Nottingham Trent University awards Honorary Degrees and Alumni awards to exceptional business leaders and creative innovators
Nottingham Trent University (NTU) has announced the latest recipients of alumni awards and honorary degrees which will be presented during graduation ceremonies at University Hall from 9th to 16th December.
By Sarah McLeod | Published on 26 November 2024
Categories: Press office;
Collecting an honorary degree:
Antony Edwards is an experienced business leader whose strengths in finance as a qualified chartered accountant led to a successful career in the manufacturing sector during which he transformed the fortunes of several Midlands firms.
Tony graduated from NTU, then Trent Polytechnic, in 1985 with a degree in Accounting and Finance and has continued to support and offer his expertise to the University throughout his career.
He began offering work placements to students in 1993 when he became Finance Director of a Nottingham packaging business. Following this, he was invited to join NTU’s Audit Committee where he shared his financial expertise.
After ten years on the committee, he was asked to become a Governor in 2005 and spent 11 years, including a period as Deputy Chair and eight years as Chair of the Audit and Risk Management Committee, overseeing the development of NTU into a modern university. He was also on the panel which recruited current Vice-Chancellor, Professor Edward Peck. Upon stepping down from NTU, Tony continued to service the higher education sector, offering support to the University of Derby.
Since retiring, Tony has joined the Board of Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, the county’s Trust for mental health and children’s services and also continues to do voluntary work for Derbyshire Historic Buildings Trust.
Fraser T Smith is a multi-award winning, internationally acclaimed artist, producer, songwriter and musician and one of the most in demand creators in contemporary music today.
He has co-written, produced and mixed 20 Number One albums, seven Number One UK singles and two Number One US singles.
Having spent most of his career producing and songwriting with some of the biggest artists in the world, including Adele, Sam Smith, Stormzy, Florence and the Machine and Celine Dion, he has most recently released his own music under the moniker, Future Utopia.
His debut album 12 Questions featured names such as Idris Elba, Stormzy, Es Devlin, Dave, Easy Life as well as the Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage. More recently he collaborated with Kae Tempest for his EP, We Were We Still Are.
Fraser has been Grammy nominated three times, winning Best Album with Adele for 21 in 2012 for their collaboration on, Set Fire To The Rain. He has been the recipient of the Ivor Novello Award three times, as well as two Brit Awards for Best Album. In February 2023, the Music Producer’s Guild announced that Fraser was to be honoured with an award for Outstanding Contribution to UK Music.
In 2023, he announced his new initiative, ‘The Future Producer Academy’ – a project whose aim is to address the issue of underrepresentation in the music industry by providing financial backing and educational opportunities.
L.D.Lapinski. Credit: Karen Thorburn
The University’s Awards for Outstanding Alumni will be awarded to:
Tom Price is an accomplished television producer who specialises in development, devising concepts for new programmes at independent production company, Studio Lambert.
He has worked across many of the company’s award-winning unscripted formats and returnable series including Squid Game: The Challenge (Netflix), the UK and US adaptations of The Traitors (BBC/Peacock) and Race Across the World (BBC).
Proudly born and raised in the East Midlands, Tom studied BA (Hons) Broadcast Journalism at NTU, graduating in 2014 before moving onto a paid internship at Discovery and TLC. Throughout his career, he has also worked on shows including Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway (ITV) and Carnage (Sky).
In 2022, Tom was selected as one of Broadcast Magazine’s Hot Shots which showcases rising stars in television. He is a founding member of BAFTA Connect, as well as being in the support network for Arts Emergency and an active mentor for entry-level talent. Most recently, he was chosen by Edinburgh TV Festival as an industry Changemaker – one of ten TV professionals working together to find new ways to put more climate storytelling on screens.
Gaggan Sabherwal is an award-winning journalist who studied an MA in Television Journalism at NTU. As Executive Producer at BBC York, Gaggan oversees the station’s daily operations and content strategy. She is a key figure in BBC Yorkshire’s Diversity and Inclusion team, helping to promote inclusivity in the newsroom and in the stories they produce.
Gaggan is also recognised for her role as an investigative reporter for BBC Inside Out Yorkshire, where she broke significant stories, including an undercover investigation into online grooming by the Islamic State (IS), a feature on domestic slavery, a film on the Rotherham Grooming scandal and a groundbreaking documentary on being Gay and Asian in the UK.
Before her leadership role at BBC York, Gaggan worked as a Senior Reporter for the BBC World Service and BBC World, where she covered stories both in the UK and Europe. Fluent in five languages, Gaggan’s multilingual abilities have allowed her to connect deeply with diverse audiences and enrich her career through roles across national and international media outlets, including New Delhi Television (NDTV), ITV Meridian and Channel 4 News.
Gaggan was awarded the India UK Achievers Honour in 2023 and was also awarded the News Reporter of the Year award in 2017 at the O2 Media Awards. She was also a finalist for the Journalist of the Year award at the 2019 Asian Media Awards and a three-time finalist for the Best Report of the Year at the Asian Media Awards from 2020 to 2022. Gaggan was also one of the finalists in the Media category at the 2018 Asian Women of Achievement Awards.
Naomi Cowan works for the UK government in Japan as Head of Energy and Climate Change Policy at the British Embassy in Tokyo. She has worked in the climate change and energy field for more than a decade. Her role involves engaging with a wide range of stakeholders on energy and climate change policy and focusing on building UK-Japan partnership in these areas.
After graduating from Newcastle University with a BSc in Mathematics and Psychology, Naomi’s early career focused on mental health. In this field she worked in the NHS, for the University of London, and was awarded a two year postgraduate research scholarship by the Japanese Government to undertake research in Japan in this field. Naomi continued this theme for parts of her Masters degree in Research Methods at NTU which she completed whilst working full time at a UN think tank (United Nations University) and the British Embassy.
On climate change and energy, in recent years Naomi coordinated the UK government’s COP26 Presidency engagement in Japan (2020-2022). She was awarded an MBE in King Charles III’s 2023 New Year Honours for services to UK/Japan collaboration on climate change.
L.D. Lapinski is the best-selling author of children’s books including the ARTEZANS trilogy, JAMIE, theStepfather Christmas duology, and The Strangeworlds Travel Agency series, including Adventure in the Floating Mountains, which was a 2023 World Book Day title.
A graduate of NTU’s BA Creative Writing and later MA Creative Writing courses, L.D. first wrote a book aged seven about a frog who owned an aeroplane.
Their novel JAMIE was nominated for the 2024 Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing, and selected as part of the Empathy Lab UK 'Read For Empathy' 2024 collection.
Together, L.D.’s books are published around the world in sixteen languages and each book in the Strangeworlds trilogy, and the standalone novel JAMIE have been awarded a Kirkus star - one of the most coveted designations in the book industry, marking books of exceptional merit.
November saw the publication of DOCTOR WHO: Charles Darwin and the Silurian Survival, their first book for the BBC IP Doctor Who, while their first book for adults, SOME BODY LIKE ME, will be published in April 2025 under the name Lucy Lapinska.
Journalist Pandora Forsyth is current Head of Social for the national newspaper the Daily Express, leading its social strategy across all platforms.
She also specialises in reporting on the Royal Family for outlets including Sky News, BBC and Channel 5.
Pivotal moments in her career included co-hosting the BBC World News coverage of the King’s coronation and also co-hosting BBC Five Live outside Windsor Castle on the late Queen’s passing.
A graduate of NTU’s Broadcast Journalism degree in 2018, Pandora has consistently pushed herself since she was very young.
Proudly dyslexic and dyspraxic, Pandora was bullied at school and supported by her mother with at times having to be home-schooled. Those experiences have driven her to seize every opportunity, including unpaid work experience with local radio stations throughout her three years at university. She also completed work experience at Radio 1 through its official work placement scheme and OK! Magazine during her university holidays, which led to her first paid job within journalism covering for the editorial assistant.
Professor Edward Peck, Vice-Chancellor and President of Nottingham Trent University, said: “Our graduation ceremonies celebrate not only the remarkable achievements of our students, but also exceptional individuals whose contributions continue to inspire and elevate our community. This winter’s honorary degree and alumni award recipients are a testament to the enduring impact of leadership and innovation."
Notes for Editors
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About Nottingham Trent University
Nottingham Trent University (NTU) has been named UK ‘University of the Year’ five times in six years, (Times Higher Education Awards 2017, The Guardian University Awards 2019, The Times and Sunday Times 2018 and 2023, Whatuni Student Choice Awards 2023) and is consistently one of the top performing modern universities in the UK. It is the 3rd best modern university in the UK (The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2023).
NTU is the 5th largest UK institution by student numbers, with over 40,000 students and more than 4,400 staff located across five campuses. It has an international student population of almost 8,000 and an NTU community representing over 160 countries.
NTU owns two Queen’s Anniversary Prizes for outstanding achievements in research (2015, 2021). The first recognises NTU’s research in science, engineering, arts and humanities to investigate and restore cultural objects, buildings and heritage. The second was awarded for research on the safety and security of global citizens.
The Research Excellence Framework (2021) classed 83% of NTU’s research activity as either world-leading or internationally excellent. 86% of NTU’s research impact was assessed to be either world-leading or internationally excellent.
NTU is rated 5/5 stars overall and for Teaching, Employability, Internationalisation, Research and Facilities (QS Stars 2022).
NTU is a top five university for widening participation with 25% of NTU students coming from disadvantaged backgrounds (HESA 2021-22). It was the first UK university to sign the Social Mobility Pledge in 2018 and was named ‘University of the Year’ at the UK Social Mobility Awards in 2019,
NTU is the most sustainable university in the UK and 2nd in the world (UI Green Metric University World Rankings, 2023).