The annual Veterans Reunion took place at the Marconi Athletic & Social Club in Beehive Lane. 225 Veterans and guests were at the lunch.
Our president for 2009 is Veteran Phil Robinson who is the Senior Vice President of Selex Communications in the UK. He was introduced by Veteran George Hill, OBE. In his address Phil outlined how Selex Communications had developed from Marconi Communications as he felt that in many ways Selex was the natural development of Marconi, particularly as the workforce was substantially the same. Selex’s parent company, Finnmechanica in Italy, was a similar arrangement to the old GEC with a range of activitites covering defence and communications.
With the move from New Street in Chelmsford to Basildon, Selex now has much better accomodation and a better working environment. It employs about 800 people on the site and has become the preferred supplier of some military communication equipment to many organisations throughout the world.
Our special guest this year was Mr Roger Casale who is the independent political adviser to Selex Communications and Finnmechanica UK Limited. He wasintroduced by our Chairman, Veteran Peter Turrall.
In his address Roger outlined how he had become an MP for Wimbledon in 1997, this being his home town, and what he had done since ceasing to be an MP in 2005. since then he has run his management consultancy business and has connections between the UK and Italy.
As has been usual at recent reunions a coaster was produced to mark the year 2009. In this case it reflected on the departure from New Street and the death of our former Patron Sir Robert Telford. All the coasters can be viewed in greater detail at https://www.marconi-veterans.com/?p=1152