Executive Committee

Sue Hughes, Chairman

Sue has lived and worked in St Katharine Docks for over 30 years. She became involved in the Friends in 2008. As a member of the original Steering Group she was an active member of the fundraising team in 2009/2010 which raised £168,000. She initiated the social programme and is responsible for negotiating the Friends concession scheme with local retailers. She joined the St Katharine & Wapping Ward Panel in 2017 working with the Safer Neighbourhood Police team. She is actively involved in City affairs having been a Master of The Worshipful Company of World Traders - one of the modern Livery Companies and Master of the Tower Ward Club, supporting the Alderman of Tower Ward. She is a Trustee of The Thames Festival Trust and The World Traders Charitable Trust. Having spent the majority of her career in the Pharmaceutical & Biotech sector specialising in mergers and acquisitions and technology transfer, she now advises SME's on business development matters.

David Leonard - Honorary Secretary

David is a retired solicitor. He spent most of his professional life with Linklaters specialising in corporate law which included a year in Hong Kong in 1975/6 as a co-founder of Linklaters' office there. He retired at the end of 2002. He was a member of The London Symphony Chorus for 30 years, 14 of them as chairman, during which he was instrumental in procuring the patronage of HRH Diana, Princess of Wales. He has lived in Mews Street since August 1996 and was one of the two founder members of the Friends, the other being Colin Mitchell. His other interests now include his gym and his church, St Helen, Bishopsgate.

Colin Mitchell – Membership Secretary

Colin was born in 1948 in Folkestone, Kent and joined an airline as a commercial apprentice in 1966. He subsequently spent his professional life in the travel business and formed Goodwood Travel Ltd in 1981 as an air broker and to develop the Flights of Fantasy programme of tours with the Concorde and private jet aircraft to over fifty destinations worldwide. He retired in 2005.

He moved to Mews Street in 1988 and was one of the two founder members of the Friends, the other being David Leonard. Married to Liudmila, he cares passionately about the Dock and currently serves as Membership Secretary of the Friends.

As Membership Secretary he provides a point of contact, maintains membership records and works on many matters raised during regular Executive Committee meetings.

Penelope, Viscountess Cobham CBE

Lady Cobham is Director General of The 5% Club whose members aspire to have 5% of their workforce in apprenticeships or graduate training schemes within 5years. In March 2017 she completed 8 years as Chairman of VisitEngland, the national tourist board. She was awarded a CBE in 2014 for services to Tourism. For 9 years she was Chairman of the British Casino Association and has served inter alia on the boards of the London Docklands Development Corporation, English Heritage, British Waterways, Historic Royal Palaces as well as Heart FM 106.2. She was a Special Advisor at the Culture Department. She currently sits on the board of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and the Historic Houses Association and chairs the Museum Prize Trust.

Clare McGregor

Clare is originally from Sydney, Australia and moved with her husband Steve to St Katharine Docks in 2016. Clare works part time as an implementation consultant / project manager in the Human Resource Information System industry. She is passionate about software generally and has especially enjoyed working with our membership and event management application, Webcollect. Her other interests include reading, movies and trivia at the Dickens.

Paul Luke

Paul has many years experience in senior leadership roles at the BBC which he recently left after 25 years. He has broad range of practical business management skills, including negotiation, financial and risk management, and change management gained through his work in television commissioning and production. Prior to the BBC, he trained at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and worked in theatre production at many theatres, such as Theatre Royal Plymouth, Thorndike Theatre, Tricycle Theatre and London's West End.

Paul is currently a member of the Finance, Audit & Risk Committee of the British Academy of Film & Television Arts (BAFTA). He is also the Secretary of The Southwold and Waveney Regeneration Society Limited, a Director of the Old Hospital Hub Limited and a Trustee of Southwold Arts Centre.