Officers

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.

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.

Major John Charles, TD*, DL, BSc, 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 Bid 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 in November 2019.

John is 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.

Born and bred in Cardiff, educated at St Mary’s, Canton and then St Illtyds College

Peter joined the GPO in 1968 as an Apprentice and after learning the tools of the trade qualified as an engineer specialising in external networks and customer apparatus. After completing the associated professional studies he was selected as one of four engineers to take part in a technical interchange with the Netherland PTT (Post and Telecoms service). Upon returning to the UK Peter was successful in a rapid promotion competition and took on his first management post in Gloucestershire. After three years during which he delivered several major network development schemes across Gloucestershire and the Cotswolds Peter returned to Cardiff to take up the post of Inter-utility Network Planning and then Network Operations initially for Cardiff and the Vale and then for South East Wales before becoming responsible for external technical matters across Wales and subsequently nationally. During this time Peter was also appointed as Deputy National Manager for the negotiation and subsequent implementation of the Street Works Legislation, as well as a lead assessor for the BT Graduate selection programme.

In the mid-nineties and now working for British Telecommunications Peter became involved in the development of a completely new technology and was the access network delivery manager for what is now known as “Broadband”; this including the development of a new generation of testing equipment and tools and the training and equipping of over 17,000 field engineers for the launch in June 2000.

In March 2001 Peter left BT and after setting up his own technical consultancy became the UK Managing Director of a Swiss based, technology, company specialising in the next generation broadband technology which now has widespread applications including the voice communications for Air Traffic Control. After helping to win major contracts from the UK National Air Traffic Control at most UK airports Peter then captured business in Africa and set up, on behalf of the Swiss parent company a subsidiary company in India and appointed a regional director who has been extremely successful in securing major contracts across the region.

Peter stepped down in 2013 and since then has been an advisor to young set-up business’s, personal mentor to school leavers as well as a Trustee of the Tall Ships Youth Trust and Managing Director of Tall Ships Ltd. After stepping down from these appointements Peter was recently appointed a Vice Patron of the Trust, a post which he enjoys

Peter is married to Jen and has a daughter, Helen married to Mike LeGea and they have a new daughter, Megan.

Peter is a holder of Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award Holder as well as Rotary International “Paul Harris” award; he has also been Team Manager of the British International Junior Archery Team,
Chairman of the Cardiff Lord Mayor Parade Committee, President of the Rotary Club of Cardiff St Davids and a member of MENSA.

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.

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.