About Us

Board Members

To learn more about the members of our Board and Executive Committee, select a name from the list below:

Main Board

John Davies, Chairman
Nic Anderson, Managing Director Training and Support, Babcock International Group
Richard Lumby, MD Carillion Defence
Franco Martinelli, Babcock International Group Finance Director
Robin Herzberg, Managing Director, Carillion Private Finance
Tim Redfern, MD Holdfast Training Services Ltd (attendee)
David Plester, Managing Director – Infrastructure, Babcock International Group (attendee)

Executive Board

Nic Anderson, Managing Director Training and Support, Babcock International Group
Steven Fothergill, Carillion Construction Operations Director for the RSME PPP Project
Tim Redfern, MD Holdfast Training Services Ltd (attendee)
David Plester, Managing Director – Infrastructure, Babcock International Group (attendee)

John Davies

Chairman Holdfast Training Services Ltd

John graduated in Law from Manchester University following which he studied at Chester Law College subsequently qualifying as a Solicitor in 1988.

After two years in legal practice, John moved to industry within the commercial department of BAE Systems. During that time John was involved in both UK and international projects. In 1993 John joined Bombardier during which time he secured several major MoD outsourcing projects including the Royal Air Force’s Pathfinder PFI Project.

Following the acquisition of Bombardier Defence by VT Group in 2000 John was appointed Managing Director of VT Aerospace. In 2006 John was appointed MD of VT Support Services and in 2009 he was appointed Group Managing Director with specific responsibility for Defence. Following the Babcock acquisition of VT Group in July 2010 John assumed the role of Chief Executive of the Defence and Security Division. The Division is a major provider to all three Armed Forces delivering training and equipment support both in the UK and internationally.

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Nic Anderson

Managing Director Training and Support, Babcock International Group

In 1989 Nic Anderson joined British Aerospace, now BAE SYSTEMS, as a research engineer. Following roles in Change Management, Commercial Management and Project Management he was posted as Manager supporting the Chief of Executive based at the London Head Office. Returning to the business he was appointed Strategy Director of the Naval Support business. In 2002 he held his first Operational Director role leading the naval design services and support business. This led to appointment as the International Operations Director of the Naval Support business leading the prime delivery of the UK to Chile Type 23 reactivation programme, the delivery of support services to the Romanian Type 22 ships plus a continuing role in delivering design support to the UK Navy.

In 2006 he joined CAE, a NYSE listed Canadian modelling, simulation and training business as UK Managing Director and Chairman of CAE ATS. In this role he was accountable for UK growth of CAE’s military and civil businesses. This included establishment of CAE’s UK Civil Training Centre at Burgess Hill, delivery of major change programmes at the RAF’s Medium Support Helicopter Aircrew Training Facility and delivery of upgrade programmes to the UK Army’s training facilities for Warrior and Artillery Fire Control. CAE UK also entered the UK fast jet training arena during his tenure by winning the Hawk 128 synthetic training capability for UK MFTS. He joined VT Group in December 2009 as Managing Director, Land. He has recently been appointed as Managing Director, Training and Support in Babcock International Group as part of their larger business post the acquisition of VT Group.

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Richard Lumby

Managing Director Carillion Defence

Richard is a Chartered Civil Engineer and has worked for Tarmac, then Carillion, since 1980 and has held a number of executive roles including Managing Director of Carillion’s £200m turnover Mechanical & Electrical Engineering Business and Managing Director of Carillion Infrastructure Services. In 2002 Richard was appointed Managing Director, Carillion Defence, tasked with developing and implementing a business strategy to promote growth in the Defence and Secure Sectors, which resulted, by the end of 2005, in securing two Defence Estates Prime Contracts, the Housing Prime Contract and the RPC Central as well as the successful delivery of new Barracks at Tidworth and Glencorse. His portfolio was extended in 2006 to include the RSME, Project Allenby and Connaught and the Northwood Development Project . Richard is also a Board Director of Aspire Defence, CarillionEnterprise and Modern Housing Solutions.

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Franco Martinelli

Babcock International Group Financial Controller

Franco joined Babcock in November 2002 as Group Financial Controller. Prior to that he was Group Financial Controller at Powell Duffryn plc and previous to that he held divisional and group roles at Courtaulds, James Capel and BP.

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Robin Herzberg

Managing Director, Carillion Private Finance

Robin was appointed as Managing Director, Carillion Private Finance in Oct 2002. Prior to this he was Concessions Director within Carillion Private Finance where he had responsibility for concession management. Robin was Chairman of the consortium led by Carillion which in July 1997 signed a £100m contract to build a new 400-bed Darent Valley Hospital at Dartford, Kent, the first hospital to be financed under the UK Government’s Private Finance Initiative. Robin also led the negotiations on behalf of the winning consortium throughout the bid phase for the move of GCHQ into a £350m futuristic headquarters. Before joining Carillion Robin was an Executive Director of Leeds Development Corporation, the first urban development corporation to complete its flagship projects, sell all its land and settle all its liabilities. And before that Robin spent 10 years at Price Waterhouse where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant.

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Steven Fothergill

Carillion Construction Operations Director for the RSME PPP Project

Steve is also Operations / Programme Director for the ongoing Northwood PJHQ PFI contract. Here he has overall Management responsibility for the combined Construction and FM teams (£800m - Capex approximately £156m). Steve has a broad Construction background encompassing Commercial, Health, Retail, Multi Faith and High Quality Residential buildings utilising PFI/PPP/CM/Management and traditional contract forms.

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Tim Redfern

Managing Director Holdfast Training Services Ltd (attendee)

Tim joined Holdfast Training Services as Managing Director in January 2009. Prior to this appointment he was Director of Naval Programmes at Flagship Training Limited, a BAE Systems and VT Group Joint Venture, where he was responsible for the winning and delivery of all naval training programmes. In this role, his time was spent working closely with the Royal Navy and MOD, in an agreed partnering arrangement, to oversee joint delivery of Flagship programmes in all the major Royal Navy training establishments. Prior to joining Flagship he completed a short Service Commission in the Royal Navy which was followed by a further 5 fruitful years in Hong Kong selling ships.

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David Plester

Managing Director – Infrastructure, Babcock International Group (attendee)

A Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, David joined Babcock through the Groups acquisition of the Consultancy Business Unicorn which provided property and estate management consultancy support to a wide range of private and public sector clients. David has been a driving force in the development of the Infrastructure Business, initially as Project Director of the MoD’s Regional Prime Contract in the South West of the UK. This project provides a fully outsourced estate solution to the diverse needs of some 65 MoD operating businesses in the South West of England. More latterly David has had a wider role looking at all MoD property related projects within Babcock and most recently all outsourced Infrastructure projects within the Group ranging from the Regional Prime Contracts (South West and East), Project SLAM, BSF Projects in Hackney, Lewisham and Greenwich and a range of support contracts to private sectors across the UK.

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