Honorary graduands - Tuesday 13 July

Richard Lambert is currently the Director General of the CBI and will be receiving a LLD honorary degree where the oration will be delivered by the Vice-Chancellor Steve Smith.

Richard Lambert joined the Financial Times in 1966, where he worked for 35 years. He edited the Lex column in the 1970s, before becoming financial editor. In 1982 he moved to New York as the Bureau Chief, returning to the UK a year later as Deputy Editor. He became Editor in 1991 and during his 10 years in this role he expanded the FT by creating New York, Frankfurt, Tokyo, and Paris editions and moved the paper online. Its international sales are now greater than those in the UK, making it the global business newspaper of choice in both the City and Wall Street. In 2003 he was asked by the Chancellor to write the Lambert Review of Business-University Collaboration.

A member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee from 2003 until 2006, Richard took up the post of Director-General of the CBI in July 2006. Among a number of other non-remunerated roles, he is also a Trustee of the British Museum and became Chancellor of the University of Warwick in August 2008.

Vice Chancellor Steve Smith said, ‘Those of us working in the University sector owe Richard our sincere thanks for laying the foundations of a much more constructive relationship between universities and business. This began with his 2003 Review of Business-University Collaboration, which was produced at the behest of then Chancellor, Gordon Brown. That review produced a sea change in the ways in which universities and businesses worked together. The result is that it is now unquestioned that there has to be a close relationship between universities and businesses.’

Honorary degrees will also be awarded to: Sir John Rose had a career in banking before joining Rolls-Royce plc in 1984 where he was appointed to its Board of Directors in 1992, becoming Chief Executive on 1 May 1996.

Sir John is a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He is a member of the JP Morgan International Council, the CBI International Advisory Board, the Englefield Advisory Board and is a Trustee of the Eden Project. Sir John was knighted in 2003, became a Commandeur de la Legion d’Honneur in 2008 and was awarded the Singapore Public Service Star in the same year.

Dame Sally Davies is the Director General (DG) of Research and Development and Chief Scientific Adviser for the Department of Health and NHS. As DG she developed the previous government’s research strategy, ‘Best Research for Best Health’ with a budget rising to £1billion, and is now responsible for embedding the National Institute for Health Research.

Eric Dancer’s career has been in industry with over 30 years at board level, of which the last 20 were as Managing Director of Dartington Crystal, prior to his retirement in 2000. He was the founding Chairman of Devon and Cornwall Training and Enterprise Council, the TEC National Council and the West Country Development Corporation, and served as a National TEC Assessor. He has advised the Secretary of State for Employment and been a Member of the National Training Task Force, the Councils of the CBI and Royal Society of Arts, and a Governor of the University of Plymouth. Eric Dancer was awarded a CBE and in 1988 he was appointed Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Devon, a Knight of Grace of the Order of St John and Justice of the Peace.