Napier University last week announced the appointment of Tim Waterstone, the founder of Waterstone's bookshop, to the position of University Chancellor in a ceremony at the Festival Theatre on Thursday 15 November.

 

Described as "an established authority on the development of early stage businesses," Mr Waterstone takes up the largely figurehead position following a successful career with both Waterstone's booksellers and as founder-chairman of the HMV group.

 

Emphasising Napier University's commitment to producing young entrepreneurs, Dr Andrew Cubie, chairman of the university court said: "Tim holds dear our values of providing access to higher education to all in society, but particularly those from less advantaged backgrounds. He is also the embodiment of entrepreneurship, another of our long recognised attributes." In line with this business background, Mr Waterstone is set to give a lecture at the university, entitled "Brave New World: the changing face of entrepreneurship" early next year.

 

Mr Waterstone's tenure was inaugurated at a ceremony which also saw honorary degrees presented to several other leading business figures. Stewart Milne, founder of the Stewart Milne Group, was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Technology for his company's influential timber frame house design and for their research into carbon neutral housing, while Dr Wali Uddin was rewarded for his entrepreneurial restaurant group.

 

In other fields, Professor William Hardcastle's research into linguistic science at the Speech Science Research Centre at Queen Margaret University earnt him an Honorary Doctorate in Science. Additionally, guitarist Bert Jansch—founder of the group Pentangle—became an Honorary Doctor of music, after being touted as "one of the most influential musicians of all time," by the university. The university praised Jansch's "extraordinary ground-breaking guitar playing and classic emotive songs."

 

In a statement released on Thursday, Professor Joan Stringer, Principal & Vice-Chancellor at Napier University, said: “This graduation is particularly special for us as we are inaugurating our new Chancellor, Tim Waterstone, who I’m sure will be a fantastic asset to the University. We also have four outstanding recipients who we can honour for their dedication in their work to society.”

 

Remarkably, Napier University has been without a Chancellor since 2003. In taking up the post, Mr Waterstone succeeds George Younger, 4th Viscount Younger of Leckie who sadly died while in office four years ago, aged 71. Known to some as "Gentleman George," the former Conservative MP for Ayre and Secretary of State for Scotland during the Thatcher years had held the post since 1993.