The achievements of business figures from the Bath area along with those from the not-for-profit sector have been recognised in the New Year’s Honours list for 2023.
Toby Sutton and Jack Churchill, pictured, co-founders of tech innovator Scanning Pens, which produces pens that help dyslexic children and adults to read, received OBEs for services to international trade and to the dyslexia and special educational needs and disabilities community.
The pair launched the Westbury-based firm in 2003, partly due to Jack’s personal experience with dyslexia.
They have since built it into a successful business employs more than 70 people and exporting across the globe.
Dr Martin Read, chairman of Chippenham-headquartered logistics group Wincanton, has been awarded a knighthood for services to industry and for public and voluntary service.
Dr Read, who was awarded a CBE in 2011, joined Wincanton as chair in August 2018 and is also a member of the Council of Shakespeare’s Globe, where he sits on the audit and risk committee.
He has been chair of the government’s Senior Salaries Review Body, Laird plc, the Low Carbon Contracts Company, the Electricity Settlements Company and the Remuneration Consultants Group.
He has served on the boards of Lloyd’s, Invensys, Aegis Group, British Airways, Siemens Holdings, Boots, ASDA and the UK Government Efficiency and Reform Board. He was chief executive of international IT services company Logica from 1993 to 2007.
Nigel Linacre, pictured, co-founder and chair of the board of trustees of the Chippenham-based water charity WellBoring, has been awarded the British Empire Medal.
The honour recognises his hard work, dedication and determination and the charity’s efforts to bring clean water to thousands of people in Kenya and other African countries.
Nigel, a former advertising executive and leadership coach, co-founded WellBoring in 2011 with Chippenham engineers Colin Brown and Graeme Vousden and fellow leadership and performance coach Jefferson Cann.
It has since dug wells to bring safe water to more than 300 poor rural primary schools, mostly in Kenya, and in the process transformed the lives of more than 250,000 people.
Others recognised in the list are Peter Kyle, Bath-based former chair of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, who receives a CBE for services to cultural heritage, and Eve Salomon, who also lives in Bath and is chair of London’s Horniman Museum and Gardens. She receives a CBE for services to the arts and heritage.
