Honorary Graduates

Rosalyn Marshall, Vice Principal & University Secretary, will present for the Degree of Doctor of Business Administration, Honoris Causa

Andy Mooney

How does a young boy brought up in a small, working class West Lothian town find himself, nearly forty years later, a citizen of the United States and running a multi billion dollar division of one of the world’s best known and best loved companies? Driven by a quiet desire to succeed and a natural instinct for business, Andy Mooney is the epitome of the global Scot and his story is an inspiration to us all.

Andy was born in 1955 and brought up in a council house in Whitburn, West Lothian where religious divides were a very palpable part of life. Andy was competitive from an early age and encouraged by his parents, Paul and Esther, to do well at school. By the age of 16, he was already aiming high and had noticed that most of the Chief Executive Officers of British companies were accountants. He determined to follow this route himself and, to speed his progress, decided to miss out on college. On leaving school he became a trainee accountant with Uniroyal at Newbridge and completed his qualification whilst working in a number of financial roles in industry. He moved to Leeds in the mid 1970s, and joined Nike, where he was to spend the next 20 years.

He originally joined the company's United Kingdom division as chief financial officer but, at the age of 27, his boss told him his job was being advertised the next day. Andy immediately assumed the worst, only to be told that his boss believed he would be a far greater asset to the company in a marketing role. This unusual transition from finance to marketing only took a split second to achieve and Andy’s career took off. Having held several senior positions, he became chief marketing officer for Nike in the United States in 1994. In this role, he was the head of Nike's $3 billion Global Apparel organisation with additional responsibilities for worldwide marketing strategies for the Nike and Jordan brands. He led the reorganisation of Nike's brand marketing activities and introduced new advertising strategies.

Andy joined The Walt Disney Company in December 2000 and was named Chairman of Disney Consumer Products in May 2003. He oversees the worldwide day-to-day operations of Disney Consumer Products, which extends the Disney entertainment experience to a broad selection of merchandise. This is achieved through several business lines including Toys, Apparel, Accessories and Footwear; Stationery, Food, Health and Beauty.

Under Andy’s management, Disney Consumer Products' business has turned around – he and his team have strengthened the Disney brand at the retail level, encouraged product innovation in the licensing business and developed strong relationships with many of the world's largest retailers. Andy is very proud of his record in creating business growth and therefore building sustainable businesses that will long outlast his own career. Since assuming his post, he has been attributed with doubling worldwide retail sales for Disney Consumer Products from $13 billion to $30 billion in 2008. Andy is also credited with pioneering the $4 billion Disney Princess franchise.

On a personal note, Andy and his wife, Vizhier, have recently started their very own Princess line with the arrival of their daughter, Rose, and we are delighted that they and other members of Andy’s family could join us today.

Andy has been a member of the Global Scot network for a number of years and yesterday he gave a truly inspirational lecture to our business students on his turn round programme at Disney. As we look forward to Homecoming Scotland 2009, when thousands of Scots and those of Scots descent are being encouraged to come home, we could have no better way to anticipate the celebrations than by honouring Andy’s hugely successful global career.

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