Honorary degree for well-known accountant

A FOUNDING partner of accountancy firm Winburn Glass Norfolk (WGN) has received an Honorary Doctorate from Leeds Beckett University.
 
Colin Glass, who launched WGN in 1975, has spent many years nurturing fledgling businesses and has a particular passion for supporting the growth of small and medium sized enterprises.

Mr Glass was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Business Administration for his contribution to industry and commerce.

He said: “I’m very proud to be awarded this honorary doctorate, especially as it’s from my home town university with whom I have a very good relationship. I’m humbled to think after a fairly long career that I’ve been honoured in this way.”

He said that highlights of his career included starting his own business with two friends in 1975.

Giving advice to students and graduates wanting to start their own businesses, Mr Glass said: “Always engage with people. Engage with your colleagues, engage with people in business – try to get a mentor, someone who’s been there and done it, who’s maybe built a business and got the tee shirt.”

Mr Glass has been involved in a number of diverse businesses, mainly start-ups and SMEs, and in many cases he has been appointed as a non-executive director to the boards of the companies he assists, taking a small equity stake where he believes he can add value.

He was a non-executive director of Partnership Investment Finance (“PIF”), a £37m fund set up in 2004 with funding from Europe and Barclays Bank to support SMEs and social achievement in Yorkshire and the Humber.  In 2014 he was invited to become a non-executive director of the British Business Bank, an independent company, where the sole shareholder is the Government, through the Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS).  

He was also a non-executive director of Leeds-based Surgical Innovations Group, which specialises in the design and manufacture of surgeon-led technologies for minimally invasive surgery.

He is currently a non-executive director of a number of private companies which WGN is supporting and developing with a view to a future trade sale or flotation.
 
Colin is also Chairman of Shine, a local social enterprise based in Harehills, and UK Israel Business, North East (formerly the British Israel Chamber of Commerce).

Leeds Beckett University Chancellor, Sir Bob Murray, said: “Small and medium-sized enterprises are the lifeblood of the economy and we have seen the success of many graduates – and even students – who have launched their own companies.
 
“Colin has been nurturing businesses like this throughout his whole career and I’m delighted that we can recognise him with this Honorary Doctorate for the important part he has played in helping to establish so many businesses in the region and for his to contribution to industry and commerce.”