Tom Bloxham

Thomas Paul Richard "Tom" Bloxham MBE (born 20 December 1963) is a British property developer, founder of urban renewal property development company Urban Splash and member of the judging panel for RIBA's Stirling Prize in 2007.[3] Bloxham has appeared on Britain's rich list and has a property portfolio worth over £200m (as of 2007).[4]

Tom Bloxham
MBE
Chancellor of the
University of Manchester
In office
1 August 2008 – 1 August 2015
Preceded byAnna Ford and Terry Leahy
Succeeded byLemn Sissay
Personal details
Born (1963-12-20) 20 December 1963
Fleet, Lincolnshire,[1] England
Children2
ResidenceManchester, England
Flaine, France
Tourrettes-sur-Loup, France
Alma materVictoria University of Manchester
ProfessionChairman and Co-Founder, Urban Splash
Salary£150,000 plus dividends.[2]

Background

Bloxham was born in Hampshire and went to Tiffin School[5] leaving in 1983 to go to Manchester to study Politics & Modern History at the Victoria University of Manchester. During his time at university he opened a music and poster shop in Afflecks Palace and sold fire extinguishers door-to-door; he tried to increase sales by demonstrating them by setting his briefcase on fire then extinguishing it.[6]

Urban Splash

Bloxham began subletting portions of his unit at Afflecks Palace and this began his career in property. Bloxham co-founded Urban Splash with architect Jonathan Falkingham and initially converted redundant properties, mainly formerly industrial buildings, in north west England into city centre residential loft apartments. They have won in excess of 370 awards for design, architecture and urban renewal.[4]

He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and in 1999, he was given an MBE.[4]

In September 2012 the company reported pre-tax losses of £9.3 million and debts of £234.4 million for the previous year.[7]

In the aftermath of the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire a number of Urban Splash developments were found to have been constructed using flammable cladding and to not comply with the required Building regulations in the United Kingdom.[8][9]

Chancellor of The University of Manchester

Bloxham was elected Chancellor of The University of Manchester in June 2008 to take office from 1 August 2008 for a period of seven years. Bloxham was installed as Chancellor at a ceremony at the University's Whitworth Hall on 3 December 2008. At the same ceremony Sir Bernard Lovell, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Edward Gregson and Eddie Davies received honorary degrees.[10][11]

He completed his term of office on 1 August 2015 and was succeeded by the poet and broadcaster Lemn Sissay. [12]

References
  1. "Tom Bloxham, Esq, MBE Authorised Biography – Debrett's People of Today, Tom Bloxham, Esq, MBE Profile". Debretts.com. 20 December 1963. Retrieved 28 September 2013.
  2. Asthana, Anushka. "Business : Columnists". The Times. London.
  3. "Park Hill shortlisted for the Stirling Prize - Blog - Urban Splash". Retrieved 15 September 2013.
  4. "TOM BLOXHAM - Chairman of the Urban Splash Group". Manchester Evening News. Archived from the original on 16 August 2007. Retrieved 6 October 2007.
  5. "UWEawards honorary degree to Tom Bloxham MBE", University of the West of England, 22 November 2007.
  6. "Urban Splash's Tom Bloxham speaks exclusively to Pride Of Manchester about his life and the city's architecture". Pride of Manchester. Retrieved 6 October 2007.
  7. Bartlett, David (7 May 2013). "Urban Splash debts reach £234m but company staying positive". Liverpool Echo. Liverpool.
  8. Tom Ravenscroft (8 November 2018). "Cladding of Will Alsop's Chips apartment block has "non fire retardant" written on it". Dezeen. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  9. David Rhodes & Jonny McGuigan (23 January 2018). "Grenfell Tower: Unsafe cladding 'still affects thousands'". BBC News. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  10. "Installation ceremony 2008". Retrieved 26 March 2009.
  11. UniLife; 2 Feb 2009, pp. 4-5
  12. "Installation ceremony 2015". Retrieved 28 November 2018.
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