ProCon chair Umesh awarded MBE

ProCon Leicestershire chair Umesh Desai has been awarded an MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours.

The recognition of Umesh’s services to education was announced at the weekend, when the full list of King Charles’s Birthday Honours was released.

Umesh has been chairing ProCon Leicestershire for five years and a board member for many more. He succeeded ProCon Leicestershire founder and chair Pam Allardice after she died in 2020.

Currently the Director of Estates & Facilities at Birmingham City University, Umesh was previously in similar roles at Leicester’s De Montfort University (DMU), which he joined in 1990, and Nottingham Trent University (NTU).

Qualified as a Chartered Building Surveyor, Umesh has worked in the Higher Education sector for more than 30 years and has served as Chair of the Association of University Directors of Estates.

Umesh said: “This honour was a tremendous surprise. I thank my family for their support and also the countless professionals I have worked with at the universities. Thanks, too, go to my fellow ProCon Leicestershire members.”

Fellow ProCon Leicestershire board member Andy Kenyon said: “This is wonderful news for Umesh and his family. It is richly deserved recognition.

“Umesh has been and continues to be a great servant to ProCon Leicestershire and, by extension, to its member companies who together are driving forward improvements to our built environment.”