New Year Honours for Yorkshire’s business community

ENTREPRENEURS and leading business figures from across the region, including Terry Bramall and Peter Marks, have been recognised in the New Year Honours.

Mr Marks, who recently announced he was to retire from the Co-operative Group, receives a CBE for services to the retail trade.

The Co-op chief executive hails from Bingley, West Yorkshire, and still lives in the county.

Mr Marks said: “This is a tremendous honour, not just for me personally, but for all my colleagues and directors of the group who have shared my vision and who have worked so hard for the success we have enjoyed in recent years.

“This business has been transformed, and, once the economic downturn is behind us, it is set to reap the rewards of the investment we have made.

Mr Bramall, who helped grow Doncaster-based construction firm Keepmoat, from Harrogate, receives a CBE for his services to charity.

Mr Bramall supports a wide range of good causes in Yorkshire, including Opera North, the Prince’s Trust and Leeds University.

Mr Bramall’s former business Keepmoat was sold to its management team for £783m in 2007. The management buyout, led by chief executive David Blunt and three other company directors, saw major shareholders Mr Bramall and Dick Watson exit the business.

Also receiving a CBE is Professor Brian Cantor, vice-chancellor of the University of York, who is being honoured for services to higher education.

The lord mayor of London, David Wooton, a former corporate lawyer who hails from Bradford, is to receive a knighthood.

Sylvia Yates, the former executive director of the Sheffield City Region Local Enterprise Partnerhip, receives an OBE for services to the Sheffield City Region and regeneration in the Humber area.

Ms Yates, who retired in June, spent 12 years working in South Yorkshire, initially as director of Objective 1 before becoming director of the Sheffield City Forum and playing a central role in setting up the LEP.

Also honoured, with an OBE, is Alexander MacBeth, the chief executive of the Huddersfield-based Textile Centre of Excellence.

The centre is aiming to revive Yorkshire’s textile industry, using advanced technological processes.

Receiving an MBE is Colin Appleyard, of Bradford, who established the retail business of the same name in 1971. The business sells new and used motorcycles and cars and has six dealerships employing more than 100 staff.

He is recognised in the New Year Honours for services to motorcycle sport.

Also receiving an MBE is Peter McNestry, chairman of the Coalfields Regeneration Trust based in Wath upon Dearne, Rotherham. His work with the coalfield communities of the region has been recognised.

Also in education, Professor Keith Burnett, vice-chancellor of the University of Sheffield, has been awarded a knighthood in the New Year’s honours list for services to science and higher education.

Professor Burnett is an eminent atomic physicist who has also played an important role in developing science policy in the UK.

He was also recently appointed to the Infrastructure Council which will advise the Treasury on major investments totalling up to £200bn over the next five years, including on energy, transport, waste, science, water and telecoms.

And the pro-chancellor of the University of Sheffield and chair of NHS North of England Kathryn Riddle has been awarded an OBE in recognition of her exemplary public service in higher education and health.

Mrs Riddle is a lawyer by training – a magistrate on the Sheffield Bench, a past High Sheriff of South Yorkshire and a Deputy Lieutenant of South Yorkshire.

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