LORD LIEUTENANT OF KENT AWARDED HONORARY DEGREE

Allan Willett CMG has recently been awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws (HonLLD) by the University of Greenwich at Rochester Cathedral.

Mr Willett is a highly successful businessman and was the first chairman of the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA). He is currently Lord-Lieutenant of Kent.

Allan Willett was brought up in Thanet, East Kent, and his family has many connections with the county. After leaving school, he was commissioned into the Buffs, the Royal East Kent Regiment, and saw active service in Kenya; he still maintains close connections with the regiment.

He started his first business at the age of 26, importing packaging and plastics machinery into the UK. Later, he founded Willett International, which develops, manufactures and markets coding and labelling systems. The company revolutionised coding and marking systems, trades in over 100 countries and has twice won The Queen’s Award for Export Achievement.

In the early 1990s Allan began to concentrate more on his public sector work. Until the government appointed him Chair of SEEDA, he was a Director of Locate in Kent, the East Kent Enterprise Agency, and Chairman of the East Kent Forum as well as an Ambassador for Kent.

He chaired Willett International until his retirement in January, after selling the electronic coding company. He plans to set up a range of charitable trusts to further the interests of Kent and small-to-medium sized businesses and to help other entrepreneurs. He has a special interest in enterprise and innovation, particularly when applied to small-to-medium sized enterprises. He is the founding Chairman of the Centre for Tomorrow’s Company.

Allan was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 1997, and Lord-Lieutenant for Kent in January 2002.

Mr Willett joined by over a 100 graduating students in Rochester Cathedral. The honorary degree was presented by Lord Holme of Cheltenham, Chancellor of the University of Greenwich.

Honorary degrees are awarded to individuals of distinction who have made a major contribution to the work of the university, or who have earned prominence for activities associated more widely with education, business, culture, creative work and public service.

A scanned jpeg picture is available on request from the Press Office.


ENDS

For further information:
Nick Davison
Public Relations Unit
Tel: 020 8331 8092
Email: N.A.P.Davison@gre.ac.uk