University of Essex Alumnus of the Year 2009

I was working at home today on the SFTMS as I needed to concentrate on analysing the data we had collected on our trip. It wasn't until the end of the day that I walked down the path of our little cottage in the chilly Staffordshire hills and checked the letterbox. Inside the box was a letter from the University of Essex saying that I had been chosen as their Alumnus of the Year for 2009. I feel incredibly honoured at receiving such an accolade, particularly when I think about how many graduates and postgraduates pass through the University each year in such a variety of fields.

I gave up my chance of a fully funded PhD in order to work with the co-operatives I had met whilst on the research trip for my MA in Native American Studies (University of Essex 1990-91). Two of the groups had experienced arson attacks due to the threat they posed to the power of the middlemen and I realised that the access to market which I provided was their only source of income. As I result, I made the hard decisions to postpone my PhD at Essex (indefinitely it seems, as it is now over 16 years later) and instead to spend my time helping these groups by designing knitwear suitable for export and training them in design skills and business development. I'm sure that I made the right decision, but do often regret that I was not able to spend the time researching my PhD. This award of Alumnus of the Year provides a real validation of the worth of the work I have been carrying out and I hope that I will be able to set an example to other graduates when I attend the graduation ceremony in July and demonstrate that ethics and entrepreneurship can combine to create a successful business model.