Robert Gordon University Honours Top Achievers in
Broadcasting, Politics and Business
The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, will confer three honorary
degrees at its graduation ceremonies on the 4th and 5th December 2008 to
the broadcaster Nicky Campbell, politician Lord David Trimble and
Aberdeen businessman Tom Smith.
Nicky Campbell will be awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters
on Thursday the 4th December at 2.30pm. Originally from Edinburgh,
Nicky studied at Aberdeen University before beginning his broadcasting
career with Northsound. He has since become a stalwart of television and
radio. Nicky joined BBC Radio Five in October 1997, as presenter of their
morning news magazine show, and in May 1998 ‘The Nicky Campbell’
show won the prestigious Sony Gold Award for Best Daytime News Talk
Show (for an interview with Gerry Adams) and the Sony Award for Best
Magazine Show. During his time at Radio 5 Live, Nicky has brought a raft
of new listeners to the network with a current weekly reach of 2 million.
His interviews include a vast array of high profile personalities including
Tony Blair, Salman Rushdie, Graham Taylor, Rod Steiger, Terry Waite,
David Bailey, Mo Mowlam, Lulu, Nasser Hussain, Neil Morrissey, F W de
Klerk, Tony Benn, Ravi Shanker and Charlton Heston.
In addition to his Radio 5 Live commitments, in March 2001 Nicky
Campbell joined BBC1’s primetime consumer affairs programme
Watchdog, taking over the helm from Anne Robinson. He has also
presented the first of a number of Newsnight programmes for BBC2. Nicky
has previously hosted the European Election Programme with David
Dimbleby for BBC2, the 1999 Rugby World Cup coverage for ITV and copresented the Sydney 2000 Olympics coverage for Radio 5 Live.
After 10 years at Radio One where he presented weekend, breakfast and
evening shows, Nicky rejected offers from a range of other networks to
move to Radio 5 Live. During his time at Radio One Nicky had built up an
enviable reputation for his in-depth and entertaining interviews which
resulted in two silver SONY Awards – one for Best Interview and the other
for Best Short Form Entertainment.
Lord David Trimble will be awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of
Laws on Friday 5th December at 10.30am. Lord Trimble was educated at
Bangor Grammar School and at Queen’s University of Belfast, where he
received a First class honours degree in law. He qualified as a barrister in
Northern Ireland in 1969 and became a lecturer in law at QUB, becoming
a Senior Lecturer in 1977. Lord Trimble served as head of the Department
of Commercial and Property Law from 1980 to 1989.
Lord Trimble became involved with the Vanguard Progressive Unionist
Party in the early 1970s and was elected to the Northern Ireland
Convention in 1975 as a member for South Belfast. With the cessation of
the Vanguard party he joined the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) in 1978.
Lord Trimble was elected as the Ulster Unionist Member of Parliament for
Upper Bann in 1990 and was subsequently elected leader of the party in
1995.
Lord Trimble was instrumental in getting his party to accept the Belfast
(Good Friday) Agreement of 1998 and together with John Hume was
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize later that year for their efforts to find a
peaceful solution to the conflict in Northern Ireland.
On 11 April 2006, it was announced that Lord Trimble would take a seat in
the House of Lords as a working life peer and on 2 June 2006 he was
created Baron Trimble, of Lisnagarvey in the County of Antrim.
Lord Trimble has expressed his admiration for Elvis Presley and, on 14
August 2007, he presented a special edition of BBC Radio 4's "Great
Lives" to mark the 30th anniversary of Presley's death. He concluded, “If
you look at where popular culture was in 1955, the way in which he
changed it, the way in which he developed it, there are many people in
the music business who have only achieved a tenth, not even that, of
what Elvis achieved.”
Tom Smith will be awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Technology
on 5th December at 2.30pm.
Tom is Managing Director of Nessco – a
global telecommunications company based in Westhill. He is also Chief
Executive of Aberdeen City and Shire Economic Forum (ACSEF) and is
joint chairman of Oil & Gas UK.
He started an engineering apprenticeship in 1968 at Hall Russell
shipbuilders in Aberdeen but after a period of study at Aberdeen Technical
College, enlisted in the Merchant Navy in 1974 joining the Canadian
Pacific Line as a radio officer. He joined EAE Electronics as a Senior
Engineer but left around 1980, to become self-employed. In 1981 he
formed Nessco which today employs around 140 staff and operates in a
global market place.
Tom Smith is very passionate about business and entrepreneurship. He
recently sold a significant share of the company thus allowing him to
devote time to his other interests. He is a proud Aberdonian and
extremely interested and involved in the promotion and prosperity of the
City and Shire through his Chairmanship of ACSEF. He is also very
interested in education in general and has a particular empathy with
Robert Gordon University - having played a pivotal role in developing
commercial awareness and high quality performance in challenging times.
Notes to editors:
The dates and times of RGU’s graduation ceremonies are given below.
The honorary graduates will be available for interview and photographs
after the appropriate ceremony. The ceremonies will take place at the
Music Hall, Union Street:
Thursday 4th December 2008
14.30 - Presentation of awards to graduands from the Aberdeen Business
School.
Friday 5 December 2008
10.30 - Presentation of awards to graduands from the School of Applied
Social Studies, School of Nursing and Midwifery, School of Health
Sciences, School of Pharmacy and Life Sciences, and Department
for the Enhancement of Learning, Teaching and Assessment
(DELTA).
14.30 -Presentation of awards to graduands from Gray’s School of Art, the
Scott Sutherland School of Architecture and the Built Environment,
the School of Computing and School of Engineering.
ENDS
28 November 2008
Issued on behalf of The Robert Gordon University by:
Jonathan Shackleton
Head of Communications
Tel: 01224 262031
Mobile: 07970 622229