British High Commissioner conferred as honorary graduate

The University of Nottingham conferred the honorary degree to British High Commissioner to Malaysia H.E. Vicki Treadell held on 23 February 2019 at the university campus in Semenyih.

“Today we are honoured to confer this award to a very distinguished person who was the first woman to hold the position of British High Commissioner to New Zealand. We also had the privilege to work together in hosting Prince Charles in November 2017 at the invitation from her office. I was deeply honoured, for Vicki and myself, to be able to show His Royal Highness the very best of British education in Malaysia, when he visited the campus,” said University of Nottingham Malaysia Provost and CEO, Professor Graham Kendall during his speech.

Prof H.E. Vicki Treadell

H.E. Treadell has been the British High Commissioner to Malaysia since October 2014. She was previously British High Commissioner to New Zealand and Samoa and Governor of Pitcairn.

Before New Zealand, she was the British Deputy High Commissioner in Mumbai, covering Western India, from 2006-2010. Her main focus there was economic diplomacy, promoting two-way trade and investment, building relationships with corporate India and the main financial institutions headquartered in Mumbai such as Tata Group and the Reserve Bank of India.

During her time in Mumbai, she helped to land a number of key investments into the UK, the most significant of which was Tata Motors acquisition of Jaguar Land Rover. Equally, she played a key role to support UK businesses in the Indian market, including helping to tackle market access issues for British investors such as JCB and Tesco.

As High Commissioner in New Zealand and now Kuala Lumpur, Vicki has proven skills in dealing with the most senior levels of government from the Prime Minister down and tackling tough issues when needed.

Vicki was awarded Membership of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO) in 1989 and was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in 2010. She won the Public Sector Award in the prestigious Asian Women of Achievement Award in 2009 and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws by Reading University in 2016. She was born in Malaysia and raised here until eight when her family migrated to the UK in 1968. Vicki Treadell believes she embodies the best of modern multicultural Britain as she hails from a half Dutch-half French father via the Dutch Burgher community of Sri Lanka and a Singapore Chinese mother. Her interests include reading, art and photography.

 February Graduation Ceremony

More than 250 students from Faculties of Arts & Social Sciences and Science and Engineering graduated at the University of Nottingham February 2019 Graduation. Each student graduated with a world-class British qualification. The awards were presented by The University of Nottingham Vice-Chancellor Professor Shearer West.