OBE for Uni Director of Finance
Wed, 17 Jun 2015 00:08:00 BST
The University’s Director of Financial Services Andrew McConnell has been awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours
A MAN who has played a key role in making the University of Huddersfield one of the most financially secure in the UK – able to invest millions in its campus – has been awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.
Chartered accountant Andrew McConnell joined the University in 2001 as its Director of Finance. He began a long-term process of financial discipline that has enabled the University of Huddersfield to become one of the few Universities in the UK to have no debt whilst concurrently achieving multi-million investment surpluses.
This has enabled the University of Huddersfield to carry out continual investment in major new buildings without going into the red. More than £80 million has been spent over the past eight years and the University has now embarked on a fresh £200 million ‘building-without-borrowing’ programme.
Working closely with University Vice-Chancellor Professor Bob Cryan – who himself was made CBE in the 2014 Birthday Honours – Mr McConnell has helped to ensure that the University of Huddersfield is established in the top ten of the UK’s University Financial Security Index.
“Without any doubt, Andrew’s financial leadership has been outstanding and his achievements set him apart from other university finance directors,” said Professor Cryan.
In addition to his role at Huddersfield, Mr McConnell has held important external posts in the field of higher and further education. He was Chair of the British Universities Finance Directors’ Group at a time when the sector was facing major financial uncertainty and he ensured that the voice of University Finance Directors was heard. He is currently a board member of the Higher Education Statistics Agency, chairing its Audit Committee.
Mirfield-born Mr McConnell attended Whitcliffe Mount Grammar School in Cleckheaton. He obtained a mathematics degree at the University of Manchester and went on to qualify as a chartered accountant with the Manchester office of Grant Thornton. In 1980, he joined the Huddersfield Office of Revell Ward, as Training Manager. He became their youngest partner in 1982, when he was 28. He became a managing partner before the firm merged with the large international practice of Mazars. He was elected to the Governance Council of its UK firm and was Deputy Managing Partner of the Northern Region when he left to join the University in 2001.
The move was a continuance of Mr McConnell’s career-long involvement with education, including voluntary governance roles at junior, secondary and sixth-form schools. And before joining the University of Huddersfield full time as Finance Director, he chaired its Audit Committee and was Vice-Chair of its Council from 1994 to 2000.
He has been President of the Huddersfield Society of Chartered Accountants and during his period of office he raised thousands of pounds for local charities, including the Forget-Me-Not children’s hospice.
