Former Graydon UK head Martin Williams passes away

Highly respected credit information chief fought a short battle with cancer and sadly died yesterday

The credit world is reeling from the shock news that Martin Williams, former managing director of Graydon, passed away yesterday aged 56.

CRN understands he fought a short battle with cancer.

Martin was a long-standing CRN contact, regularly talking to our team of journalists about credit issues, and also speaking about fraud at our Channel Expo event in 2009.

On a personal note, I spoke to Martin regularly over the years and always found him to be a thoroughly approachable, friendly and extremely knowledgeable person, who always found time to talk to an annoying journalist on a deadline.

Martin was also a regular blogger for our sister title Accountancy Age.

He had a distinguished, 35-year career, working at leading credit information houses such as Dun and Bradstreet and more recently Graydon, where he took over the managing director position in 2001.

He was also a Fellow of the Institute of Credit Management and was recognised by trade magazine Credit Today as among the most influential people in the UK credit industry.

He stepped down as Graydon managing director last year, and had pledged to continue helping smaller dealers with their credit strategy.

In a statement, Gordon Skaljak, marketing director at Graydon UK, said: "Martin was an inspirational and well-known figure int he UK credit industry. He was also a passionate champion of the interests of the UK's small businesses in terms of managing their credit profiles and accessing finance.

"Martin was much loved and respected by everyone who worked with him. Everyone at Graydon UK is shocked and devastated by his passing, and our thoughts are with his family at this very difficult time."

Nitin Joshi, founder of ChannelMoney, also worked with Martin for many years.

“Martin was a leading light in the credit information world and successfully grew Graydon from a small operation to a substantial organisation. He made a major contribution to credit. He will be sorely missed,” he said.

The whole team at CRN would like to extend our sympathies to all Martin's family, friends and colleagues.