Seven corporate liverymen admitted in October

Seven corporate liverymen were welcomed into the livery in October.

The admission ceremony took place at the Company’s court meeting at Furniture Makers’ Hall, London on Thursday 6 October.

The members were personally welcomed by David Woodward, Immediate Past Master of The Furniture Makers’ Company, and then invited to join the court of assistants and guests for a black-tie dinner at the hall.

The seven corporate liverymen admitted were:

Johnny Worthington, senior team leader at SATRA Technology

Johnny has worked at SATRA for 23 years and is currently the senior team leader of the furniture and floorcoverings department, supporting the business manager, and managing the workflow though the laboratory. Johnny is passionate about customer service and meeting the needs of the industry. Johnny is an accredited Lead Auditor IRCA Certified to ISO 9001:2015, and to ISO/IEC 17025:2017 which he applies this to ensure the services are of the highest quality.

Charles Thompson, national account manager UK, Ireland & Nordics at 3CAD

Charles is an experienced consultant within the KBB and furniture industries. His background began in independent furniture retail, working across sales, marketing and management. Before his transition into software and digital transformation, Charles developed ecommerce and social media strategies for retail and B2C campaigns while also working across the house building sector in specification. Charles currently works at 3CAD, which provides computer-aided design (CAD) software by Compusoft Group, which is used to streamline sales to production, increase sales and connect seamlessly to production in one visual CPQ platform for furniture. Specialising in streamlining and digitisation with retailers and manufacturers, Charles works across the UK & Ireland and also the Nordics.

Emma Welch, group HR director at OCEE Design

Emma spent 16 years developing a career in HR in the food manufacturing industry before entering the furniture industry and joining Ocee International a couple of years ago.

Martin Napper, CEO at Castelan Ltd

Martin originally trained as an accountant with KPMG in the Chepstow office. After qualifying and a number of years auditing, he decided to move into industry at the ‘sharper’ end of accountancy.  Following a variety of Finance Director roles in Chemical, Motor Manufacturing and Insurance related industries, Martin ended up as a regional Finance Director at Homeserve PLC, with a specific task of preparing subsidiaries for disposal. It was at this point that Martin led an MBO of a Homeserve subsidiary which subsequently became Castelan Limited. Martin also has a BA (Hons) in History.

Ian Annand, non-executive chairman at Castelan Ltd

Ian has been working with and advising SME’s on developing their long-term equity value for nearly twenty years. Before that he had a career in investment banking working for Nomura International in Corporate Finance and Capital Markets. Prior to this Ian commenced his working life in industry working for United Biscuits plc (for whom ,he was also a sponsored undergraduate). Ian has a BA (Hons) in Business Studies.

Stuart Armstrong, chief financial officer at Castelan Ltd

Stuart trained and qualified as an accountant with Orange Plc in Bristol working across the business in commercial finance roles. In 2006 he moved to HomeServe Plc, joining the Retail Warranties division who provided many of the leading UK furniture retailers and manufacturers with after-market support, care and insurance products. In 2011 he joined the MBO of HomeServe Retail Warranties subsidiary, creating what is now Castelan Ltd. Stuart now serves on the Castelan board as CFO. Stuart has a degree in Economics and Econometrics from Southampton University.

Tim Clark, finance director at HIPPO

Tim is an ACA qualified CFO with significant board level experience. He has worked at HIPPO for the last two years as an executive board director and has been instrumental in driving improved financial performance. His industry background spans professional services, travel and leisure, marketing and logistics. Tim has extensive experience in financial management, strategy, operations, performance measurement and risk management.