Dragon becomes a Doctor

Duncan Bannatyne OBE, entrepreneur and one of the stars of Dragons’ Den, has been awarded a Doctorate of Business Administration.

He received his degree from the University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Graham Henderson, in a special ceremony at Darlington’s Dolphin Centre. Teesside graduates who gained their awards at Darlington College also received their qualifications at the ceremony.

A great University Duncan Bannatyne said: ‘It’s fantastic to be honoured by the University and I feel very humbled, it’s a great University. It’s great to be honoured in the area where I live and where my local business is.’

Following the degree ceremony he said to the audience: ‘It’s a great honour to see these people who have received their degrees. The work starts today, it’s up to you to pull the country out of the recession it is slipping deeper into. You are the people who can do it.’

Duncan has been part of the Dragons' Den panel since the show was first screened on BBC Two in January 2005. The hugely successful programme has had six series and several specialist shows focusing on past entrepreneurs and the Dragons. On the programme, aspiring entrepreneurs pitch for investment in the Den from the panel of Dragons, five venture capitalists willing to invest their own money in exchange for equity.

Duncan Bannatyne was born in Clydebank, Scotland and now has homes in Wynyard, Tees Valley, London and France. After a naval career, which included a spell in military prison, Duncan began his entrepreneurial life by car trading, but an ice cream van purchased for £450 changed the direction of his life. With 'Duncan's Super Ices', he set out to become the king of the 99 in the Tees Valley and eventually sold the business for £28,000, founding a nursing home business instead.

He sold his nursing home business for £46 million in 1996. During the last ten years Duncan has expanded into health clubs with the Bannatyne's chain, and also owns bars, hotels and property. Bannatyne's is now the largest independent chain of health clubs in the UK. Duncan's latest venture is Sensory Spa, a chain of luxury health and wellbeing spas.

In 2004, he was awarded an OBE for his services to business and charity. UNICEF and Scottish International Relief have benefited from Duncan's involvement and he has recently launched the Bannatyne Charitable Trust to support worthwhile causes.

Duncan was quoted on The Sunday Times 2008 Rich List as having wealth to the tune of £310m.

Duncan also appeared on BBC Two's Duncan Bannatyne Takes On Tobacco when he visited Africa to investigate the tactics used by big tobacco companies in selling cigarettes to children. The stop-smoking charity Quit has recently appointed Duncan as “UK Children’s Champion.”

Vicky inspired by Duncan Bannatyne Vicky Edwards is one of the University's graduates who received an award at the Dolphin Centre ceremony. Vicky, 26, from Darlington, achieved a Diploma in Management following a year of part-time study at Darlington College. She studied for one day a week in the University's Centre based within the College.

The diploma is Vicky's second award from the University, having first gained a Diploma in Nursing from Teesside five years ago. After her first graduation, Vicky joined Darlington Memorial as a staff nurse in the Intensive Care Unit. She then moved to Huntleigh Health Care as a nurse advisor, before returning to the NHS as an infection control nurse for the Stockton Primary Care Trust.

The diploma helped me gain my new job Mother-of-two Vicky said: 'I missed the environment of the NHS. The Diploma helped me to gain my new job; my employers said I brought other things to the table because of it. One example is the course included change management which is very relevant to my work, as I have to be quite strong minded and implement change.'

Vicky is delighted to be graduate in her home town. She added: 'I'm so pleased to get the diploma in the Dolphin Centre; it's very local for me. My husband Paul and my Mum Kim Baird were guests. And I think it's fantastic to be receiving the diploma at the same ceremony as Duncan Bannatyne. I watch Dragons' Den and he's just the sort of person you'd expect to be honoured by the University, the diploma inspires you to be an entrepreneur like him.'

Vicky is now studying another course at the University, a Certificate in Professional Development in Infection Control, through the School of Health & Social Care.

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Watch the video on the Northern Echo website