Toll Holdings managing director Paul Little has received an honorary doctorate from RMIT University for his outstanding contribution to the community.

Toll Holdings managing director Paul Little has received an honorary doctorate from RMIT University for his outstanding contribution to the community.

RMIT vice-chancellor and president, Professor Margaret Gardner AO, said Little set an example to the community by combining innovation and business success with a strong sense of corporate responsibility.

"In the past two decades, Mr Little has built Toll Holdings into a billion-dollar listed company employing 25,000 staff, but his dedication to putting corporate social responsibility into practice is as significant as his business achievements."

Toll Holdings has worked for years with Foodbank Australia, collecting and distributing donated products to 1,500 state-based welfare agencies and helping feed more than 20,000 disadvantaged Australians daily.

Other programs supported by Little, who studied Logistics at RMIT, include the First Step Program, a St Kilda-based drug rehabilitation clinic, and the Second Step Program, set up by the company in 2001 to offer employment opportunities for former drug addicts and people with prison or criminal records.

Pro vice-chancellor (Business) Professor Gill Palmer said Toll had set new standards in the field of transport and logistics under Little's leadership, becoming Asia's pre-eminent provider of integrated logistical services.

"Paul Little was a practitioner in corporate social responsibility long before the term became fashionable." Palmer said. "He did so with little fanfare, but we believe this merits recognition equal with his achievements as a business leader and entrepreneur."