A man has been awarded a prestigious honour for his services to international nutrition - now he hopes to do more locally.

Lawrence Haddad, who lives in Brighton, received the prestigious Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) award in this years’ New Year Honours list.

It was awarded for his global work nutrition, food and agriculture.

He told the Argus: “I am completely shocked to receive this award. It feels great.

“I was surprised to be honoured in the UK in this way because the first half of my working life was spent in the USA.”

Lawrence has been living in Brighton with his wife for the past 19 years, and has spent much of that time working with the UK Government.

“It has been a big change. A lot of the time working with the Government I have had to be critical of them, which is interesting,” he said.

As executive director of Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), Lawrence has had a varied and interesting career.

Lawrence has worked on a national and international scale.

Now, he hopes to tap into Brighton’s “fantastic community of international development specialists”.

“I first moved to Brighton to work at the University of Sussex,” he said.

“Brighton is inspirational place and it is always inspiring to be living in Brighton because it is a progressive city in terms of environment and climate issues and diet is closely linked with that

“I have really enjoyed working in the UK and would like to work even more locally in the Brighton in the future.”