Andy Preston (born 31 July 1966) is an English politician, charity chairman, and businessman. He was elected
Mayor of Middlesbrough
The Mayor of Middlesbrough is the executive mayor of the borough of Middlesbrough in North Yorkshire, England. The incumbent since 2019 is Andy Preston.
Referendums 2001
2013
Election results 2002
2007
2011
201 ...
in May 2019. He previously stood for the role of elected mayor of Middlesbrough in 2015. He was previously well known on Teesside as a high-profile philanthropist, having enjoyed a successful career in the town.
Charity work
After retiring from fund management, Preston moved back to the North of England. Between 2002 and 2008 Preston was a patron of international children's charity
ARK
Ark or ARK may refer to:
Biblical narratives and religion Hebrew word ''teva''
* Noah's Ark, a massive vessel said to have been built to save the world's animals from a flood
* Ark of bulrushes, the boat of the infant Moses
Hebrew ''aron''
* ...
. He was also chairman of charity Fairbridge Teesside from 2005 to 2010. The first charity he founded, in 2011, was
Middlesbrough and Teesside Philanthropic Foundation which raises and distributes funds to boost communities across the urban area of Teesside.
An early supporter and trustee of the charity was public relations executive
Mark Bolland
Mark William Bolland (born 10 April 1966) is a British public relations executive. Bolland worked for the Advertising Standards Authority and the Press Complaints Commission before serving as Deputy Private Secretary to Charles, Prince of Wales ...
The Foundation is supported by a number of local businesses including
Middlesbrough Football Club
Middlesbrough Football Club ( ) is a professional football club in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England, which competes in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. Formed in 1876, they have played at the Riverside Stadiu ...
,
Steve Gibson's Bulkhaul and Cleveland Cable Company. It has also won support from Olympic long jumper
Chris Tomlinson
Christopher George Tomlinson (born 15 September 1981) is a retired English long jumper. He is the former British long jump record holder and competed at the Olympics of 2004, 2008 and 2012.
Career
Born in Middlesbrough, Tomlinson began compe ...
. After being elected mayor of Middlesbrough, Preston stood down from his role as chairman of the Foundation, relinquishing any decision-making role in the charity's activities but continuing in an honorary role of founder. By this time the charity had raised more than £3 million.
A couple of years after launching the Philanthropic Foundation, Preston launched a new charity called
CEO Sleepout which holds events across the UK to raise funds to combat homelessness and poverty.
In December 2016 Preston launched a charity restaurant, The Fork in the Road, in Middlesbrough with the goal of providing employment opportunities for ex-offenders, recovering addicts and the long term unemployed. A number of the Fork in the Road restaurant’s staff came through a programme designed to offer precious opportunities to those who need a helping hand – recovering addicts, ex-offenders and the long-term unemployed. The fit-out costs and working capital for this social enterprise came from CEO Sleepout charity and Public Health England. Preston transferred the Fork in the Road from CEO Sleepout to another local charity, Recovery Connections, after being elected mayor of Middlesbrough in 2019
Preston previously chaired Tees Valley Education, an academy trust operating in some of the UK's most disadvantaged areas.
Business
Andy Preston has been involved in numerous businesses in North East England and also invests in commercial property. He and his brother Chris restored the former Kirby College in Middlesbrough, converting it into apartments. In 2013, through a £1 million renovation they also converted a 19th-century Middlesbrough building previously known as the Cleveland Club into office accommodation calle
Boho FourGibson House. He has also invested in a number of start-up businesses in the North East of England.
Politics
Andy Preston was historically an active member of
Labour Party. In 2013 he spearheaded a successful campaign to retain the role of elected mayor of Middlesbrough when then Mayor Ray Mallon called a referendum on the position. Preston stood for election as an independent in 2015 to become elected mayor of Middlesbrough, narrowly losing out to Labour's
Dave Budd
David L. Budd (born October 28, 1938) is a retired American basketball player who played for the National Basketball Association's New York Knicks.
Early life
Budd grew up in Woodbury and attended Woodbury Junior-Senior High School. By sophom ...
. In 2016 Preston took up a voluntary role as Tees Valley business ambassador for the
Britain Stronger in Europe
Britain Stronger in Europe (formally The In Campaign Limited) was an advocacy group which campaigned in favour of the United Kingdom's continued membership of the European Union in the 2016 British referendum. It was launched at the Old Truma ...
campaign ahead of the referendum to decide whether the country should remain or leave the European Union. After being linked as a potential candidate to become the first Tees Valley Mayor, Preston ruled himself out of the race but warned against the election of a "career politician".
Mayor of Middlesbrough
Preston was elected as
Mayor of Middlesbrough
The Mayor of Middlesbrough is the executive mayor of the borough of Middlesbrough in North Yorkshire, England. The incumbent since 2019 is Andy Preston.
Referendums 2001
2013
Election results 2002
2007
2011
201 ...
on 2 May 2019, after running as an
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
. He won in the first round with 59% (17,418) of the votes counted, with Labour's Mick Thompson coming second with 6,693 votes.
Personal life
![Otterington Hall peeking out from behind the trees - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Otterington_Hall_peeking_out_from_behind_the_trees_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1039492.jpg)
Preston and his wife have lived at
Otterington Hall
Otterington Hall is a Grade II listed mansion in South Otterington, near Northallerton, North Yorkshire, England.
Otterington Hall lies in South Otterington, three miles south of Northallerton, on the A167.
One of the earlier occupants, fro ...
, a grade II-listed mansion near
Northallerton
Northallerton ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Hambleton District of North Yorkshire, England. It lies in the Vale of Mowbray and at the northern end of the Vale of York. It had a population of 16,832 in the 2011 census, an increase ...
, since at least 2007.
It has "one of the best topiary gardens in England and certainly the best in Yorkshire".
In 2015, Preston was criticised for using his parents' Middlesbrough address on his nomination papers, rather than that of his actual home, but he denied breaking election rules.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Preston, Andy
English businesspeople
Living people
1966 births
People from Middlesbrough
Mayors of Middlesbrough