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Huddersfield Town chairman to receive honorary degree
Dean, a prominent and well-respected member of the business community in the region, will be awarded a Doctor of Business Administration at the University's Headingley Campus in a ceremony on Friday 27 July for his significant contribution to the business community and his commitment to fundraising and charitable pursuits.
The graduation celebrations are taking place at University's Headingley Campus from Monday 18 to Saturday 23 July, where over 5,000 students will graduate over five days, alongside ten honorary degree recipients.
Others receiving honorary degrees from Leeds Metropolitan include England rugby union head coach Stuart Lancaster, Red or Dead designer Wayne Hemmingway, Olympic torch designer Edward Barber, Harry Potter star Matthew Lewis and Mumtaz Khan Akbar is the founder and owner of the Mumtaz Food Group.
Dean was born in Wakefield and in 1997 established 'The Card Factory' which went on to become a business consisting of over 500 shops nationwide, employing over 5,000 staff. In 2010, Dean sold the business to became 100% owner of Huddersfield Town, who were this season promoted to the Championship following a playoff final victory over Sheffield United. Dean combines his boardroom duties with an impressive list of fundraising activities - In the 2009/2010 season Huddersfield Town raised over £125,000 for the 'Keep It Up' campaign, a pioneering fundraising scheme created by the Club and the Yorkshire Air Ambulance with YAA's logo appearing on the front of the Club's first team home shirts.
Dean also recently displayed his personal commitment to charitable causes by cycling from the Galpharm Stadium to Wembley to raise money for the Huddersfield Foundation Trust to enable over 800 children from schools across Kirklees to attend the League One play off final at Wembley.