Chairman: Rt Hon Sir Tony Baldry DL
Liveryman, Worshipful Companies of Merchant Taylors, Bowyers, Stationers & Newspaper Makers, Arbitrators, and member of the Parish Clerks’ Company
A barrister by profession and head of a set of Commercial Chambers in the Temple, Sir Tony was for 32 years MP for Banbury, Oxfordshire. He was a Government Minister for eight years, under both Margaret Thatcher and John Major, including a period of time at the Foreign Office, and he subsequently chaired the Commons Select Committee on International Development. Sir Tony has served terms as a Trustee of both Chatham House and the Overseas Development Institute.
He was knighted for political and public services in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2012, appointed a member of HM Privy Council in November 2013 and became a Lay Canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford in January 2015.
In the City, Sir Tony is Chairman of the Trustees of St Ethelberga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace in Bishopsgate.
Agent: Michael Cooper FCA
Past Master (2014-15), Worshipful Company of Parish Clerks
Liveryman, Worshipful Companies of Butchers and Plumbers
Past Chairman, Society of Young Freemen and Bridge Ward Club
After working as a research assistant at the House of Commons and taking a degree in history at Christ Church, Oxford, Michael qualified as a chartered accountant with Price Waterhouse (now PwC).
Michael is a Senior Civil Servant with Defra (Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), where he has worked in a range of policy, finance and PPM roles. He was Finance Director of Defra’s largest Executive Agency and is now responsible for co-ordinating the administration of EU-funded agricultural schemes across the UK, reporting to Ministers in Defra and the devolved administrations.
Michael is a Past President of ICAEW Thames Valley Chartered Accountants and has served as Vice President (Finance) of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT since 2013. He is churchwarden and parish clerk of one of the City’s churches and serves as a trustee of a number of other charities.
He is married to Felicity and has three children.
Team Members
Chris Allen
Past Master (2015-16) Worshipful Company of Tobacco Pipe Makers
Liveryman Worshipful Company of Bakers
Retiring in 2002, Chris was Chairman and Managing of Director Hoechst International Services, a computer services company in the Hoechst Group.
A Past Chairman of the Queenhithe Ward Club (2012-13), he is currently a Member of the St Paul’s Cathedral Council and Assistant Secretary of the Wandsmen of St Paul’s Cathedral.
Mark Atkins
Liveryman, Glass Sellers
Mark graduated from the Royal Agricultural University in 2015. He became a Freeman of the City in 2015 and was installed as a Liveryman in the Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers in March 2017 an regularly attends the Company’s events.
He works as an animal health care Territory Manager for global pharmaceutical company, MSD.
De Bradshaw
Past Master (2013-14) Worshipful Company of Plaisterers
Liveryman Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers
De Bradshaw is a fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and before setting up Bradshaw Property Associates was Head of the Valuation, Management and Professional Services Department with Ian Scott International Ltd in Mayfair.
She has held positions on general council of both the ISVA, before it merged with the RICS and the RICS where she was particularly involved with the preparation of its Codes of Practice for Residential Management and Commercial Management.
De actively supports gender diversity in the workplace and was the founding sponsor of the Property Category for the WiC Woman of Achievement Awards which recognised senior women championing female progress in their professions.
Based in London, De commutes to her home in Devon at weekends.
Bill Chesshyre
Court Assistant, Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers
Bill Chesshyre served 33 years in the Army, retiring in the rank of Colonel. He then pursued a second career as a Livery Company Clerk, first with the Painter-Stainers and then with the Gunmakers, finally retiring in 2013.
He maintains a City connection in retirement as Court Assistant of the Glass Sellers, Immediate Past President of the Ward of Cheap Club and as a member of the City Fair Trade Steering Group.
He was educated at the King’s School, Canterbury, the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was commissioned into the Corps of Royal Engineers and served extensively with the Brigade of Gurkhas in Malaysia, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom. He qualified as a Russian and Romanian Interpreter and spent the years 1987-1994 in Eastern Europe (Romania and Czechoslovakia/The Czech Republic) as a military attaché.
He is married to a Nepali born and bred in Darjeeling, niece of the renowned Nepalese artist and writer, the late Lain Singh Bangdel KCVO, whom he met when she was serving in Hong Kong with the Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps. They travel regularly to Nepal to visit her surviving family.
He is a trustee of the charity Promise Nepal, set up in 2002 to tackle the scourge of Leprosy in Nepal but is now much involved with earthquake relief work, the founder and chairman having been on a fund raising trek 25 miles from the epicentre of the earthquake when it struck.
Windsor Coles OBE
Past Master (2013-14) Livery Company of Wales
Liveryman Worshipful Company of Engineers
Mark Henderson
Past Master (2015-16) Worshipful Company of Curriers
Founder, Guild of Investment Managers
Mark has been a Freeman of the City of London since 1987. He spent over twenty five years of his working life in the City in the asset management industry, initially as an equity analyst for a merchant bank and then as a portfolio manager specialising in UK pension funds.
After ten years at Hill Samuel Mark joined Touche, Remnant & Co where he was Chief Investment Officer. It was there that he met current employees and alumni who suggested the formation of a Guild of Investment Managers to represent the industry. Fifteen years later and with the help of Gwen the Guild was granted the status of “City of London” guild. Mark said “ I am backing Gwen because I know she can get things done”.
Mark is Chairman of a small charity engaged in providing bursaries in the field of healthcare.
Mark Palmer-Edgecumbe
Liveryman, Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers
Mark is a multi-award winning leader in the field of Diversity and Inclusion. He has held transformational roles as Head of Diversity at Google EMEA and Global Head of Diversity at Barclays.
He ranked 19th in the World Pride Power List 2014 and was featured in the Financial Times Top 50 Outstanding in Business List 2013.
Mark provides strategic consultancy services and divides his time between homes in Cape Town and London.
Jane Wharam
Court Assistant, Worshipful Company of Marketors
An experienced marketing and communications professional with extensive experience of devising and implementing engagement strategies, Jane is currently Internal Communications Manager for Network Rail.
Born in Wales, she is a strong relationship builder and a published author.
Jane has served as Chairman of the Marketors’ Heritage Committee since 2017 and is Secretary of the Aldgate Ward Club.
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