Honorary awards 2018

Angela is an architect, design champion and TV broadcaster, recognized for her work for sustainable and inclusive architecture and design. Angela is an alumna from the Postgraduate Diploma Architecture Professional Practice (RIBA Part III) course and is the Architect Director of Brady Mallalieu Architects Ltd, an award-winning private practice she co-founded in London.

In 2015, she received her OBE for services to architecture and education, and she has been awarded the Women of Outstanding Achievement Award for Leadership and Inspiration and the Lifetime Achievement Award as part of the Westminster Alumni Awards, among others.

Carrie Gracie has been recognised for her longstanding commitment to modern languages and cultures, embodying the values of Westminster.

She is an alumna from the Chinese BA programme. Gracie joined the BBC World Service in 1987 where she has covered African, Chinese and Asia-Pacific regions. Appointed first BBC China editor, she has become a familiar face and cemented herself as a voice for gender equality after resigning from the post over gender pay discrimination.

Colin Barrow CBE has been recognised for his dedicated career, political activity and services to local government. For twelve years, he was Managing Director of E.D. & F. Man, bringing what are now known as hedge fund products to investors and private banks across the world.

In May 2002, he was elected to Westminster City Council to represent Hyde Park Ward, and from 2008 to 2012 was Leader of the Council. His instruction enabled a substantial development programme to commence, which included the building and renewal of social housing, raising of educational standards in state schools and diverting troubled families away from crime, drug-use and anti-social behaviour. Colin has also encouraged diversity in education, with over 130 different languages now being spoken in Westminster City Council Schools. He was awarded a CBE in 2004 for services to local government.

David Batchelor became a partner at PwC in 1984 serving a wide range of clients both in the City and nationally. In 2001 he became a Freeman of the Turners and stepped into the world of interim management for three years during which time he took on five non-executive directorships.

David served as a Governor of the University of Westminster, holding the position of Chair of the Audit Committee, and also mentored students as part of the University’s mentoring scheme.

Renowned philanthropist Dr Majid AlSadi has been recognised for his contribution to improving the relationship between the Middle East and the UK in Higher Education.

A PhD graduate from Coventry University, he is the Chairman and CEO of Eastern Holding in Jordan, and has sponsored several scholarships and cultural exchanges between the Middle East and UK universities, including the Westminster AlSadi Changing Lives Programme.

Margaret is a Registered Nutritionist and has been President/Chair of the Association for Nutrition since 2016. She was Honorary Secretary of The Nutrition Society from 1984 to 1988 and saw the inception of the first Register of Nutritionists. She has been a Research Scientist with the Medical Research Council, Principal of the Good Housekeeping Institute, Science Director of the British Nutrition Foundation and, for more than 20 years, Director of Ashwell Associates, a nutrition science consultancy.

Margaret was among the first to advocate the use of the simple waist-to-height ratio as a warning of early health risk. Primary screening only requires a piece of string: "Keep your waist to less than half your height". Margaret served on the UK Government’s Food Advisory Committee for 9 years and was rewarded with the OBE.

Gerard (Gerry) Stone has been recognised for his dedicated services to enterprise and the promotion of equality in the workplace. Gerry has held numerous global executive roles in several financial services firms and is currently Managing Director in Global Technology and Operations at Bank of America.

Gerry is an alumnus of the University, having completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Human Resource Management in 1997. In 2018, he was shortlisted for the University of Westminster Alumni Awards in the Lifetime Achievement Award category. He joined Bank of America in 2004 and has been in the financial services industry for 25 years. Throughout his career he has worked in London, Dublin, Toronto and San Francisco and is currently based in New York. Since the early 1990s, he has been highly committed to diversity and inclusion, especially LGBT+ inclusion and equality. He is the most senior ‘out’ LGBT+ executive at Bank of America and is the executive sponsor for the bank’s LGBT+ Pride Employee Network. He is also an advisor to the LGBT+ Executive Leadership Council.

In 2016 and 2017, Gerry was named in the OUTstanding and Financial Times’ global power list of LGBT+ Leaders and Allies as a highly regarded LGBT+ Executive.

Gerry sadly passed away in October 2020.

Media Personality and Entrepreneur Mo Abudu has been recognised for her influential services to broadcasting and enterprise in Nigeria. She is the founder and CEO of EbonyLife Media and creator of Africa’s first weekly pan-African talk show, ‘Moments with Mo’. She has spoken at Wharton School of Business, Judge School of Business at the University of Cambridge and Harvard University.

She has also been widely recognised by international media, with Forbes magazine describing her as ‘Africa’s Most Successful Woman’ and the Hollywood Reporter listing her as one of the ’25 Most Powerful Women in Global Television’ in 2013 and 2017. Mo is an alumna of the University of Westminster, having completed her Master’s degree in Manpower Studies, now Human Resource Management MA, in 1993.

Nigel Edwards has been recognised for his significant contribution to improving healthcare throughout the UK. Nigel has been Chief Executive at the Nuffield Trust since 2014, and prior to this was an expert advisor with KPMG’s Global Centre of Excellence for Health and Life Sciences, as well as being a Senior Fellow at The King’s Fund. He was Policy Director of the NHS Confederation for 11 years, accumulating a wealth of experience in health and social care. He is also an honorary visiting professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, with a strong interest in new models of service delivery and key policy issues.

Paul Trijbits has been recognised for his significant contribution to the UK film and television industry and his support to the Westminster community.

He is an alumnus from Westminster’s predecessor institution, the Polytechnic of Central London, where he studied Film and Photographic Arts. He was part of the Advisory Board that supported the Regent Street Cinema’s renovation and relaunch at the University in early 2011. Paul has produced a number of feature films and is Head of the New Cinema Fund, a position he has held since joining the UK Film Council in 2000.

Professor Petts was appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University in 2007 and retired in 2017. During his ten year period of office, Geoff worked tirelessly to promote a distinctive approach and culture in the University supporting fundamental and interdisciplinary research underpinned and informed by developments in practice.

There was major progress in building up areas of excellence, with Media and Communications and Art and Design in the world top 50; Architecture and the Built Environment in the world top 150; and English at world top 200. He sustained the University’s leading position in widening participation and in promoting diversity at all levels and in all areas. He developed global partnerships, including with the Smithsonian and Johns Hopkins; and, through his commitment to the Westminster International University in Tashkent, he promoted British education and British values in Central Asia.

His legacy is also evident in the restoration of Westminster’s heritage buildings and spaces, including the iconic Regent Street Cinema and the Ambika P3 Exhibition space.

Geoff was the elected Chair of London Higher from 2014–17. He was also Chair, from 2010–13, of the Board of PODIUM, which was responsible for engaging and coordinating support from universities and FE colleges across the UK for the London 2012 Olympic Games, and Chair, from 2010–17, of the Universities UK Ratings Group leading delivery of the Framework Agreements (2012 and 2017) with the Valuation Office Agency.

A former Pro Vice-Chancellor at the University of Birmingham and President of the British Hydrological Society, Geoff was awarded the Busk Medal of the Royal Geographical Society for contributions to river research and conservation in 2007, and in 2009 he was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the International Society for River Science.

Geoff sadly passed away in August 2018.