Andy Hill OBE
Areas of Interest
BusinessHonorary Award
Honorary Doctor of Business AdministrationCitation
Vice Chancellor, it is my pleasure to read the citation for Andy Hill, OBE, for the award of Honorary Doctor of Business Administration.
Andy Hill is a hugely successful businessman, philanthropist, and Founder and Chief Executive of Essex-based Hill Group – one of the UK’s leading and most trusted housebuilders.
Back in 1999, life was pretty straightforward for Andy. As board director at a well-established construction firm, his career was ticking along very nicely. Then out of the blue, at the age of 40, Andy was made redundant.
With an outstanding track-record throughout his career, the simple solution would have been to seek a similar role with another construction firm. But taking the easy route is rarely the preferred option for people like Andy, and he decided to set up as an independent contractor, remortgaging his home to finance his first development.
A risk, to be sure. Yet one that’s delivered rewards beyond perhaps even Andy’s expectations. Because today, Hill Group, the business that Andy created and nurtured over the next 25 years, is the second largest private developer in the UK.
Like any start-up entrepreneur, Andy worked incredibly hard to gain new customers, and he was soon winning contracting jobs with local housing associations. Yet Andy was also keen to develop his own projects, and he was given a major boost when one of his earliest developments won the prestigious Mail on Sunday House of the Year award.
The award was testament to Andy’s unique approach to house building – instead of designing projects to maximise profit, he maintained a strong focus on designing homes to optimise the experience of future residents.
Over the next 25 years, Andy continued to resist the trend for developers to conform only to minimum standards of specification and design in order to grow margin. Rather than driving out cost, Andy has always sought to enhance value.
It’s an approach that has yielded startling results – last year Hill Group turned over more than a billion pounds.
Another founding principle of Andy’s success has been his firm commitment to keeping family values at the core of the business, and promoting from within. A true family business, Hill Group has delivered rapid and continued growth by recruiting , training and developing young people in one of the UK’s largest in-house training programmes. And I’m delighted to say that for more than a decade, our university has been a core partner in helping to shape and deliver this programme.
Andy’s ethical approach to construction can also be seen in his commitment to urban regeneration. To borrow Andy’s own words, “when you regenerate an area, it changes people – I’ve seen how it can change people’s behaviour and people’s lives.”
Andy is helping to drive positive change in people’s lives in other ways too. To celebrate Hill Group’s 20th anniversary in 2019, Andy made a commitment to help tackle the homeless crisis, launching Foundation 200 – a pledge to design, construct, and donate 200 modular homes to homeless charities. Foundation 200 is creating a lasting testament of Andy’s desire to give back to our community and support those in most need.
In 2023, Andy’s remarkable achievements were recognised in the King’s New Year’s Honours List, in which he was awarded the OBE for services to affordable housing.
Andy Hill and ARU share many common values, and we are delighted to have enjoyed such a long and productive relationship with him. He is a remarkable businessman, a philanthropist and an inspirational driver of positive change within his industry.
He will be a powerful role model both for our Built Environment students and our Business students. We are delighted to welcome Andy Hill to our Anglia Ruskin community.
Vice Chancellor, it is my pleasure to present Andy Hill for the award of Doctor of Business Administration, honoris causa.