ONE of the ironies of the Honours List is that it doesn’t really pay tribute to the people who receive awards.
Twice a year around 1,000 people are honoured by the monarch.
And because of the numbers involved, the list, announced by the Cabinet Office, is very much that: a list.
It leaves just a sentence or two to name the person being honoured and the reason for it.
Take someone who did receive an OBE in the King’s Birthday Honours List announced earlier this month.
The announcement simply read:
James Sommerville, Graphic Designer and International Ambassador, King’s Trust. For services to the Creative Industry, to Entrepreneurship, and to Disadvantaged Young People. (Huddersfield, West Yorkshire)
It is all correct, but, I’m sure like those of many others who were recognised for their work, there is so much more to tell about James Sommerville’s story.
I’ve known James for many years and was delighted to see him receive an honour, it is richly deserved.
Not only has he done a great deal for charity, but he is one of those people from Britain’s creative sector who have achieved a great deal in this country and then gone and done it overseas as well.
It is not over-egging things to call him a “global brand designer”.
James Sommerville started his own design studio, ATTIK, in his grandmother’s attic with his business partner Simon Needham in Paddock in Huddersfield in the mid-1980s.
They were two spiky haired punk-inspired teenagers from humble backgrounds.
But the two young lads were creative, ambitious and hungry to start their own design business.
They received a £2,000 grant from The Prince’s Trust, now called The King’s Trust.
ATTIK grew quickly, eventually employing 1,000 staff across five studios before James and Simon sold it in a multi-million dollar deal to the world’s biggest advertising agency, Japanese group Dentsu.
It made ATTIK perhaps the charity’s biggest ever success story and James became an ambassador for it, even after he went on to become head of global design at soft drinks giant The Coca-Cola Company.
He was the guy who created the iconic Coke can designs for global events like the World Cup and the Olympics.
He now lives in Atlanta in the United States with his American-born wife Christine, a talented artist, and runs his own consultancy business called KnownUnknown.
He is an influential and inspirational international ambassador for The King’s Trust, helping encourage the next generation of young entrepreneurs.
As a patron and enterprise fellow of The Prince’s Trust, he was invited to the King’s Coronation at Westminster Abbey last year.
Now receiving an OBE and being invited to the King’s Coronation are two huge honours, but James also appeared on the celebrity edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.
His celebrity partner on the show, broadcast in 2006, was model Jerry Hall.
The pair didn’t do a bad job either, winning £125,000 for The Prince’s Trust.
Speaking from the States to local news website Huddersfield Hub after receiving his award, James said: “It’s a great honour to receive an OBE. Not only does this recognition mean a lot to me personally and professionally, but it is a testament to the importance of creativity and entrepreneurship.
“When my art teacher, Mr Cooper at Shelley High School, suggested I attend Batley Art College, it opened my eyes to the world of design. My passion for British creativity remains central to my work today.
“Today, as ambassador and advisor for The King’s Trust, I am excited to contribute and help expand the charity’s great work, for young people across the world.”
What I love about those words is that here is a man who knows where he is but hasn’t lost sight of where he is from.
He is still driven by the creativity that first inspired him, he remembers those who helped and supported him along the way and he channels that into supporting and energising young people to be ambitious and set out on a path to achieve their goals.
This surely is what the Honours system is all about, rather than rewarding civil servants for long service or the cronies of departed prime ministers.
I know which ones I respect and look up to.
FROM one of my connections in America who I want to keep in touch with, to another who wants to connect, but I’m not sure about.
I’ve made plenty of connections with people on Linkedin who I have never met.
In the early days of using the social media platform for business I accepted invitations to connect willy nilly.
Now I’m slightly more circumspect about potential connections.
I’m not looking for a new business coach, life coach, nutritionist or a bloke called Josh who is offering me “life harmony” through his own “wellness blueprint”.
To be honest, Josh talked himself out of working with me by messaging me that his clients are typically “partner level or above” at major global organisations.
By contacting me he must be looking to diversify.
Anyway, an invitation to connect recently arrived from a chap I have never met, or never heard of called Lee Newton Rhodes.
His description of himself intrigued me: “Patriotic Constitutional Conservative. ProLife, 2A, State’s Rights, & Rule of Law. Smaller Transparent Government. Passionate about Election Integrity & Border Security. The Ultimate Political Hailmary.”
Above his photo was a Stars and Stripes flag with the words: “Rhodes for President 2024”.
Now I wasn’t sure whether he was standing as president of his local Rotary Club or book club, but a bit of research revealed that he is actually campaigning to be President of the United States.
Given the ultra conservative tone of how he describes himself on Linkedin, I was surprised to see that he also ran for President of the United States back in 2016 as a candidate for the Democrats.
That is some political volte-face.
But I don’t think Donald Trump and Joe Biden need to worry too much about this potential challenger.
His posts get barely a handful of likes on social media which doesn’t suggest he will be sweeping all before him and heading for the White House after the US Presidential election in November.
And as for whether I connect with Lee, perhaps I’m better off pointing him in the direction of someone he is more likely to have more in common with.
He wanders the fairways of Pannal Golf Club wearing a red ‘Make America Great Again’ baseball cap and bemoaning the fact that Britain doesn’t have anyone of the calibre of Donald Trump to lead it away from oblivion and towards the bright sunlit uplands of the future.
I’d be a hypocrite for saying I agree with any of this.
But he’s my only chance of playing a round of golf at Pannal.
Have a great weekend.