (1981) (d.)
Dora Love (2009) (d.)
Joseph Marie Antoine Hubert Luns, HonGCMG HonCH DCL (1974) (d.)

M

Richard Mabey (2007)
Betty Makoni (2019)
Dr Liz MacDonald (2018) (TAV)
Professor Alasdair MacIntyre, BA MA HonDHL DLit (1990)
Graça Machel DBE (1997)
Professor Andrew Mack (2015)
Ian Marks, CBE DL (2004) (d.)
Geoffrey Haward Martin, CBE, MA DPhil (1989) (d.)
Ian Martin, MA (Cantab) (2003)
Sir Leslie Martin, MA PhD LLD FRIBA (1976) (d.)
Dr Ruth May (2016) (UCS)
Neil McArthur, MBE BSc (2009)
The Rt Revd Thomas McMahon (1991)
Professor James Edward Meade, CB, MA DSc Econ FBA (1975) (d.)
Robert Mee (2010) (UCS)
Sir Robert Edgar Megarry, PC MA LLD HonLLD FBA (1991) (d.)
Kenneth Mellanby, CBE, BA PhD ScD HonDSc (1980) (d.)
Sir Harry Work Melville, KCB PhD DSc LLD DCL DTech FRIC FRS (1975) (d.)
Sir Tim Melville-Ross, CBE FCIS FRSA CIMgt FCIB (2008)
Murray Melvin (2015) (d.)
Elizabeth Milburn, MBE (2010) (UCS)
Sir Keith Mills, GBE DL (2013)
Mick Mills, MBE (2013) (UCS)
Professor Robin Milner, FRS FRSE (2000) (d.)
Dame Helen Mirren, DBE (2004)
Nuala Mole, BA (2009)
George Monbiot (2007)
Jack Monroe (2015)
Dr Mike More CBE (2009) (UCS)
Frances Morris (2017)
Helena Morrissey, DBE CBE (2016)
Canon Peter Mortimer, MBE (2009) (UCS)
The Honorable Mr Justice Erik Mose (2007)
Professor Sir Nevill Francis Mott, MA DSc FRS (1978) (d.)
Chris Mullin (2011)
James Murphy, BA (2013)
Mark Murphy (2010) (UCS)
Harry Murray, MBE (2019)
The Rt Hon the Lord Murray KCB BSc PhD BLitt MA LLD DCL DLitt DUniv FDSRCS (1971) (d.)

N

Sir Patrick Dalmahoy Nairne, GCB KCB CB MC MA LLD (1983) (d.)
Sir Charles David Naish DL Hon DSc FRAgS (1998) (WrC)
Diana Nammi (2016)
Annemarie Naylor, MA MBE (2017)
John Northcote Nash, CBE RA (1967) (d.)
Cyril Ndebele (2001)
Alexander Sutherland Neill, MA MED LLD (1971) (d.)
Professor Sir Howard Newby, CBE DL (2000)
Freda Gladys Newcombe, MA, DPhil FBPS (1995) (d.)
Dr Richard Nicol (2014) (UCS)
The Rt Hon the Lord Nolan, PC QC (1996) (d.)
Caroline Norbury MBE (2018)

O

Brian Oakley CBE MA (1998) (d.)
William Edgar (Bill) Oddie OBE (2006) (WrC)
Ben Okri, OBE, FRSL (2002)
Henry Olonga (2013) (UCS)
Baroness Onora O'Neill, CH CBE BA MA PhD, FBA (1996)
Professor Susie Orbach, (2004)
Phil O'Donovan BSc MSc PhD FREng FIET CEng (2019)
Professor Sir John O'Reilly, FREng FIEE (2004)
Brendan Joseph O'Reilly (Gabrieli Quartet) (1990)
The Right Honorable Sir Philip Otton, PC (2006)
Dame Anne Owers, DBE CBE (2006)

P

Baron Parekh of Kingston-upon-Hull, BA MA PhD Tony Parker (1994) (d.)
Sir Peter Neville Luard Pears, CBE FRCM HonRAM DUniv DLitt DMus (1981) (d.)
Danny Pecorelli (2016)
Anthony Peel (2003) (WrC)
Sir Roger Penrose, BSc PhD FRS (1996)
Jack Petchey CBE, OBE (2008)
Grayson Perry CBE (2012) (CI)
Professor Sir David Chilton Phillips, PhD FRS (1983) (d.)
Peter Philpot (2010) (WrC)
Karen Pickering, MBE (2007)
Jan Jaroslav Pinkava, BSc PhD (2014)
John Egerton Christmas Piper, CH DLitt HonRIBA HonARCA (1984) (d.)
Professor Sir Christopher Pissarides, BA, MA, PhD (2012)
Tony Pitcher, BA BSc MSc MIoD FRSA (2003)(SEC)
The Baroness Platt of Writtle, CBE DL MA HonDSc CEng FRAES HonFIMechE (1985) (d.)
Professor Michael Podro, CBE, FBA (2000) (d.)
Will Pooley, MBE (2016)
Kwok Yue Ellen Poon, BSc PhD (2012)
The Hon. Sir Jonathon Espie Porritt, 2nd Baronet, CBE, BA (1991)
Geoff Posner, BA (2016)
Peter Preston, BA HonDLitt (1994) (d.)
David Priest, CEng FIMechE Hon Fellow (2010) (CI)
John Pullinger, CB (2016)

Q

Diana Quick (2016) (UCS)
Professor Sir Randolph Quirk, DLitt LLD, FBA (1986)

R

Dr Oliver Rackham (2000) (d.)
Dr Katherine Rake, OBE (2010)
Sir Shridath Surendranath Ramphal, CMG QC SC (1980)
Afsheen Rashid, MBE (2017)
Kirsten Rausing (2008) (UCS)
Alan Rawsthorne, CBE DMus (1971) (d.)
Ian Ray (2015) (CI)
Baroness Gail Rebuck of Bloomsbury, DBE BA (2001)
Alec Harley Reeves, CBE ACGI DIC FIEE (1971) (d.)
Karel Reisz, BA (1979) (d.)
Baroness Ruth Rendell of Babergh, CBE HonDLitt FRSL (1990) (d.)
Maureen Reynel, MBE (2015) (UCS)
Griff Rhys Jones (2010)
Tony Rich, BSc MA MSc PhD (2012) (d.)
Doug Richard, BA, Juris Doctor, FRSA (2009)
John Edgell Rickword, MC (1978) (d.)
Professor Colin Riordan, BA PhD (2014)
Angela Rippon, CBE OBE (2013) (UCS)
Professor Ella Ritchie (2014) (UCS)
Reece Ritchie (2015) (UCS)
Baron Rix of Whitehall, in the City of Westminster and of Hornsea in Yorkshire, CBE HonMA (1984) (d.)
Sir Derek Harry Roberts, CBE FEng FRS (1988)
Mary Robinson (1999)
Baron Rose of Monewden (2009) (UCS)
Hon Miriam Rothschild, CBE FRS (1999) (d.)
Sir John Archibald Ruggles-Brise, BT CB OBE TD JP (1980) (d.)
The Baroness Ryder of Warsaw, CMG OBE (1993) (d.)

S

Oscar Arias Sanchez, MA PhD (1988)
Professor Simon Schama, CBE (2006)
Dame Cicely Mary Strode Saunders, DBE FRCP (1983) (d.)
Sir Robin Saxby, FREng BEng (2003)
John Scott (2002) (WrC)
John Scott, CBE (2016)
The Right Honorable Lord Justice Stephen Sedley (2007)
Professor Amartya Kumar Sen, PhD DLitt DSc (1984)
The Honourable Sir Nicholas Andrew Serota, Kt (2002)
Professor George Hugh Nicholas Seton-Watson, CBE DLitt FBA (1983) (d.)
Dr Tony Sewell, CBE (2019)
Sandie Shaw (2013) (SEC)
Ed Sheeran (2015) (UCS)
Nicky Slater (2015) (UCS)
Sir Albert Edward Sloman, CBE, MA DPhil DU DLitt (1988) (d.)
The Rt Hon the Lord Slynn of Hadley, PC BA MA LLB QC (2001) (d.)
Dr Charles Saumarez Smith, CBE (2005)
Professor Dorothy E Smith (2005)
Guy Smith (2008) (WrC)
Wol and Sue Staines (2010) (WrC)
Sir Keir Starmer KCB QC LLB BCL (2011)
Rosie Stancer (2012)
Alison Steadman, OBE (2003)
Sir Andrew Alexander Steel Stark, KCMG CVO DL (1990) (d.)
Sir Sigmund Sternberg, OStJ KCSG JP (1996)
Juliet Stevenson, CBE (2009)
Casey Stoney, MBE (2015)
Sir Nigel Edward Strutt, TD DL DSc (1981) (d.)
Lord Phillips of Sudbury, OBE (2017) (d.)
Sir John Sulston, CH; PhD FRS (2002) (d.)
Dr Derrick Swartz BA MA PhD (2008)
William Henry Swinburne, OBE DMus (1975) (d.)

T

John Edward Tabor, OBE, MA, DL (1984) (d.)
Professor Bill Tancred MBE (2008) (UCS)
Sir William Taylor, Kt, CBE (2004)
Blythe Tait (1999) (WrC)
Dr Rosamund Thomas, PhD MSocSc MA (Cantab) Dip Soc Admin (2016) (UCS)
Professor Paul Thompson, DPhil (2015)
Alan Titchmarsh (1999) (WrC)
Stewart Till, CBE (2006)
Brian Tobin (2016) (UCS)
John Toland, BSc, DSc, Hon DSc, FRS, FRSE (2009)
Philip Tolhurst (2017)
William Tomlins (2012) (WrC)
Professor Peter Brereton Townsend, BA (1990) (d.)
Polly Toynbee (1999)
Lord Triesman of Tottenham (2010)
Dame Rose Tremain, CBE, FRSL (2006)
Dominique Tropeano (2007)
Laura Trott, CBE, OBE (2013)
His Honour Judge Stephen Tumim, MA (1995) (d.)
Sir John Tusa (2006)
Sarah Tyacke CB, (2005)

U

Sir Brian Edward Urquhart, MBE (1981)

V

Baroness Shriti Vadera (2019)
Rosie Varley, OBE (2009) (UCS)
Gee Vaucher (2016)

W

The Rt Revd John Waine, KCVO (2002) (d.)
Derek Walcott, OBE OCC (2008)
Christine Walkden (2010) (WrC)
Professor Sir Frederick Edward Warner, BSc HonDTech HonDSc, FIMechE FRS (1992) (d.)
The Baroness Warnock, DBE, MA BPhil (1985)
Ruth Watson (2010) (UCS)
Neil Watts, MA (2016) (UCS)
Maggie Wheeler (2014) (UCS)
Max Whitlock, MBE (2019)
Professor Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson, BSc PhD HonDSc, FRS (1989) (d.)
James Hardy Wilkinson, MA ScD, FRS FIMA (1977) (d.)
The Rt Hon Professor Shirley Williams (Baroness Williams of Crosby), CH MA DLitt (1994) (d.)
Professor Sir Colin St John Wilson, RA (1998) (d.)
Sir James Harold Wilson, KG OBE, MA DCL LLD DTech FRS (1967) (d.)
Professor Arthur John Terence Dibben Wisdom, MA (1978) (d.)
Kath Wood (2012) (CI)
Margaret Woods (2014) (UCS)
The Baroness Wootton of Abinger, CH, MA LLD DLitt DUniv (1976) (d.)

X

Yiping (Joe) Xia, MSc (2019) (B)

Y

David Yates, BA (2012)
Baroness Barbara Thomas Young (2008) (UCS)

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