Welcome to News In Brief

You will find fewer articles, fewer words, and fewer photos than previously, but the next one will be along sooner ! This time we hear from, and about, our new Master, meet our new Chaplain, hear more about Artificial Intelligence and get to remember the Rioja wine trip.

Get to know… the new Master Andy Miles

Andy Miles joined the Company as a Freeman in 2018 progressing to Liveryman in July 2019. This was not his first experience of the Livery movement, already being a Freeman of the City of London and  a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Carmen since 2016. Andy then progressed to become a Court Assistant as well as being involved in the Membership Committee, becoming Chair of the Events Committee (2022-24) and helping to set up the Company’s involvement with the Livery Climate Action Group.  Andy is Member of the Pro Bono Committee and has carried out several pro bono assignments. He is also an ex officio Trustee of the Company’s Charitable Fund. 

Andy's career started in trains with British Rail Engineering in Derby at the locomotive works, and progressed into other areas of Transport and Automotive Engineering. He then served in the Police, spending time in the Roads Policing Division.  Andy returned to transport after an injury on duty. This was his introduction to the world of change management, business turnarounds and staff development.

Andy and his wife Sarah, also a member of the Carmen, set up their consulting business specialising in the Transport Industry in 2015. Since then, business has grown across the UK and into Europe and works with new start up businesses and those with only a few trucks and buses to global brands with thousands of vehicles. This has led him to all sorts of interesting places and events from quarries in Carlisle to daffodill bulbs in Penzance, white goods in Inverness to pole dancing buses in Penzance again.

In his spare time Andy takes a keen interest in wine, having taken the WSET level 1 and 2 courses with Sarah and travelled on wine tours both with the Company and others to a variety of vineyards. Andy is a member of the National Trust and enjoys country walks, steam trains and rugby.

Installation Dinner 

Andy was installed as our 31st Master on 10th October together with the new Wardens team. (Ed: You will be able to read their mini bios on the website .... soon!)

 ....and new Court Assistants:

 Left to right;  Lisa Preuveneers, Ranil Perera, Jeff Herman

After the ceremony there was a celebratory dinner at the Ironmongers’ Hall, which the Master has already written about. Here’s a brief recap and a few photos of the very enjoyable event.

More photos will be available via the website in due course. 

Our guest speaker Richard Turfitt, the Senior Traffic Commissioner for Great Britain, declared himself impressed by the Company and those of us he met. Likewise for the forthcoming Master Engineer Penny Taylor and the current Master Carmen David Pugsley, who also gave us the honour of the first outing of the new Carmen Tartan.

At the dinner the Master set out his Theme for the Year, summarised in the article below. 

Master's Year 

My Theme for the Year ahead is SERVICE – to the members of this Worshipful Company, to the City of London Corporation and to the Community at large. I am now inviting you, as a Member of this Company, to think about how you can support this theme in the year ahead. 

The Members 
We are a membership organisation. Without Members this Company does not exist. As a Company we aim to stage/create/design/develop high quality, enjoyable events that deliver, in the best traditions of Management Consultancy, an excellent ratio of benefit to cost. 
This Year we aim to hold events ranging from professional development (for example our Centre for Management Consulting Excellence (CMCE) events and our annual Education Lecture), to more personal development – you may already have seen an email about the WCoMC Wine Course. (Ed: Our Cellar is the envy of many, and this course is aimed at both experts and novices like me). I hope that this exchange of knowledge and fellowship will help to build great long-term relationships within the Company.

The City and Corporation
The City runs many events throughout the year, and as a City Livery Company I am keen to continue our already well-established support for these. They enable us to promote our charitable interests and, importantly, raise our profile amongst the wider Livery opening up the possibilities of pan-Livery co-operation.

And many of these events are great fun! from Pancake Tossing and the Coopers' Annual Cask Race, to Big Curry lunches, the Beer Festival and other charity events. I hope that many Members will join me in actively supporting these events, either by participating or cheering on our teams.

Events available to our Members also include those organised by other Livery Companies.  There are plenty of them, and they all provide opportunities to experience what this great City has to offers and to support those in the Livery movement that organise them.  Mutual support is, I am sure, the way forward. 

The Community
Although we live in affluent times, the need to support so many people who are not as fortunate as ourselves is as important as ever.
We all support the Company’s charitable interests through our regular financial donations to the Charitable Fund, and many of us also volunteer our professional expertise to charities pro bono. 

This year there will be an opportunity to experience hands-on voluntary work either in a warehouse or spending time in a lorry with City Harvest collecting surplus food and delivering it to a variety of beneficiaries. This experience should help to broaden your experience and understanding of the challenges faced by many less fortunate citizens on a day-to-day basis.

I look forward to meeting all of you, and your friends and family at the many and varied events during the year.

Meet our new Chaplain 

Earlier this year, following the resignation of our former Chaplain Fr Tim Handley, and the formation of a small group to search for a suitable replacement, the Court was pleased to confirm the appointment of Reverend James Titley, Guild Vicar of St. Lawrence Jewry next Guildhall, as our Honorary Chaplain.    Father James has already conducted our Annual Church service, which was held in St Martin’s Ludgate on 25 September 2024, at which he gave the address. His bio is shown below:

Fr. James has been the Guild Vicar of St. Lawrence Jewry since early July 2023. Before moving to London, he ministered in both urban civic and rural parishes in his native Lincolnshire. Having studied Heritage Management as an undergraduate, and subsequently working in the funeral industry, he went up to Cambridge where he trained for the priesthood, completing a degree in Theology, and developing an interest in liturgy and how architecture and space contribute to the experience of worship. He was Curate in Grantham where he was also Chaplain to the Scouts, before moving to be Assistant Priest for a large rural deanery of thirty-one parishes. Alongside holding direct care of nine parishes he also headed a team strategically reorganising the deanery as part of a wider diocesan programme.
Now in London, alongside being Guild Vicar at St Lawrence Jewry, James is also Chaplain to the City of London Corporation, eight Livery Companies, and a number of societies. In his spare time he retains a keen interest in history and heritage, all things vintage, travelling and exploring new places, and remains a proud ‘Lincolnshire Yellowbelly'.

Artificial Intelligence in Charities 

Your Editor reports: A couple of dozen Members and guests attended the latest pro bono evening held on 24th October at the Carmens’ Hall. The event was about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its possible use by charities and was organised by Court Assistant Geoff Berridge on behalf of the Pro Bono Committee.  (Ed: This piece should belong in a GTK Philanthropy Newsletter but it's fresh and interesting so...)

A panel discussion was chaired and moderated by Freeman Mike Hobday, himself an expert in this dynamic field. Mike is CEO of Antworks – more information here.  He was joined by an engaging panel of AI experts from the charity sector: 

• Paul Excell set out the opportunities and risks of traditional AI vs GenAI. 
• Tim Cook (no not the Apple one) spoke of the inside and outside of the sector - the environmental, social, and economic changes in the ecosystem. 
• Chris Rowse completed the triptych and examined the implications and responsibilities for trustees and charity management.

There was a lively debate, especially around the terminology used. Overall, I think the conclusion was that AI generally could be a tool for good and that the more “traditional AI tools” could be vital in improving productivity across the sector. Care was needed when handling Generative AI, especially in matters of governance.  There really was a lot to talk about.
 

The evening was lubricated by wine from the Company's cellar, dispensed with his usual aplomb by PM Patrick McHugh. (It occurred to me, while we were drinking lovely wines from Vasse Felix, that it was almost a year to the day since we had visited that very winery on the Margaret River, Western Australian, wine trip and bought that wine.)

I'll finish with one personal recollection of the “Most Interesting Project” kind. 20+ years ago I ran a project for the Defence Logistics Organisation (DLO) which used what was then called “fuzzy matching” as we cleaned up the data in the new DLO’s information systems. Combining the logistics arms of the three Armed Services was no small undertaking. Little did I realise then that we were using an early incarnation of artificial intelligence, but it worked, and we saved the MoD £20million!  

Wine Club recollections... 

Following the brief report on the Wine Club's tour of Rioja in the last Newsletter, Members on the trip have contributed their individual special memories, all brought together by PM Edward Sankey. You can enjoy some varied and lively reading here! 

And Finally ... 

Readers may be interested to know that the website page remembering Members who have passed away has been updated recently, to include remembrances of Gordon Stoker. Gordon also features in another new page on the website which is devoted to the very few recipients of our Outstanding Service Award. 

(Ed: That's it!  How was the shorter read? )

Steve