Vice-Chancellor and Class of 2020,

 

Martin Luther King said: ‘Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.

 

So Lesley Silvester was a little girl from an ordinary background who had the courage to take the first step. She successfully applied to the University of Bristol and graduated in 1968 with a degree in History and Economics. She was known as Lesley Jackson in those days, and she sat as you do today, eyes bright, wondering what her future held.

 

Her next step was to apply to Rolls-Royce as a trainee, and she succeeded in becoming one of only two women in a class of 200. Despite the odds Lesley found she thrived working the corporate field – and her path led her primarily to Financial Services, focusing on human capital and strategy, an area in which she specialised over her career.

 

Lesley’s next big step of faith was a move to the United States in 1972 with a year-old son, David, and his father. She has since lived in Milwaukee, Belgium and New York City, climbing all the way to become Executive Vice President of a 14,000-employee insurance group named Assurant, which she helped to take public in 2004 and retired from in 2009.

 

So how on earth, you may be wondering, did I – another girl from an ordinary background, a doctor here in Bristol, passionate about brain tumour research – cross paths with this extraordinary individual?

 

I remember rather anxiously waiting to meet Lesley and Terry for the first time, with Hayley Ellis, a student of mine who wanted to do a PhD, wondering who was coming. I had been told by the University’s Alumnae Relations Office that Lesley would like to sponsor a PhD, and that what was really important to her was that she was giving someone an opportunity, rather than the subject in particular. As she walked in I felt Lesley’s courage, intelligence, warmth and humanity – and of course I saw the twinkle in her eye.

 

Since then I have learned that Lesley is a passionate philanthropist.

 

In Milwaukee, Lesley led an AIDS education initiative. In New York, she supported the city’s United Way organisation, creating an executive-level subsidiary called Women United in Philanthropy that now has 900 members. She is a member of United Way’s Tocqueville Philanthropic Society Cabinet and she chairs the non-profit New York Opera Society Board.

 

Nine years ago, Lesley joined the Board of Directors of the University of Bristol’s US-based Foundation, and for the past four years she has been its Chair, building a communications programme, expanding its network and working closely with Bristol to raise awareness and understanding of the University’s goals and strategies.

 

So like Lesley, I would say: ‘Have courage. Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.’

 

On behalf of the University, I would also like to give a very warm welcome to Lesley’s husband Ely from New York, Lesley’s son David who has come from Nashville, Tennessee, her sister Elizabeth and brother-in-law Robert who have come from Horbury, Yorkshire and Dr Hayley Ellis who has come from Brighton.

 

And lastly on this special day, on behalf of all of us, I would like to wish Lesley a very Happy Birthday!

 

Vice-Chancellor, I present to you Lesley Gladys Silvester as eminently worthy of the degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa.