GSK chief and new owners of Asda hailed in Queen’s birthday honours list
‘Engineers from BT, Openreach, Talktalk and Ericsson received MBES for work to improve broadband’
THE billionaire brothers Zuber and Mohsin Issa have been made CBES in the Queen’s birthday honours list just a week after buying Asda for £6.8bn.
The Blackburn pair were hailed for services to business and charity after turning EG Group into a network of almost 6,000 forecourts across 10 countries over the past 20 years.
Meanwhile, Glaxosmithkline’s chief executive Emma Walmsley has been made a dame for services to the pharmaceutical industry and business after leading the drugs giant for the past three years.
Property tycoon Tony Gallagher has been knighted, while there are CBES for Severn Trent boss Liv Garfield, as well as Richard Flint and Chris Jones, who recently stepped down from running Yorkshire Water and Welsh Water respectively.
Engineers from BT, Openreach, TalkTalk and Ericsson have been given MBES for their work to improve broadband and phone services during lockdown. Their efforts included hiking with heavy equipment to keep locals connected and camping on a remote Scottish island to help a vulnerable resident.
Talktalk managers Peter Harding and Andrew Miller were given MBES for working until 10pm and on weekends for three months.
Mr Miller said there was an “all hands on deck” effort between Talktalk and Openreach to install internet connections at Nightingale hospitals. Their team upgraded broadband at 80 care homes, 250 food distribution centres and 220 schools during lockdown.
Two Openreach engineers were also handed honours for their work during lockdown. Scott Mcpartlin, 46, from Rutherglen, South Lanarkshire, was given an MBE after he camped on the remote Hebridean island of Coll during lockdown and hiked with his equipment for three miles to keep locals connected.
Mr Mcpartlin said he was in “total shock” to receive the honour.
Pete Martin, 53, from Rockland All Saints in Norfolk, received an honour for working through the night on the Friday before Christmas to get a line restored to the stable block on the Sandringham estate.