Bradford College

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  • Meet the Corporation
    • Andrew Chang
    • Alan Jerome
    • Gordon Senior
    • Richard Wightman
    • Dale Smith
    • Bob Sowman
    • Rawaz Khan
    • Karl Oxford
    • Ramindar Singh
    • Michele Sutton
    • Councillor David Robinson
    • Nasreen Karim
    • Ian McAleese
    • Dr Kath Hodgson
    • Nabeel Hussain
    • Eve Gregory
    • Richard Brown
    • Helen Kinsella

Richard Wightman

"My business career has been in the timber importing, merchanting and sawmilling sectors, civil and mechanical engineering, and joinery manufacture. All the companies, which formed a medium-sized group of family-owned businesses, were based in Yorkshire, and were of regional or national scale in their operations. In most of my 30 years executive experience, I have held the position of Financial Director or Chairman. I am now retired from executive directorships but I hold non executive director roles in the private sector.

I am former President and a member of the Board of Bradford Chamber of Commerce. I am a magistrate sitting on the local Bench and I was a local councillor for over 20 years, including two periods acting as Deputy-Leader of the Council. I have an excellent overview of the city so I can see where the College fits in to the bigger private sector and political picture.

I have been a Corporation member for about 18 months. Kevin and Michele approached me and I thought their plans sounded very exciting. It seems to me that Bradford College is taking an entirely new direction with a new impetus, throwing out some unwanted baggage whilst still remaining true to the College’s goal of providing good quality further and higher education. One of our great strengths is that our customer base is so homegrown but it is important to use that base to grow, becoming more ambitious in terms of geography and the range of our provision. We need to respond to opportunities whether they are in China, Barnsley or Leeds – the College can position itself to compete effectively in these markets.

I am involved as Vice Chair on Policy & Resources and also a member of Buildings and HR. I am here to contribute as much as I can and use my skills as required. There is a good balance of talent in the Corporation and I am very confident and happy to be part of such an excellent team.

Colleges are not about buildings; they are about enabling people to learn and grow and buildings are part of the kit that helps them do this. The estate we have inherited has served the College very well but is now deficient. We cannot afford the spread of our inherited pattern of buildings as catchment areas and learning methods change. Every so often we have to reassess and look to replacing old, and forging new alliances, while sharing space and adopting new technology as demands on us evolve.

We have to make the very highest quality decisions now, with an eye to the next 50 years. So our decisions must be well argued and designed to produce the most flexible and attractive buildings we can afford. Good architecture sends a persuasive message to potential students and raises morale all round. We should be saying to ourselves 'what we do in the next 5 years must be a worthy legacy to future generations.'"