Four corporate liverymen admitted

We were very pleased to admit four corporate liverymen yesterday (29 June) during a ceremony at Furniture Makers’ Hall, London.

The new corporate liverymen are Wayne Nabal, managing director at Grass Movement Systems; David Shoebridge, sales director at Grass Movement Systems Ltd; Paul Mott, director workplace furniture and global accounts at KI; and Joseph Ullmann, sales director of Shackletons Group Ltd.

Corporate membership provides opportunities for leading businesses from the trade to support the Company’s charitable activities, get involved with civic events and network with other members. Each corporate member is permitted to nominate three representatives from the business to be corporate liverymen.

Tony Attard OBE DL, Master of The Furniture Makers’ Company, said: “We are delighted to formally welcome David, Joseph, Wayne and Paul. We are delighted that so many different companies from the wider furnishing industry understand the importance of joining as members and supporting our charitable endeavours. All members, individual or corporate, are invited to participate in the many events in the City livery calendar, which are great for networking, entertaining, as well as having fun.”

Wayne Nabal, managing director at Grass Movement Systems

Wayne has a degree in HR and an MBA that he obtained from his birth country South Africa, where he still sits on the management board of the Grass subsidiary in Cape Town. He joined the team at Grass

Movement Systems Ltd in 2015 as the Managing Director and has more than 20 years’ experience in the industry. Outside of his professional career, he is a keen golfer and motorsport enthusiast. He has chaired several local organisation structures and supports humanitarian efforts in his spare time. GRASS has been an allied company of the international Würth Group since 2004.

Würth is the world market leader trading in fixing and assembly materials. Some 29,000 field sales staff visit 300,000 customers on a daily basis, selling 100,000 products ranging from screws to electronic components. The Grass Group has more than 200 distributors in over 60 countries and a staff compliment of 1900. We are one of the world’s leading developers and manufacturers of Functional Movement Systems for exclusive furniture. Our movement systems reflect our fascination and enthusiasm for visionary product solutions.

David Shoebridge, sales director at Grass Movement Systems Ltd

David has worked in the Furniture fittings industry for 25 years. Starting at Hafele UK in 1997 in an internal sales role, after completing an architectural Ironmongery diploma ( Dip GAI) became sales rep for the midlands. He joined Grass in 2010 and established the company Grass UK LTD a year later, continues as Sales director responsible for the UK and Irish markets. Outside of work he likes to keep fit and has ran many half marathons over the years, he also enjoys live music events and festivals.

Joseph Ullmann, sales director of Shackletons Group Ltd

Joseph has worked at Shackletons since 2018. Previously Joseph was a director of a residential property development company based in Yorkshire. Joseph has worked in most departments of Shackletons having started in production making chairs, then logistics, design and eventually to area sales. He now leads the sales team in his role as Sales Director, together with his responsibilities in R&D and Marketing.

Paul Mott, director workplace furniture and global accounts at KI

Having briefly retired in 2012 Paul focused his time on voluntary work and alongside working as a volunteer in his local hospital’s spinal unit, Paul became a Buckinghamshire Business Ambassador which included committing time to help support local start-up companies or those who needed some guidance and direction. Paul became chairman of the Buckinghamshire Business Awards judging panel in 2013 and retains his involvement to this day.

Paul missed the buzz of front-line business and took up several consultancy appointments and NED roles using his experience across multiple industries to help various businesses from small start-ups through to a FTSE 250 where he created and led the route to market strategy across the group.

Having supported a Scottish based business who had expanded to London and incurred some significant challenges, Paul became reconnected with KI and joined the business in 2015 to focus on using his broad base skills to develop route to market strategy partnerships with major accounts, furniture specifiers and dealerships. Roll on 7 years and Paul continues to be hands on with the company’s global accounts and key specifiers whilst managing and developing the wider dealer sales team. Passionate about strategy and delivering differentiation through service, KI is very well placed to take advantage of a very buoyant workplace market.

Outside of work, Paul continues with some of his voluntary work as a Business Ambassador for Buckinghamshire and continues as an avid reader and pupil of leadership psychology and the part it plays in the formation of successful businesses. Playing golf off a six handicap and coaching his youngest sons football team, Paul’s leisure time is spent outdoors and centres around sport.