Our corporate governance
As an independent company without shareholders, with the constitution of an Employee Benefit Trust, good corporate governance is of the utmost importance to us.
As an independent company without shareholders, with the constitution of an Employee Benefit Trust, good corporate governance is of the utmost importance to us.
The members of our Board of Directors use their considerable industry experience and business leadership to develop our mission, vision and strategy.
Employee Director
Employee Director
Mick joined the Board at BMT in October 2022
Mick joined BMT in 2012 following a 27-year career in the Royal Navy where he served as a Weapon Engineer in Submarines. During his time with BMT, he has been responsible for the leadership and programme management of a portfolio of critical high-profile projects for the UK Ministry of Defence as well as defence organisations overseas. In addition, Mick has been instrumental in the instigation, development, and transformation of BMT’s Employee Engagement Group helping to enhance and improve the employee led influence and collaboration across BMT and brings a strong employee perspective to the Board.
Current external appointments: Charity Trustee for We Remember Submariners, Board member of The Submarine Family (TSF), and part of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charities (RNRMC).
Non-executive Director
Non-executive Director
Gavin has been Chief Financial Officer of Oxford Instruments plc since May 2016. Prior to this role he served as Group Finance Director of Synergy Health plc from April 2010 until its successful combination with STERIS Corporation on 3 November 2015.
He previously served as Corporate Finance Director of Serco Group plc and has also worked in a variety of regional, corporate and treasury roles with Syngenta AG and AstraZeneca plc. He is a Chartered Accountant and an Associate Member of the Association of Corporate Treasurers
Chief Executive
Chief Executive
Sarah Kenny is the Chief Executive for BMT. A marine environmental scientist by background, she has worked in marine and maritime science and technology businesses throughout her career. Sarah is Chair of Maritime UK, a board member of Maritime London, and a Trustee Director of the National Oceanography Centre.
Sarah is also a member of the UK Defence Innovation External Advisory Panel member and the Maritime Enterprise Working Group. She is very proud to be an Honorary Captain of the Royal Navy and an Honorary Member of the Royal Corps of Naval Constructors. Passionate about the UK engineering, science and technology skills base sustainment, Sarah commits time to STEM projects in the maritime field.
Sarah was awarded an OBE in the 2019 Queen’s Birthday Honours list for her services to the Maritime Industry and Diversity. In the same year, Sarah was delighted to be awarded an honorary doctorate from Portsmouth University.
Non Executive Director and Senior Independent Director
Non Executive Director and Senior Independent Director
Sue Mackenzie joined BMT as Non-Executive Director in March 2020.
Prior to her appointment, Sue served in senior management and advisory roles for both public and private companies for more than 20 years, including a position as Operations and Business Transformation Director at P&O Ferries. Before that she was Operations Director of London Luton Airport at a time of unprecedented growth of the organisation.
Sue’s early career was spent in military service and not-for-profit sectors in the UK and other countries. After graduating with distinction from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, she was appointed to several international leadership roles, during which time her diverse responsibilities included tours both at home and abroad as the first female officer to serve with the Second Battalion Scots Guards.
After leaving the Army, Sue took up the role of Chief Executive of the charity “Cities in Schools” and she currently serves as a Non-Executive Director of the Medway NHS Foundation Trust and is on the Board of the Freight Transport Association. Sue continues to work voluntarily in support of her fellow servicemen and women and is involved as a trustee and volunteer of several charities in the UK.
Current External Appointments: Trustee of Women’s Royal Army Corps Association, Non-Executive Director of Logistics UK, Medway NHS Trust, and Port of London Authority.
Chief Financial Officer
Chief Financial Officer
Gareth is the Chief Financial Officer for BMT.
He is a Chartered Management Accountant with extensive international experience in consulting, engineering and professional services across transportation and maritime industries.
Gareth joined from Ricardo PLC where he was the Global Finance Director for the Rail Division. Prior to that he was the Finance Director at Lloyd’s Register for the Transportation Division and also held a senior commercial role for the Marine Division.
Over the course of his career Gareth has worked in central government, private and public companies. He is experienced at driving value creation on a global scale and has been at the heart of multiple transformation projects including acquisitions and change programmes.
Chair of the Board
Chair of the Board
Ian joined BMT as Non Executive Chair of the Board and the Nominations Committee in May 2023.
His senior executive career was with Balfour Beatty plc which he joined as Finance Director in 1996 and served as Chief Executive from 2005 to 2013.
Amongst other Board roles, he has served as Non-executive chairman of Vistry plc (formerly Bovis Homes Group), Cairn Energy plc, Amey plc and AWE Management plc and was a non executive director of BAE Systems plc.
In addition to his role at BMT, he is currently Senior Independent Director at Anglo American PLC and at Synthomer PLC and is the Independent Chair of Affinity Water Limited, a regulated water company.
Ian is an accountant by profession and a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
The implementation of our strategy and administration of its assets is delegated to the Executive Committee.
Operations Director
Operations Director
David Bright is BMT's Operations Director and member of BMT's Executive Committee. His role is to manage the overall BMTtogether Transformation Programme with particular responsibility for the Ways of Working workstream. This workstream will deliver greater harmonisation of process, systems and working methods across the group and thereby support improved consistency of information and business forecasting. He also has responsibility for the project governance, management and control practices across the group.
Before joining the Executive Committee, David performed other senior roles at BMT, and prior to that was the Managing Director of BMT Hi-Q Sigma Ltd having worked his way up through the company following its formation in 2003. In this role he built up a wealth of experience in supporting clients improve their programme governance, controls & assurance and was a regular conference speaker on these subjects. He was an integral member of the Project & Programme Assurance and the Governance Specific Interest Groups of the Association for Project Management (APM) and was the Stakeholders & Sponsorship track chairman at the Annual APM Conference.
Before joining BMT in 2001, David had a successful and varied career in the Royal Navy including the lecturing of RN and USN officers in project management, engineering design and naval architecture.
Group General Counsel and Company Secretary
Group General Counsel and Company Secretary
Trudy Grey has been General Counsel and Company Secretary of BMT since 2015. She qualified as a solicitor in London at Stephenson Harwood LLP, before joining Clyde & Co LLP a year later where she worked for 11 years in the London office, latterly in the Marine and International Trade Group. Trudy then moved in house to SBM Offshore in Monaco, an engineering company providing floating production solutions to the offshore energy industry, where she had the roles of Deputy General Counsel and also Legal Manager of the Monaco Regional Office.
Chief Executive
Chief Executive
Sarah Kenny is the Chief Executive for BMT. A marine environmental scientist by background, she has worked in marine and maritime science and technology businesses throughout her career. Sarah is Chair of Maritime UK, a board member of Maritime London, and a Trustee Director of the National Oceanography Centre.
Sarah is also a member of the UK Defence Innovation External Advisory Panel member and the Maritime Enterprise Working Group. She is very proud to be an Honorary Captain of the Royal Navy and an Honorary Member of the Royal Corps of Naval Constructors. Passionate about the UK engineering, science and technology skills base sustainment, Sarah commits time to STEM projects in the maritime field.
Sarah was awarded an OBE in the 2019 Queen’s Birthday Honours list for her services to the Maritime Industry and Diversity. In the same year, Sarah was delighted to be awarded an Honorary doctorate from Portsmouth University.
Global Business Development and Marketing Director
Global Business Development and Marketing Director
Louise Ledgard is Global Business Development and Marketing Director at BMT. With a PhD in Materials Engineering and Design, a Bachelor’s Degree in Applied Physics and a Master’s in Business Administration, Louise has spent over 25-years working in a technical environment.
With the international experience of working across several market sectors, including; energy, mining and civil coastal infrastructure projects, Louise has worked both in project delivery and the development of new business.
Her experience spans from early feasibility assessments of offshore energy developments to the engineering and maintenance of infrastructure projects.
Initially starting her career as a Research Associate at Sheffield University, Louise moved to Fugro as a project oceanographer. She supported offshore and near-shore engineering projects with metocean data services, including site surveys in the UK, Europe, Asia Pacific, Russia, Australia and the Middle East.
Building on her technical knowledge, Louise moved to a commercial role, providing tendering and business development support.
Louise has spent the last 10-years working at BMT, where she brings her technical and commercial knowledge together to provide guidance and leadership in managing a diverse international business development team.
Global People Director
Global People Director
Gudrun Neumann is the Global People Director for BMT. After completing a degree in Business Administration, Personnel & Organisational Management (Dipl. Verw. Wiss.) at Constance University, she spent 25 years in various generalist HR roles, always in a high-tech environment and with growing international and leadership responsibilities.
Gudrun started her career as HR business partner at Behr (a large automotive supplier, today part of the Mahle group) and from there moved on to MBtechnology (at the time a 100% subsidiary of Daimler, today part of the French AKKA group) where she built up the HR reporting structure and moved on to lead the personnel management team. Before joining BMT in 2022, Gudrun worked for Ricardo plc, first as the HR Director of their German organisation, and lately as the global HR Director for the Rail and Software divisions.
Over the course of her career, Gudrun has gained vast experience in all relevant disciplines in HR. These include HR Systems & Reporting, Global Mobility, Leadership Development and Succession Planning, Compensation & Benefits and Mergers & Acquisitions. She is a certified Coach and NLP Practitioner. Her substantial international and intercultural experience is very valuable for the global growth plans of BMT. She is a firm believer that commercial success is based on creating a positive work environment in which employees can play to their strengths, and feel included and appreciated.
Chief Financial Officer
Chief Financial Officer
Gareth is the Chief Financial Officer for BMT.
He is a Chartered Management Accountant with extensive international experience in consulting, engineering and professional services across transportation and maritime industries.
Gareth joined from Ricardo PLC where he was the Global Finance Director for the Rail Division. Prior to that he was the Finance Director at Lloyd’s Register for the Transportation Division and also held a senior commercial role for the Marine Division.
Over the course of his career Gareth has worked in central government, private and public companies. He is experienced at driving value creation on a global scale and has been at the heart of multiple transformation projects including acquisitions and change programmes.
Programmes Director
Programmes Director
Guy joined BMT from QinetiQ, where he was the UK Sales Director leading the sales, marketing and business development communities across the Maritime, Defence and Security, Cyber Defence and Simulation and Training domains – reaching across all of UK’s sovereign defence capabilities’ and managing a UK workforce across multiple jurisdictions. He also led on several major sales and business development transformation programmes with oversight on corporate strategy, organic growth, strategy planning, portfolio strategy and M&A growth portfolio.
Guy also served for 23 years in the Royal Air Force as an Engineer Officer (Aerosystems) holding Type Airworthiness Authority’s (TAA) Type Airworthiness responsibilities for a number of UK sovereign aerial platforms.
Guy is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology.
Our Trustees play an important role in ensuring the administration of the Employee Benefit Trust by ensuring that all of the beneficiaries are treated impartially and fairly.
Trustee
Trustee
Sue Mackenzie joined BMT as Non-Executive Director in March 2020.
Prior to her appointment, Sue served in senior management and advisory roles for both public and private companies for more than 20 years, including a position as Operations and Business Transformation Director at P&O Ferries. Before that she was Operations Director of London Luton Airport at a time of unprecedented growth of the organisation.
Sue’s early career was spent in military service and not-for-profit sectors in the UK and other countries. After graduating with distinction from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, she was appointed to several international leadership roles, during which time her diverse responsibilities included tours both at home and abroad as the first female officer to serve with the Second Battalion Scots Guards.
After leaving the Army, Sue took up the role of Chief Executive of the charity “Cities in Schools” and she currently serves as a Non-Executive Director of the Medway NHS Foundation Trust and is on the Board of the Freight Transport Association. Sue continues to work voluntarily in support of her fellow servicemen and women and is involved as a trustee and volunteer of several charities in the UK.
Current External Appointments: Trustee of Women’s Royal Army Corps Association, Non-Executive Director of Logistics UK, Medway NHS Trust, and Port of London Authority.
Independent Trustee
Independent Trustee
Mark became an Independent Trustee of the Employee Benefit Trust on 1 January 2023. Mark is a non-executive director of Deltex Medical Group PLC, a medical device company whose shares are traded on AIM, and provides challenge to the board of BUPA as one of its Association Members.
He mentors on Techstars’ Accelerator programs for early stage technology companies and is a member of the CW Innovation Advisory Group supported by CW+, the official charity of the Chelsea & Westminster NHS Foundation Trust.
He is a past Chairman of the American European Business Association and was formerly a Trustee of various charities. He was previously member of a number of advisory committees at Oxford University, including the Oxford University Court of Benefactors.
He was formerly a senior corporate partner of Allen & Overy, the global law firm where for many years he advised boards of UK, US, European and Asian businesses on commercial matters internationally and held senior management roles.
He is qualified as a lawyer in both the UK and US, and has lived, worked and studied in both countries. He is a graduate of Oxford University (MA) and Tulane University (LLM).
Trustee
Trustee
Ian joined BMT as Non Executive Chair of the Board and the Nominations Committee in May 2023.
His senior executive career was with Balfour Beatty plc which he joined as Finance Director in 1996 and served as Chief Executive from 2005 to 2013.
Amongst other Board roles, he has served as Non-executive chairman of Vistry plc (formerly Bovis Homes Group), Cairn Energy plc, Amey plc and AWE Management plc and was a non executive director of BAE Systems plc.
In addition to his role at BMT, he is currently Senior Independent Director at Anglo American PLC and at Synthomer PLC and is the Independent Chair of Affinity Water Limited, a regulated water company.
Ian is an accountant by profession and a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
Trustee
Trustee
Gavin has been Chief Financial Officer of Oxford Instruments plc since May 2016. Prior to this role he served as Group Finance Director of Synergy Health plc from April 2010 until its successful combination with STERIS Corporation on 3 November 2015.
He previously served as Corporate Finance Director of Serco Group plc and has also worked in a variety of regional, corporate and treasury roles with Syngenta AG and AstraZeneca plc. He is a Chartered Accountant and an Associate Member of the Association of Corporate Treasurers
BMT Group has provided a corporate governance statement applying matters set out in s172 of the Companies Act 2006, during the past financial year.
The statement is a requirement to be made available on the company’s website and will remain available until the next financial year.
Extract of Strategic Report - September 2023
BMT has today appointed employee Mick Dewhirst as non-executive director.
Ian has a wealth of experience, both as an executive and as a non-executive director. His business leadership experience includes energy, infrastructure, technology, defence and engineering.
