90th Anniversary Dinner

By Kate Donovan • March 19, 2021

A wonderful evening was held at The Brewery in London by the Lendlease Guvnors Club celebrating their 90th Anniversary dinner. Guvnors, Life Guvnors, Clients, Consultants & guests attended from both our Northern and Southern Regional branches with over 500 in attendance. The evening was hosted by our Toastmaster, Pav who kept the evening on track. Our new National Chairman Simon Gorski delivered his first Chairman speech, which was a great opener to the evening. National branch Secretary Kate Donovan announced winners of the Guvnor of Year for both regions. The Northern Guvnor of the Year was awarded to Mark Norbury. He has raised a considerable amount of money this year for Action Medical Research. Mark organised the 24-hour 3 Peaks Challenge in June 2019 and Community Week in October 2019. He is a great ambassador for the Guvnors Club for the significant number of staff who have joined the UK Regions business during the last 12 months. The Southern Guvnor of the Year was awarded to Steve Wright. Steve regularly participates in Guvnor events – cycling London to Brighton, Dart nights, Quiz nights. He also organises the annual charity golf event raising 10’s of 1000’s for our chosen charities. He also annually participates in driving terminally ill children with their families to Disneyland Paris as part of the Magical Taxi Tour. Steve is always encouraging new starters to get involved and join the club and is always promoting the club through representing the Southern branch as their Chairman We also had one Life Guvnor Can to present, this title recognises members of the Club who have retired but made huge contributions to the Club within their time in the business. The Southern Branch nominated Paul Harding for Life Guvnor status. Paul joined Bovis Construction as a Services Manager in 1988 and retired in 2019 after 31 years’ service as very accomplished and respected Project Director. Paul was known not only for his project delivery but his calm and understanding nature that he has passed on to the many people that have been trained on his many projects. Paul is a great supporter of the Guvnors Club and for those who were part of the fund raising trek to the High Atlas Mountains in Morocco in aid of ASPIRE (Association for Spinal Research, Rehabilitation and Reintegration) will recall his enthusiasm for the ’20m Club’ which helped to push through some of the more challenging sections Our response speaker for the evening was Guvnor John Conway. He provided great laughs for people within the business and looked back on his time with the Guvnors. A massive thank you to everyone who donated to the raffle this year and congratulations to the winners. We were raising money for Cancer Research UK in memory of Helen Yabsley, The Lighthouse Club, and Straightened Arrow and we managed to raise just under £5,000. With the National Committee agreeing to match it we are able to donate a total of £10,000 to the charities! What a wonderful result. Our entertainment for the evening was the impressive Rob Brydon! He kept the jokes rolling and there were plenty of laughs around the room. Once all the formalities were finished it was time for everyone to catch up with old friends and make new ones. Thank you all for coming, we hope you enjoyed the night and look forward to seeing you at the next event. Please enjoy the photos at https://flic.kr/s/aHsmLmbBKM