Honorary DegreesStuart Patrick

Meet Stuart

Stuart Patrick CBE has been central to the Scottish economy, business community, and the city of Glasgow for more than 20 years. He’s provided inspiring leadership as the Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise Glasgow and the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce. Stuart began his career at Ernst and Young where he qualified as a chartered accountant and studied for an MBA with us here at the University of Strathclyde.

Central figure

Stuart was a central figure in the strategies, investments, and promotions that enabled Glasgow to recover from de-industrialisation and to emerge as a city with a diverse business base, a high level of entrepreneurship, a proud and capable identity and a reputation on the global stage, Most importantly, Stuart inspired a highly committed cadre of capable business leaders who champion and support the city.

He's played a unique role in fostering the leadership capacity of Glasgow.

Forging partnerships

As Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise Glasgow, Stuart forged enduring partnerships between Glasgow City Council, Scottish Enterprise, and the Glasgow Business and Institutional Leaders. What became known as ‘Team Glasgow’ was an approach to collective leadership pioneered by Stuart, where despite differences in policy and emphasis between the different players, he forged common agendas and joint ventures that have endured to this day.

As Chief Executive of The Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, Stuart pursued the same fundamental approach to building partnerships but focused even more directly on establishing a wide range of business-led groups to address diverse topics such as sector development, exports, enterprise, science, innovation, connectivity, aviation, and skills.

Stuart Patrick is also a founding Member of the Glasgow Economic Leadership Board (established 2010) where he’s led the development of the new Glasgow Business Narrative which identifies why investors should be attracted to Glasgow to invest due to the city’s strong economic assets, including the city’s world-class universities.

Public service

He holds a wide variety of public service Board memberships in Glasgow, including:

  • Glasgow City Regional Partnership
  • Glasgow Partnership for Economic Growth
  • Clyde Gateway Urban Regeneration Company (URC)
  • City of Glasgow College
  • Glasgow Science Centre
  • Four Acres Trust

On top of this, Stuart holds prominent leadership roles as Chair of the Wise Group and Glasgow City of Science & Innovation and is co-Chair, with the Deputy City Leader, of the Glasgow City Centre Task Force.

Stuart Patrick was appointed a non-Executive Board Member of The Scotland Office in 2020 in recognition of his business leadership role in Scotland’s largest city. In 2020 he also joined the Board of British Chambers of Commerce, further using the position to promote and advocate for Glasgow and its diverse business community.

Watch

Download video transcript (word doc)

We caught up with Stuart ahead of receiving his Honorary Degree.

Congratulations! How do you feel about receiving your honorary degree today?

Quite overwhelmed! I've graduated here before with an MBA but I don't really remember the service so I'm going to make this a truly memorable day! I'm very humbled by it and I'm going to enjoy every minute.

Why did you choose to become an accountant? 

Ha! I remember the headmaster calling everyone in during my second last year and saying 'you should really start making your choices. Now which do you want to be? A doctor? A lawyer? An accountant? A vet? An engineer?'. I came from a family that had retail interests and business interests so I said accountant, it was as simple as that!

How did your initial career in accountancy help you get to where you are today? 

I trained with what's now Ernst & Young and you couldn't really get better professional training. Accountancy is the bedrock of business life, it's the language of business, and so it gives you a real confidence about how to go around engaging in business so that's helped in everything I've done subsequently. I haven't practised accountancy in more than 30 years, but it's allowed me to do various other roles in various organisations as non-executive directors on boards where that accountancy background has been incredibly valuable.

What’s the most important thing you’ve learned throughout your career?

For me, get good people around you and let them do what you hope they'll do. Don't interfere too much, delegate - that's probably the biggest lesson I've learned. Every time I've screwed up it's been because I didn't delegate to someone who's perfectly capable of doing the job I've interfered with.

What’s been your favourite part of your career?

Seeing the Commonwealth Games arriving in Glasgow in 2014. Glasgow has been my project, if you like, for the last 30 years, and seeing the city in its pomp, Glasgow really outperformed during those 10 days and it was absolute perfection for me.

What’s your favourite thing about Glasgow?

The constant change. Glasgow takes risks and likes to try things - sometimes it doesn't always pay off, but we're capable of doing very impressive things. 

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

I'm particularly fond of the arts, but I also follow tennis and I travel a lot. 

What advice do you have for our graduates today?

Enjoy the day!