Officers

Major John Charles, TD*, DL, BSc, IEng, MCIOB, MInstRE, AMICE

John Charles was born in Glyncornel, Tonypandy and was educated at Tonypandy Grammar School, Polytechnic of Wales and Coventry (Lanchester) Polytechnic.

John works the Construction Industry undertaking various roles as his career has progressed, he currently acts as a Technical Manager for Morgan Sindall Construction in Tongwynlais. He is a Past Chairman of the Cardiff Centre and South Wales Region of the Chartered Institution of Building.

John was appointed as a Deputy Lieutenant in June 2012. He served for over 40-years in the Reserve Army, retiring on age in November 2019.

John is Chairman, Vice Chairman, Secretary & Trustee of various Service Charities, Scouts and of his Regiment’s Museum. He is Chairman of Trustees the Wales Reserves & Cadet Fund.

John is a Vice President of both Penygraig & Pontypridd RFC, a dedicated follower of the Welsh Team, a keen railway enthusiast, volunteering on the Talyllyn Railway and is a dedicated allotmenteer. John is a member of the Technical Committee of the Rhondda Tunnel Society

Senior Warden - Agnes Xavier- Phillips JP DL LLB( Hons) SCM SRN Mediator

Agnes read law at Cardiff University and completed her Law Society Finals at Guildford College of Law. After working in private practice, she moved in- house and through mergers and acquisitions has worked for Nat West Bank, Abbey National and GE Capital. She was a Senior Executive Director, General Counsel, Board Advisor and Client Relationship Manager of GE Capital. She specialised in Commercial Litigation in the financial services market and managed the Legal Department and was a Director of 13 companies.

She was the Hub Leader for GE Women's Network and responsible for embedding the network within the acquired business. She represented the Finance Industry at the Access to Justice Working Party on the Woolf Reforms which brought in new radical civil litigation law reforms and implemented them in the business. She subsequently qualified as a CEDR accredited Mediator. She represented her business at the Legal Committee of the Council of Mortgage Lenders and was the Founder Chairperson of the Finance and Leasing Litigation Forum. She assisted the former Lord Mayor of the City of London, Dame Fiona Woolf in her mayoral programme on Diversity and Social Mobility. She has worked in London for over 15 years and when she stopped full time employment she settled full time in Wales. She now pursues a portfolio career which includes her being a Trustee, Audit and Risk and Honours Committee Member of Cardiff University. She is also a Vice President Member of the Cardiff Business Club, Member of Dwr Cymru ( Welsh Water) and Director of FFIN DANCE.

Agnes is a Justice of the Peace for the Mid Wales Bench and a member of the Magistrates Association. She was interviewed for TV by the BBC on the subject of “ What’s it like to be a Justice of the Peace.”

She was honoured to be appointed Deputy Lord Lieutenant for Gwent and is a member of their Honours Committee.
She is also very active with London Livery Companies. She is a Freeman of the City of London and a Liverymen of the City of London Solicitors and Arbitrators Liveries. She joined the WLCoW in 2016 and their current Junior Warden.She is also the Chair of their PR Committee and an active member of their Servicing Committees. On the Awards Committee, she has a special remit for the Journalism Travel and Music and Drama scholarships.

Prior to reading law, Agnes was a supply school teacher for 2 years followed by a very successful nursing career in London. She qualified as a State Registered Nurse/ Certified Midwife and was promoted to Nursing Ward Sister and reached the peak of her nursing career as a Nursing Officer- a meteoric rise in her nursing career!

Agnes enjoys travelling especially cruising, reading, music, theatre, dancing and fine dining. She enjoys hosting and attending parties with her husband Nigel. She is also a big supporter of many charities and helps with their fund raising.

Junior Warden - Henry Gilbert MSc; BA (Hons); FCIOB; FCIPD

Henry the former High Sheriff of West Glamorgan, was admitted to the Worshipful Livery Company of Wales on 27 November 2018. His main focus is on community development and in particular the vulnerable and under-represented groups. As such, he has championed the interests of the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities. Henry is also the founder and Chair of the registered charity "Heartbeat Trust UK" whose aims and objectives are to improve the survival rate of out of hospital cardiac arrests through the strategic placement and greater awareness of publicly accessible defibrillators. As a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, Henry is keen to support the aims of the Livery Company with its focus on developing Welsh talent within the Arts, Science and Technology.

The Immediate Past Master - Stuart Castledine

Stuart is a Chartered Accountant who adopted Wales as his country of residence in 1987. Stuart has worked in the retail insurance and banking sectors in Cardiff, Bristol, London and Nairobi.  He currently holds non-executive director appointments on the boards of companies that own the International Convention and Conference Centre Wales Ltd and Cardiff International Airport Ltd. He lives in Llandaff with his wife, Christine. They have three children all of whom flown the family nest and currently has 7 grandchildren. Stuart and Christine love classical music, travelling and good food.

The Clerk - Christopher F Dale Esq. JP MIH

Christopher Dale was trained by J Lyons and Co in Hotel management and has been working in the Hotel and Catering profession since 1972. He has worked at many of the famous London hotels including the 700-roomed Cumberland at Marble Arch and 800-roomed Strand Palace Hotel. He joined Trust House Forte in 1978 after the takeover of Strand Hotels and became deputy General Manager of the Waldorf Hotel and General Manager of the London Ryan Hotel for Thistle Hotels before joining the private Hotel sector.
In the private sector he has worked in Dartmouth and in Kent for Country Club Hotels and Golf Courses. He is a member of the HCIMA, now Institute of Hospitality and has extensive experience in running public facing businesses.
He moved to Wales in 1995 to take up a General Manager role at a County House Hotel and has been here every since.
He joined the Firing Line Museum, the Regimental Museum of 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards and the Royal Welsh, at Cardiff Castle as Director in May 2009.
Married to Pauline, he is a local Magistrate and Rotarian.
He became the Clerk to the Worshipful Livery Company of Wales in February 2019.

Treasurer - Philip Kitchen

Philip Kitchen is a Chartered Accountant and was clothed as the Worshipful Livery Company’s Treasurer on 25th September 2020 at the Cardiff and County Club.

The Immediate Past Master 2021-22 - Dr. Kathy Seddon

Kathy Seddon was born and Raised in Newport and attended St Joseph’s High School, Tredegar Park. She gained a BSc and PGCE From King’s College, London University and went on to teach Biology in schools and colleges in England and Wales.

In 1997 Kathy was awarded a Churchill Fellowship “Arctic to Mediterranean” to set up a European Schools Internet Collaboration. Partner centres monitored butterflies, for six years, as indicators of climate change. This lead to a PhD from Exeter University (2003) “ Motivation and Learning in Online Collaboration”

In 2003 she was appointed as an eLearning Specialist at the National College for School Leadership, facilitating consultations between Head Teachers and Government Policy Teams. She was awarded Fellowship of the Linnean Society (FLS) and of the Royal Society for Arts, Science and Technology (FRSA)
Kathy was RSA Fellowship Councillor for Wales (2010-6) and Chairman of the Welsh Association of Churchill Fellows (2011-7)

Kathy became a Liveryman of the Worshipful Livery Company of Wales in 2011. She has served as a Steward, Court Assistant and as an enthusiastic member of the Awards Committee with a special remit for Schools Awards.

Kathy is a volunteer member of the Marie Curie Research Strategy Group and is a research partner at the Wales Cancer Research Centre. She volunteers as a member of the Brain Tumour Charity Research Group. Kathy has published research papers and made conference presentations on both eLearning and public involvement in Health Research.

Kathy enjoys swimming, yoga and tai chi and enjoys watching Cricket and Rugby.