IT could be said that Chris Brown, the new chairman of Huddersfield University's governing council, enjoys the occasional dip in the pool.

In fact, that's a bit of an understatement.

Mr Brown, 50, is the British backstroke champion at 50 metres and the British record-holder for backstroke at 100 metres, in the 50 to 54-year-old age group.

It's impressive stuff for the man whose enthusiasm for his sport goes back to his days at university and before.

Mr Brown read jurisprudence at St Peter's College, Oxford, and was president of the swimming club and captain of water polo.

Indeed, he has three full blues and three half-blues to his credit.

Currently, he is chairman of the City of Bradford Swimming Club and, when he's not chairing meetings or handing out prizes, he still enjoys a competitive swim.

Mr Brown has been a member of the university's council since 1996 and received a unanimous vote from the other 25 members for the chairmanship.

He was born in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, and was a scholar of St Peter's School, York.

After graduating from St Peter's College he gained his MBA through part-time study at Cranfield University, winning the Director's Prize for the top MBA result.

Mr Brown started his career in the financial division of Jaguar Cars and has since held senior positions with Lucas, GEC and FKI Control Equipment.

He became chief executive of the David Brown Group in 1990.

The group was successfully floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1993 under his leadership. It was eventually sold to Textron in 1998.

Currently, Mr Brown is chairman of Robotic Technology Systems (Manchester), director of Thermal Energy Ventures (Brighouse), director of the British Smaller Companies Venture Capital Trust plc (Leeds) and industrial adviser to Investindustrial, an Italian fund management company based in Milan.

He lives near Skipton, North Yorkshire, and has four children, aged 15 to 23.