91Pro

University College to present its first honorary degrees

Posted 15 September 2008

91Pro College will present its first honorary degrees during the 2008 Graduation Ceremony, being held on September 19.

The honours will go to Dame Julia Cleverdon, Vice President of Business in the Community, and Mr Jeremy Moody, Secretary and National Advisor to the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers.

University College Principal Professor Wynne Jones said: “Harper Adams is delighted and proud to announce the recipients of our first honorary degrees. Dame Julia Cleverdon and Mr Jeremy Moody are leaders in their fields and their work has had a strong, positive impact across the country. They are excellent role-models for the 500-plus students who will be graduating alongside them on September 19.”

Business in the Community is a unique movement of 800 companies across the UK committed to improving continually their positive impact on society. Dame Julia was its Chief Executive for 16 years, from April 1992 to March 2008.

During this period, she established a formidable reputation as a renowned leader and speaker on corporate responsibility and has personally been responsible for introducing new thinking and action from within the UK’s top boardrooms.

Her energies in promoting responsible business practice and the significant impact of the campaigns of Business in the Community led to her being listed by The Times as one of the 50 most influential women in Britain.

Mr Moody, in his former position as national advisor to the Tenant Farmers Association, was instrumental in framing and negotiating the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995, legislation which tackled one of the root causes of decline in the national tenanted sector by introducing a new agreement between agricultural landlords and tenants, which also allowed for more flexible modern agricultural business practices.

Moving to the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers in the late 1990s, he continued to be at the forefront of agricultural reform, particularly in the role he took in advising on the practical implementation of the CAP Mid Term Review in the UK.

The beneficiaries of this advice have been both government and the industry, as he has written and lectured widely on CAP reform.