National honour for the Chair of the University of Huddersfield Council

Leading businessman and former High Sheriff Chris Brown's OBE is for his services to Higher Education

CHRIS Brown, the Yorkshire businessman who has chaired the Council of the University of Huddersfield since 2004, has been awarded an OBE for his services to Higher Education.

He has held executive posts with several businesses based in the region, steering a Huddersfield engineering company to global prominence.  In 2016-17 he served as High Sheriff of West Yorkshire and established a special fund aimed at reducing crime and rehabilitating offenders within the county.

He is also a Deputy Lieutenant of West Yorkshire and a record-breaking competition swimmer.

One of the first to congratulate Mr Brown on his OBE – announced in the New Year Honours list – was the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Huddersfield, Professor Bob Cryan CBE.

“Chris has been a fine and dedicated chair of our governing council, deeply committed to the university and the educational opportunities that it offers to people from all sectors of our society,” said Prof Cryan.  “He has been very successful in so many areas of his life and career, but I am delighted that his OBE is specifically for Chris’s services to Higher Education.”

Mr Brown was appointed a member of the University Council – its principal decision-making body - in 1996 and elected its chair eight years later.

"It was a great surprise to receive the OBE, and I feel proud to accept it,” he said. “It recognizes the terrific progress the University continues to make as a world class institution, and I feel privileged to have been part of that journey." 

Mr Brown is the latest of several key University of Huddersfield figures who have been awarded national honours in recent years. They include Professor Cryan’s CBE, an MBE for the Director of Estates and Facilities Colin Blair, an OBE for Director of Finance Andrew McConnell and a Damehood for the leading metrologist Professor Jane Jiang.

Mr Brown’s business career has included chairmanships of the West Yorkshire engineering companies Thermal Energy Ventures in Brighouse, and Wakefield Acoustics in Heckmondwike. He is also a director of Ilkley Lawn Tennis and Squash Club.

Earlier in his career, Mr Brown worked at Jaguar Cars, Lucas, GEC and FKI before in 1990 he co-led a buy-in to the Huddersfield-based engineering company David Brown (no family connection). As Chief Executive he grew the firm into a worldwide enterprise, with manufacturing facilities in 22 countries, and took it to a successful flotation on the London Stock Exchange in 1993.

He is also a competitive swimmer with the City of Bradford Swimming Club, and has held numerous National Masters titles and British records.