This university means business
Thu, 08 Nov 2012 11:16:00 GMT
A top entrepreneur with close links to the PM tells why the University of Huddersfield is central to his major project to boost the economy
University of Huddersfield Vice-Chancellor Professor Bob Cryan (right) discusses the 3M Buckley Innovation Centre with Prime Minister David Cameron and entrepreneur Alan Lewis (left)
ONE of Britain’s most successful entrepreneurs, who is also a key figure in the Conservative party’s industrial strategy, has spelled out why the University of Huddersfield is playing an important role in economic regeneration.
Alan Lewis (pictured left) – a self-made multi-millionaire whose career has included the rescue of the giant Illingworth-Morris textile group – was appointed by Prime Minister David Cameron as a Vice-President of the Conservative Party, with special responsibility for business relations.
He is the prime mover behind a £10 million project to create a new innovation centre at the massive Globe Mills in Slaithwaite, and he is determined that the University of Huddersfield should play a prominent part in the scheme.
Mr Lewis had been especially impressed by the ways in which the University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Bob Cryan, and its Director of Research and Enterprise, Professor Liz Towns-Andrews, had forged relationships with regional and multi-national businesses. These include the giant American corporation 3M, which has given backing to the University’s own £12 million Enterprise and Innovation Centre, and is also a partner in Mr Lewis’s Globe Mills project.
“I had heard of Bob and Liz and their interest in innovation and entrepreneurship,” said Mr Lewis, adding that he was so impressed that he decided the University should be made an equity partner in the Globe Mills project.
Mr Lewis was speaking during a fact-finding visit to the University of Huddersfield. He praised its “positive approach” to business. He was also impressed by the kudos that the University gave to entrepreneurship and the development of skills, leading to high levels of employability among ex-students.
“There is a creative dynamism here that is very motivating for people like me. The only way we are going to be credible in global markets is by producing the master craftspeople and entrepreneurs,” said Mr Lewis.
He is a serial entrepreneur whose current portfolio includes iconic brands such as Crombie. In the early 1980s, he successfully revived the huge Illingworth-Morris group, which employed some 6,000 textile workers in Yorkshire alone.
But after a long spell of success, overseas competition – particularly from China – meant an end to textile production, although Mr Lewis retained Illingworth-Morris’s real estate – including Globe Mills – with the intention of developing centres for new, innovative industries.
Pictured: Professor Cryan and Mr Lewis (right) with Mr Stefan Gabriel, president of 3M New Ventures, at the site of the Globe Innovation Centre in Slaithwaite.
He says that British manufacturing in sectors such as textiles declined not solely because of cheaper overseas production costs but because the UK had lost its skills base. Meanwhile, careers in manufacturing and engineering had lost their kudos.
Mr Lewis is now attempting to reverse the process, with a roster of projects that include his collaboration with the University of Huddersfield. He is determined to restore the importance of manufacturing to the UK economy.
“The whole thrust is to create production,” he said. “There must be renewed respect in the education system for people who have skills and make things – this will lead to innovation and new products which in turn will create employment and, in this regard, the University of Huddersfield is leading the way”.
