15 members admitted at June Court meeting

We are delighted to welcome four liverymen, 10 new corporate liverymen and an honourary freeman to The Furniture Makers’ Company.

The members were admitted during a ceremony at our June Court meeting on 25 June at Furniture Makers Hall, London.

The members were personally welcomed by Brian Ahern, Master of The Furniture Makers’ Company, and then invited to join the Court of Assistants and guests for a lunch at the hall.

The new liverymen are:

Geoffrey Fowler, CEO and principal, The London Design & Engineering University Technical College

The London Design and Engineering UTC is a mixed University Technical College which opened in September 2016 at the University of East London campus. It caters for students aged 14 to 19 years.  Geoffrey is the CEO and principal.  He has long career history in education and is seeking to leverage three decades of leadership and entrepreneurial experience into the furniture-making industries.

Richard Griffin, membership director, The Furniture and Home Improvement Ombudsman

Richard has been with the Ombudsman since 2014, moving to his current role in 2019 having formerly been director of operations & service delivery.  His previous roles have been in financial services, business consultancy, environmental services and alternative dispute resolution

Dawn Hamlet, HR manager, The Furniture and Home Improvement Ombudsman

Dawn’s career started in student politics where she was president of the University of Hertfordshire’s student union.  Roles in sales, planning and recruitment followed before her current role in HR.

Derek Jones, subject lead, furniture T Level, The London Design & Engineering University Technical College

Before working at the college Derek was co-owner of a bespoke cabinetry and joinery company for residential and commercial clients.  He has also worked as a freelance project manager and was editor of Furniture & Cabinetmaking magazine, commissioning content and writing technical and feature articles.

Meanwhile, the new corporate liverymen represent corporate members Bensons for Beds, Dreams, Emmiera Group and Sleepeezee.

Jason Grinall, operations director, Emmiera Group

Jason joined as a furniture technician at Homeserve – now Emmiera Group – in 2008. After six years as a technician, Jason was promoted to support the company’s growth as a key account manager. In November 2024, following rebranding to Emmiera Group, Jason took on the role of operations director. His responsibilities include overseeing all field service technicians, fleet management, logistics and warehouse and distribution.

James Lane, CEO, Emmiera Group

James founded what is now Emmiera Group from humble beginnings. Starting as a one-man operation with a single van, he has transformed the company into a leading name in the furniture repair and insurance industry. Through his dedication and vision, Emmiera Group has grown to employ over 250 staff members and boasts a fleet of technicians serving clients nationwide. His relentless pursuit of excellence has been the driving force behind the company’s expansion and success.

Craig Hart, marketing and training director, Emmiera Group

Craig has three decades of furniture industry expertise with a comprehensive background that spans retail management, operations, customer service, quality assurance, and buying. In 2015, Craig joined James Lane full-time at the Emmiera Group. Since then, he has played a pivotal role in the company’s growth and success, helping to shape it into what it is today.

Shelly Dickinson, head of people, Dreams

Shelly joined Tesco in 2005 on their retail management graduate scheme, and following several management roles, Shelly found her passion for HR. After 15 successful years at Tesco spanning several positions in HR and Employee Relations, Shelly decided to explore other opportunities. Shelly was appointed as Head of People for McColl’s Retail Group and enjoyed two years developing and delivering the strategic people plan for 16,000 colleagues across 1,200 stores. In January 2023, Shelly joined Dreams in a newly created role as Head of People as part of the executive team.

Michael Dingwall, director of production & quality, Dreams

Michael joined Silentnight in Barnoldswick on a graduate trainee programme in 1997. Michael left Silentnight in January 2016 to become the production director at Harrison Spinks. He held a board position there for nearly three years and helped the business develop the HR, Health & Safety and production functions. In December 2018, Michael moved to Dreams Furniture in Knowsley, as production director. In March 2022, Michael became the director of production & quality for the Dreams Bed Factory.

Kelly Davis, head of internal and corporate communications, Dreams

Kelly has been at Dreams for seven years, having joined in 2017 as marketing communications manager where she was responsible for delivering creative campaigns and bringing them to life on TV, radio, social and instore point of sale. Two of Kelly’s proudest career achievements have been the multi award-winning Tokyo 2020 TV ad, communicating Dreams’ official sleep partnership with Team GB and ParalympicsGB, and #sleeplikelog campaign. In 2022 Kelly was appointed into a newly created role as Head of Internal and Corporate Communications and joined the Dreams Leadership Team.

Matt Richardson, head of manufacturing, Benson for Beds

Matt spent the early part of his career working for Hanson Brick, working his way through their junior management structure. A career change opportunity came his way, and he ended up at Myers Beds in Huntingdon, some twenty years later Matt finds himself still there and very much part of the framework. Matt started his time in Huntingdon as a divan upholsterer and enjoyed many years in that department, after a few years he started to make his way through the management structure, on many occasions moving into different departments to learn about the whole business, which holds him in good stead now. The last few years Matt took the Head of Manufacturing role and has sole leadership of the site in Huntingdon.

Linda Sleath, Chief People Officer, Benson for Beds

Linda Sleath is the chief people officer for Bensons for Beds and lives in Leicestershire. Linda has held senior HR role for such organisations as United Biscuits (now Pladis), Boots International, Molson Coors and Brakes (Sysco UK). Prior to joining Bensons she was the group HR executive director, for Topps Tiles PLC where she led the people strategy for the group and sat on the board remuneration and nominations committees.

David Jameson, commercial director, Benson for Beds

David spent his youth on the tennis court with aspirations of having a full-time career teaching tennis but the onset of a rare muscle wasting condition put paid to that. He ended up in stores in Texas Homecare back in the early 90s, when a local store opened up in his hometown of Godalming, which soon became Homebase, where he spent 15 years, four years in management roles in stores and 11 years in various Head Office departments. He then spent six years running Merchandising or Buying teams in General Merchandise for Sainsbury’s and then a short time at Dunelm before joining Dreams in 2016. In 2020 David joined Bensons as Head of Trading before becoming commercial director in 2022.

Paul Thomas, manufacturing manager, Sleepeezee

A plasterer by trade, Paul started working for Sleepeezee in 1991, later promoted to Mattress Supervisor managing around 50 people, which he did for 10 years before being appointed new product development engineer. From there he was promoted to quality manager and then technical manager. In 2020 he was promoted to manufacturing manager being responsible for all production and operational departments.

During the same ceremony, the Reverend George Bush was made an honourary freeman of the Company.

George retired recently as Rector of St Mary-le-Bow church where he was incumbent since 2002. He has been Honorary Chaplain to successive Masters of the company over that period.  George has been a constant presence and a contributor to The Furniture Makers’ Company throughout his 20 years as Honorary Chaplain, not least with memorable homilies and graces.