Coachlines - November 2025

28.11.25 Assistant Sir Kevin Leeson

Membership Committee welcomes 11 new Coachmakers

---

Pictured above: The Master greets new members at the Aerospace Industry Dinner 2025

It is my pleasure to bring you news from the Membership Committee. At our September meeting we welcomed new volunteer Stuart Southgate, a recently sworn Freeman, onto our Committee. He was, until recently, a senior executive with Ford Motor Company, so will be a great help with our membership activities with the automotive community.

We have held two candidate dinners so far this Livery Year, recommending 10 new members to the Court for membership, and the calibre of our candidates has been inspiring. The Court Meeting held on 13th November swore eight new Freemen to the Company and clothed three new Liverymen.

We welcome to the Company:

Emmanuelle Rosati Azevedo
Emmanuelle is an aeronautical engineer, currently researching a PhD in the propulsion laboratories at Imperial College, having been previously an R&D Engineer at URA Thrusters Ltd.

Nigel Chandler
Nigel is a former Royal Navy Officer who commanded a Type 23 frigate, HMS Argyle and served in the Royal Yacht Britannia. Nigel is currently with Airbus Defence and Space in UK as its Head of Business Development. He has a significant background in space activities.

Philip Cole
Philip is CEO of Agile Spray Response Ltd, a company delivering world-wide oil spill response services, having previously been head of strategy at RVL Aviation. In joining the Coachmakers, Philip follows his distinguished father, Past Master Cole, into the Livery.

Paul Dickinson
Paul is CEO of RML Group, a company that delivers high end bespoke engineering solutions to the automotive industry. He has also worked with Lotus and Bentley, where with the latter, he was responsible for the rebirth of the Mulliner brand.

Doug Gale
Doug was an aerosystems engineering officer in the Royal Air Force commanding engineering and logistics functions supporting Phantom and Harrier aircraft operations. On leaving the RAF, he has been a consultant with Booz and Company and then moved to QinetiQ where he was Director of the Air Engineering Division and latterly its Director of Air Strategic Engagement.

Ian Lewer
Ian has a substantial background in the finance industry. He is a corporate benefits consultant with Titan Wealth Planning and has previously worked for Alpha Healthcare and Legal and General.

Paul Lincoln CB
Paul has recently retired from a distinguished career in the UK Civil Service. His last appointment was as the Second Permanent Under Secretary in the Ministry of Defence, having previously held Director General appointments as Head of the UK Border Force and Head of Policing and Fire in the Home Office.

Jack Watson
Jack is an automotive designer, currently director at NER Design Ltd having been previously at CEER, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and FAW Advanced Design.

We also congratulate the following who have progressed to Liveryman and were clothed in the Livery:

William Blamey
William continues with QinetiQ where he leads the Long Term Partnering Agreement, which delivers all of QinetiQ’s support to the UK MoD. He previously led the Dreadnought Submarine project at BAES.

Harry Kelly
Harry is GSK’s Director of Medicinal Chemistry Recruitment and Talent Development.

Simon Lane
Simon is Director of Advanced Performance at Lotus Cars where he is responsible for special vehicle operations.

In other news, we have introduced a new system to help Freemen progress their membership to Liveryman. The Clerk has negotiated some block bookings with the Chamberlain’s Court for Coachmakers and we hope this will provide a spur for our 120 Freemen to progress to Liveryman. The next block bookings are on 22nd January 2026 and 25th March 2026. These have been cunningly chosen as the dates of Court Meetings with dinners. Freemen will hopefully be tempted to join colleague Coachmakers to do their Freedom of the City ceremony in the morning or afternoon, then on the same day appear before the Court for clothing as a Liveryman and attend their first dinner as a full Liveryman that same evening. Anyone interested in taking up these opportunities who has not already done so, please contact the Clerk.

We are also still working hard to get the Livery to 500 members during our 350th year which, of course, starts next September, and we still need the help of the whole Livery in this endeavour. 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 the diary during early 2026, 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.