As the public queue to pay their final respects to Queen Elizabeth, our CEO, Wayne Preece recalls his brief encounter with Her Majesty last year.
The world’s business elite aren’t often made to stand in line. But from Bill Gates to John Kerry and a whole host of more humble executives like myself, it was a joy to queue at Windsor castle last October. The Queen’s reception was the climax of the Global Investment Summit, organised to showcase some of the more environmentally innovative British companies ahead of COP26. In she walked with a beaming smile patiently focussing on everyone who was eager to meet her.
The Prime Minister at the time, Boris Johnson introduced me as “the man from Wales doing wonderful things with water!” She made my day.
I knew she worked hard. I could tell she gave everyone 100%. But to think that she routinely saw tens of thousands of people in moments like this every year was astonishing. And she did so for decades, each occasion building what business would call a brand that ended up the most respected, reassuring and resonant in the world.
Most of us balk at seeing our face in the paper. TV is definitely scary but imagine every note and coin, every passport and so much else bearing your features. No one was more tested, more recognised and is now more enduring. It’s those qualities we – at Hydro – admire in her, and it’s those qualities we salute as we join everyone else in mourning her loss.
