Honorary graduands
Each year the University confers degrees on honorary graduands from a range of fields.
Our 2024 recipients were Sir Clive Lloyd, Emeritus Professor John Casken, Dame Sharon White and Professor Tony Redmond.
Sir Clive Lloyd
Sir Clive Lloyd is a Guyanese-British former cricketer who played for the West Indies cricket team and for Lancashire.
In 1971 he was named Wisden Cricketer of the Year and he captained the West Indies team between 1974 and 1985. He is one of the most successful Test captains of all time, leading the West Indies in three World Cups and winning in 1975 (scoring a century) and 1979.
He represented Lancashire for almost 20 years, becoming captain in 1981. In 1985, he was made an honorary Officer of the Order of Australia for his services to the sport of cricket, particularly in relation to his outstanding and positive influence on the game in Australia.
After retiring he coached the West Indies and worked for the International Cricket Council before settling in Greater Manchester.
In 2009, Clive was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame and was knighted in 2020. In 2024 he was conferred the Order of the Caribbean Community at a ceremony held in Grenada. He received the award for his excellence and leadership in Caribbean cricket.
Emeritus Professor John Casken
John Casken is an internationally renowned composer of orchestral and chamber music, concertos, opera and choral music. He has had close associations with Royal Northern Sinfonia, Halle, BBC Philharmonic, and worked closely with the Nash Emsemble, Gould Piano Trio and in particular with The Lindsays and Quatuor Danel, both University of Manchester string quartets-in-residence.
He came from Durham University in 1992 to take up the Chair in Music at Manchester, a position he held for 16 years. He hails from South Yorkshire, lives in Northumberland and counts one of his most important experiences as going to study in Poland in 1971 after his studies at Birmingham University.
Dame Sharon White
Sharon White became The Partnership's sixth Chairman in February 2020. Before this she worked at Ofcom, the UK's communications regulator, where she served as Chief Executive. Before joining Ofcom, Sharon was the Second Permanent Secretary at the Treasury and responsible for overseeing the public finances.
Previous to this she held Board level positions at the Ministry of Justic and the Department for International Development, worked as an adviser at the Prime Minister's Policy Unit, and in Washington DC as a senior economist at the World Bank.
Sharon is also a trained economist and studied at The University of Cambridge and University College London.
Professor Tony Redmond OBE
Professor Tony Redmond OBE qualified in Medicine from The University of Manchester in 1975. He went on to specialise in Emergency Medicine, training in the north-west of England and in the United States. His special interests are in resuscitation – including the management of major trauma – which expanded into disaster management and response to humanitarian emergencies.
In 1995 he founded UK-Med, an international NGO based in Manchester that provides emergency medical humanitarian assistance around the world. In 2008 he co-founded the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute (HCRI) at our university. The two together form a unique academic – deployment partnership.
He has responded to sudden onset disasters, wars and disease outbreaks for more than 30 years – most recently workin in Ukraine. He has also been a member of the WHO Emergency Medical Teams Initiative since its inception.