Philip would definitely be classified as a “de Havilland Old Boy”, if following his both his career and his personal interests. After completion of an engineering apprenticeship with the de Havilland Aeronautical Technical School at Hatfield, he joined the Test Pilots Department as PA to John Cunningham, Director and Chief Test Pilot, to assist in the flight development programmes of the Trident airliner and DH 125 Business Jet. His responsibilities also included the flight operations of the Hawker Siddeley communications aircraft. In 1970, he started a marketing and public relations career promoting the commercial aircraft products of HSA, including the early stages of the European Airbus programme. He moved to Army Weapons Division of British Aerospace in 1979 as Public Relations Manager, responsible for the full marketing support of the land launched weapons, especially Rapier. This involved extensive overseas work to support the direct sales activity in selected countries. He also providing relevant company or product information to the media or directly to prospective or active customers and worked at major trade shows. In early 1989, he returned to BAe commercial aircraft as customer assurance executive, responsible for implementation of the customer acceptance programmes of the BAe 146 regional airliners. In April 1990, he became Senior Contracts Executive responsible for the administration of selected overseas contracts, moving to the Marketing Operations organisation with similar duties until the closure of the Hatfield Site in 1993.

The major part of Philip's career has been marketing to large and small organisations, working directly with the multinational customers. Philip is a founding director of Allied Strategies, responsible for new business, marketing and ensuring client satisfaction. He is also a part owner and Sales and Marketing Director of Potton Brewery.

INDUSTRIES

Aerospace, defence, telecoms, brewery and management consultancy.

QUALIFICATIONS

Graduate Institution of Production Engineers

Higher National Certificates in Mechanical and Production Engineering

PERSONAL

British, born 1938, married, two daughters

During spare time Chairman and Managing Director of the de Havilland Aircraft Museum Trust Ltd, which administers the voluntarily run, charitable de Havilland Heritage, currently planning a multi-million pound Heritage Centre, to build on the experience of the existing Mosquito Aircraft Museum the oldest aviation museum in Britain. In addition, he has written 30 aviation books and numerous articles for the aerospace media worldwide.