A well-known face in the agricultural and business communities of the north-east has been crowned winner of this year’s Royal Northern Agricultural Society (RNAS) public award.
The award, which is sponsored by the Press and Journal, recognises a public figure or personality for their services to agriculture.
Pat Machray – a former chairman of SRUC and previous chairman and chief executive of ANM Group – is this year’s award winner.
A self-admitted Suffolk sheep fanatic, Mr Machray was born and brought up in Inverurie. His grandparents ran a smallholding at Rothienorman, sparking an early interest in agriculture.
A chartered accountant by trade, Mr Machray joined accountancy firm Johnston Carmichael in 1971 as an apprentice and he worked his way through the ranks to become chief executive in 1991.
He oversaw the company’s growth from a firm employing 120 people to one with a workforce of more than 400.
After retiring in 2007 he took on various non-executive director roles and most notably he joined the board of north-east farmers’ co-operative ANM Group. When the group entered a period of financial difficulty he stepped in as chief executive and got it back on an even keel.
His efforts are now focused on improving the food, drink and agriculture industries, and wider economy, of the north-east through his involvement in oil tycoon Sir Ian Wood’s economic development agency Opportunity North East.
“My attitude in life is I get up in the morning and I just want to make a difference,” said Mr Machray.
“But there’s nothing I like more than sitting in my tractor topping grass and watching my sheep.”
Together with input from his wife Heather and their three adult children Rory, Andrew and Laura, Mr Machray runs the 30-ewe Middlemuir flock of pedigree Suffolk sheep.
In all citations for the award, Mr Machray is praised for his efforts to help others.
One reads: “Pat is a man who has spent a lifetime contributing to the economic wellbeing of the north-east and the agricultural sector.”
Another describes him as “straight-talking, ambitious and a motivator”, while one reads: “Pat is much more than just a numbers man, he is a shrewd businessman whose direct approach has earned the respect of businesses, many of those in the agricultural industry, who have been fortunate to benefit from his wise counsel”.
On learning of his award win, Mr Machray said he was honoured and it was particularly poignant to him to win a Press and Journal award because he had a great relationship with and huge amount of respect for the paper’s late farming editor Joe Watson.
Mr Machray will receive his award at a special RNAS awards lunch next Friday.
