Mike Samways, former student at Wellington School (Richards, 1996) and Managing Director of Crewshield Ltd has been awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise Innovation in the Monarch’s Birthday Honours list.
The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise are the highest official accolades for businesses within the United Kingdom and are conferred by Her Majesty the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister. Winners are invited to a special reception at Buckingham Palace in July to formally receive their awards from the sovereign.
The business founded in 2011 specialises in the delivery of discreet safe havens disguised as ordinary shipping containers to trouble spots worldwide. Mike developed the concept whilst serving as a bomb disposal Officer in the Royal Navy’s elite Clearance Diving branch – he owes this early career to a spark ignited when he joined the RN section of the CCF under Mr (LtCdr) Elkington!
Crewshield initially designed and manufactured its patented Citadel refuges to be a safe haven for the crews of merchant vessels to retreat to when threatened by pirate attack such as those off the coast of Somalia. But the 2013 attack on a gas plant in Algeria by terrorists linked to al-Qaeda – which ended with the deaths of about 40 foreigners including six British citizens – proved to be the catalyst for a substantial rise in demand for a land-based application of the refuge.
Crewshield is now a multi-million pound company that provides its products to private companies, governments and the United Nations with key export markets including the Middle East and North Africa.
He said: “I’m absolutely thrilled for team to be recognised at the highest level. I also take enormous pride in knowing for a fact that this innovation has helped to save lives both at sea and on land.”
“It still surprises me occasionally that joining the CCF RN Section one Friday Afternoon back in 1994 has ultimately led to the creation of my business. The skills learnt at Wellington are invaluable to any entrepreneur, the ability to cope with rapidly changing situations, occasional successes and of course disappointment are critical. The key School values of teamwork, discipline and integrity are also heavily drawn upon.”