We are deeply saddened at the death of Sydney a key part of the ethos of ICCE and an extraordinary friend, supporter, and champion of so many creatives and social innovators.

Sydney was a founding member of the ICCE Advisory Board, always offering his time with typical generosity, his only demand that we think better and with ambition for our students and the creative and social sectors. Sydney often referred to himself as the “Babel-fish” accountant – able to translate financial information into ways that others understood, he definitely did that, and  many of our students and  alumni changed their view on “numbers” because of him; more than that he works as a babel-fish for creativity and  its importance – championing it to others at policy and industry level and  even more he was keen to ensure that the insights from our research were heard and  understood in all of the sectors he could reach.

Sydney became a key part of the fundraising working group to support the CCA at Goldsmiths, opening his network and creative thinking to support that successful campaign.

He was selected to become an Industry Champion for Nesta’s Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre, and it was that role that led him to becoming a Research Fellow in ICCE. Keen to underpin his instinct about the potential of the creative industries with practice and other research and to create new frameworks for the potential for ICCE to reach new audiences. Sadly, he became too unwell to continue with this work.

One of his daughters – Sophie – is an alumnus from the MA Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship (Leadership pathway) programme, Sydney was overjoyed to be at her graduation.

Sydney would be seen at almost every Design and Art degree show in London – he told Siân that he could always tell a Goldsmiths graduate from any discipline because “they have a curiosity and ability to question that I don’t see in alumni from other institutions”. Sydney had curiosity, generosity, confidence in others’ abilities and boundless ambition for ICCE, Goldsmiths and the sectors and individuals he championed.

We miss him and take his values in life forward in all we do.

By ICCE Team