Press Releases
John Madejski installed as Chancellor of University of Reading
Release Date : 14 December 2007
John Madejski has today been formally installed as the new Chancellor of the University of Reading in a formal ceremony at the University's Great Hall.
Mr Madejski, 66, the chairman of Reading Football Club, succeeds Lord Carrington as the seventh Chancellor. He was also made an Honorary Doctor of Letters, and this afternoon presided over his first official engagement as Chancellor at a graduation ceremony.
More than 100 invited guests, VIPs, University staff and well-wishers watched as Mr Madejski received his doctorate and was then formally installed as Chancellor.
Mr Madejski said: "I am honoured to be appointed Chancellor of the University of Reading and I look forward to promoting this well respected educational institution. This comes at a very exciting time where recent research has identified the town of Reading as being the number one economic performer.
"We can be proud of this and also our University which provides students from the UK and across the world the opportunity to study in a fantastic environment at this leading centre for higher education."
He told the audience how as a child growing up in Wokingham Road he used to cycle through Whiteknights Park – now Whiteknights Campus - and how he used to look at Old Whiteknights House and dream of one day living there.
The installation – the most formal event in the University's calendar – saw Lord Carrington, who was appointed the University's sixth Chancellor in March 1992, formally hand over the reins with a handshake.
Professor Gordon Marshall, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Reading, spoke about Lord Carrington and said: "Colleagues will of course be aware that Lord Carrington has performed his official duties diligently and with great charm.
"But many of you may not know that he has also undertaken innumerable informal visits to the University and to University events in order to support our particular institution. He has opened doors, promoted our cause, and supported our fundraising in a myriad of ways.
"Above all, he has always shown great faith in the younger members of our community, at a time when, if I may say so, it has been fashionable to criticize the youth of today."
The first Chancellor of Reading was JH Benyon, who held the post from 1926 until 1935. Lord Carrington took over from Lord Sherfield in 1992.
The Chancellor's role is to act not only as a figurehead for the University's activities, but also as an individual who will appeal to, and provide a role model for, the various constituencies the University serves, including most obviously its students and its local, national and international stakeholders.
John Madejski OBE DL, was born in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, in 1941. In 1976, he founded the Thames Valley Trader, now known as Auto Trader. In 1998 he sold his company Hurst Publishing for £174 million. Mr Madejski became chairman of Reading F.C. in 1990, and has given his name to the club's Madejski Stadium.
In 2006 he led the Royals to the Premiership for the first time in their 135-year history. He is also a benefactor to the Royal Academy of Arts, while the John Madejski Centre for Reputation at Henley Management College, the new garden at the Victoria and Albert Museum, a lecture theatre at the University itself and a gallery at the Museum of Reading also bear his name. Most recently, he helped fund the John Madejski Academy in Whitley, a secondary school striving to provide young people of Reading with a new type of creative learning environment. In 2000 Madejski was awarded the OBE in "recognition of his contribution to Reading Football Club and the Reading community".
He is also Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire. In 2006 he was admitted as a Freeman of the Borough "in recognition of the distinguished service rendered to the Borough of Reading, by his contribution to the growth and success of football in Reading, and by his support for education and arts".
Ends