PUBLICATIONS

Mark Haysom (LLD) - Chief Executive of the Learning and Skills Council

Oration by GR Campbell

Mark Haysom is a graduate of this University, where he studied in our Department of English. His first-year tutor, Lois Potter, described him as a charming young man with a strong sense of fun who could do well if he takes his work seriously; his second- and third-year tutor, Bill Myers, reported that he did indeed take his work seriously, and I can report that he has indeed done well. On graduating Mark Haysom became a trainee sub-editor on the trade magazine for retail newsagents. Such specialist publications can be a subject of mirth on programmes such as ‘Have I Got News for You’, but in vocational terms can be a launch pad for a career in journalism and in newspaper management. Mark Haysom was the high-octane rocket on that launch pad. He initially moved to the Lincolnshire Standard Group, where he began as a trainee reporter, then became a news editor, and then, at the ripe age of 25, editor of a weekly newspaper series. We all know the phenomenon whereby the securing of a job is regarded as an end in itself, after which one can luxuriate in one’s success. Such a notion is utterly alien to the spirit of Mark Haysom, who drove up circulation in the face of serious competition, cut production costs and relaunched the series in a tabloid format. As a result of these successes, his paper twice won a ‘Newspaper of the Year’ award.

In 1984 Mark Haysom joined the South London Guardian as its editorial director. The paper was then independent, but was soon to be taken over by Reed International. During this demanding period Mr Haysom was running eight free weekly newspapers with a turnover of £12 million and profits of more than £2 million a year. That sort of profit margin opens doors, and Mr Haysom quickly moved from editorial director to director to general manager to managing director. During this period revenue growth and profitability soared, despite heavy capital outlay on new titles, systems installation and office relocation. Reed International could not help but notice this firebrand in their midst, and he soon became deputy chief executive of Reed Southern Newspapers. Instead of relinquishing responsibility for the South London Guardian group, he assumed responsibility for two additional companies, which gave him 14 titles in all, with a revenue of £20 million a year and a profit of £4 million a year. This extraordinary accomplishment was realised in the early 1990s, which saw the worst downturn in the London advertising market for a generation. The triumphant survival of the group was a direct result of the strategies of Mark Haysom, who integrated the businesses with a view to creating synergies that would cut costs, and so see the papers through the recession.

There was only one job left, that of chief executive, and Reed was already dusting the seat for Mark Haysom when he was headhunted by Thomson Regional Newspapers. It was an unusual job, in that its aim was to stop the haemorrhaging of a million pounds a month, a loss that simply could not be sustained. Within six months Mark Haysom had halved the losses; within the year he had prepared the company for sale and undertaken the disposal process that enabled Thomson to escape.

In recognition of the managerial skills that went into this great escape, Thomson offered him the choice of running one of two national centres. The choice lay between the successful Newcastle centre and the failing Cardiff centre. It was entirely in character that Mark Haysom chose the Cardiff operation, which was losing £2 million a year on a turnover of £32 million. He drove top line growth and restructured the cost base, as a result of which the centre was soon achieving and maintaining 15% annual profit growth and turning in an annual profit of £11 million. Once again the chair of the chief executive was being dusted off, and this time the fates intervened, in that Thomson was taken over by the Trinity Mirror Group.

At Trinity Mark Haysom began by running the company’s regional portfolio, uncovering and handling a major circulation fraud in Birmingham, which meant that he had to handle 5,000 grumpy advertisers who thought that they had been deceived, and fending off a challenge from Associated Newspapers, which announced that in 3 days they were going to launch a Metro in Birmingham. Mark Haysom cracked his whip, and within 48 hours he had researched, developed and produced a Metro of his own, which was on the streets a day ahead of the competition.

Within a year of joining Trinity, Mark Haysom had become managing director of the group’s national newspapers: the Daily Mirror, the Sunday Mirror, the Sunday People, the Scottish Daily Record and the Sunday Mail. You can imagine the profile: administrative chaos, a loss of sales to the Sun, the collapse of advertising after 9/11. And what happened? Mark Haysom achieved profits of more than £100 million on a turnover of £500 million, and collected several ‘newspaper of the year’ awards in the process.

Where can a newspaper mogul conceivably go from there? The answer, for the time being, is the Learning and Skills Council, of which he became chief executive in 2003. This is the body that is responsible for the planning and funding of all post-16 education and skills – with the exception of universities. I can perhaps give you a sense of scale by pointing out that he is responsible for a staff of 4,200 in 50 offices and a budget of almost £10 billion. His aspiration, which, given his record, seems almost modest, is to change the world, to ensure that people get the education of which they are capable and employers get the skills that they need.

Mark Haysom says in his modest way that the award of an honorary doctorate from this University recognises the importance of the Learning and Skills Council to the future prosperity of the United Kingdom. So it does, but more importantly, it recognises a Leicester graduate of whom we are immensely proud. We are delighted that it all started here.

Mr Chancellor, on the recommendation of the Senate and the Council, I present to you Mark Haysom that you may confer upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws.