Coachlines - January 2026

30.01.26 Assistant Sir Kevin Leeson KCB CBE

Could you propose a new member?

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Happy new year from the Membership Committee. We have already held a candidate dinner in 2026, which unusually, but pleasingly, saw, among the five candidates attending, three sons of Liverymen seeking membership. It is great to see familial relationships amongst our fellowship. Of course, our membership fees are very low for young members, so I wonder if there are any Coachmakers out there who would like to take advantage of these favourable rates and propose family members as new Coachmakers?

The Court Meeting held on 22nd January 2026 saw the outcome of a new initiative. The Clerk had booked several of slots at the Chamberlain’s Court that morning, allowing eight of our Freemen to gain their Freedom of the City of London as a group ably ‘shepherded’ by MemCom member Liveryman Stuart Southgate, who also gained his Freedom and with the Master and Clerk as enthusiastic witnesses.

This allowed most of these Freemen to be ‘clothed in the Livery’ at Court and the Dinner that same evening, to make a most memorable day for those involved. It also significantly helped our quest to progress more Freemen to Liveryman.

The next opportunity for a ‘group Freedom Ceremony’ will be the Banquet and Summer Court, so I encourage any Freeman wanting to use this opportunity to contact the Clerk. Individual bookings, of course, do also remain available so, Freemen, do please contact the Chamberlain’s Court to arrange your Freedom if you want to ‘go independent”, (https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/about-us/law-historic-governance/freedom-of-the-city) or contact the Clerk if you fancy a ‘group fixture’, so that we can have a bumper number of Liverymen in our 350th year.

New Freemen

At the Winter Court 2026 we welcomed to the Company the following new Freemen:

Freeman Richard Atak
Richard is Managing Director of Airbus Helicopters in UK.

Commander Stuart Faulkner RN
Stuart is a Royal Navy Air Engineering Officer who is Commander of Air Engineering in Commando Helicopter Force, who also holds the appointment of Chief Air Engineer where he oversees technical airworthiness of the Force’s aircraft.

Kevin Sale
Kevin is an information technology and networks expert and currently heads Enterprise Architecture and Information Technology Governance at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia.

Cliff Robson CBE
Cliff has recently retired from BAE Systems where he held the post of Group Managing Director Air Systems and previously Group Managing Director of Submarines. He has held many key appointments that have brought the Joint Strike Fighter and Typhoon aircraft into the inventories of many air forces.

Pat Wood

Pat has held senior appointments with Marshall, Lockheed Martin, Surrey Satellites and, latterly, Airbus Defence and Space, where he led the UK space businesses. He is a visiting professor for Aerospace, Transport and Manufacturing at Cranfield University.

Christopher Wilks
Christopher has a substantial background in finance and is Chief Financial Officer at ECO Animal Health Group and a Non-Executive Director at Kromek. He has a classic car collection and enjoys racing his own historic formula junior at Goodwood.

Laila Fadii Dokkali

Laila is a previous recipient of our Sir Sydney Camm Scholarship and gained a MA in Aerospace Vehicle Design and has also won scholarships from the Royal Academy of Engineering to support her further postgraduate studies.

The Winter Court also clothed eight new Liverymen, seven of whom obtained their Freedom of the City that day. We congratulate:

Stuart Southgate
Stuart was recently Head of Sustainability at the Ford Motor Company. He is a member of the Coachmakers’ Membership Committee.

Martin Amen

Martin lives in the US and has a substantial background in space and defence electronic systems with major US manufacturers such as Northrop Grumman and Cubic. He is currently CEO of Flight Research Aerospace and leads the Florida Space Force Association.

Dr Nic Anderson
Nic is Chief Executive Officer at Draken, having previously headed QinetiQ’s defence business in UK.

James Banks

James is Managing Director at LaSource Automotive and was previously Managing Director at Claypack, and Head of Bespoke Cars at McLaren Automotive.

Air Vice-Marshal Shaun Harris CBE

Shaun heads the support directorate in RAF Air Command delivering engineering and logistics support to RAF operations. He is also Chief Engineer (RAF) and Head of the RAF Engineer Branch.

Mark Langmead
Mark is Head of Defence and Security at Whitetree Consulting.

Paul Lincoln CB OBE

Paul recently retired from the Ministry of Defence where he was the Second Permanent Under Secretary and his now building a portfolio of work.

Phil Sunley
Phil is a senior partner at Newton Ltd where he leads the defence and infrastructure practice.

Appeals

We are also still working hard to get the Livery to 500 members during our 350th year which, of course, starts next September. We still need the help of the whole Livery in this endeavour as we are seeking around 50 new members. Please take a moment to review your address book and ask yourself ‘which of my esteemed friends or colleagues would be an asset to the Coachmakers?’ And who would benefit from attending the spectacular series of events the next Master has lined up for our 350th year.

We have several candidate dinner opportunities in April, May and July, so all you have to do is introduce your colleague or friend to the Clerk and we will do the rest. We look forward to hearing from you.

And finally, we have a vacancy for the Assistant Secretary of the MemCom. The duties principally involve attending the meetings (joining online or in person), drafting the record of decisions and assisting the Clerk with our administration.

The opportunity would ideally suit one of our younger Coachmakers who would gain experience of a Livery Committee and its governance. If this sounds interesting, please contact the Clerk for further information.