Master
Nicholas Woolf OBE KStJ
Nicholas and his wife, Fiona, have a 3 acre garden carved out of the Claremont estate with its Palladian villa designed by Vanbrugh and its Capability Brown (now NT) Landscape Garden.
He became a Liveryman of the Gardeners Company after his term as the Master Tax Adviser. A Chartered Tax Adviser and a Chartered Accountant and as the Deputy Chairman of the Finance & General Purposes Committee he is the Company’s Treasurer.
In the meantime Fiona ascended the City ladder becoming Lord Mayor in 2013/14 and Nicholas became the Lord Mayor’s Consort.
Nicholas has 2 children and 4 granddaughters who love visiting gardens.
UPPER WARDEN
CYNTHIA ISABEL MARGARET PECK
Cindy Peck is one of a select group of members of the Company who joined it by servitude, becoming a Freeman in 1973 and a Liveryman in 1986.
Cindy has had a distinguished career as a solicitor in the City of London specialising in commercial dispute resolution. She also has wide non executive experience. She is currently on a number of boards including Birkbeck College, University of London, the Architects Registration Board, Ofqual, the Royal College of Psychiatrists and Perennial. She also undertakes fitness to practise work for the Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service.
Cindy is married to Andrew Peck, who is a Freeman of the Company, and has two sons and a daughter.
Renter Warden
Alderman Robert Howard
Robert Howard joined the Court of Common Council of the City of London in 2011as a Councilman, before joining the Court of Aldermen in 2015. He has been a member of the Planning and Transportation Committee, the Port Health and Environmental Services Committee, the Livery Committee, the Open Spaces Committee and the Investment Committee and the Financial Investment Board, of which he has chaired the last two.
He has worked in the City since 1993 at Charles Stanley & Co Limited, one of the UK’s largest private client stockbroking and investment management firms, where he is a senior compliance officer involved in EU and UK financial services regulation.
He has been a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Gardeners since 1994. Appointments beyond the City Corporation have included being a Governor of Capel Manor College in Enfield and a Trustee of Central Foundation Schools of London, and he is Chair of Governors at two City schools.
Spade Bearer
David Balfour
David is a Chartered Accountant and spent most of his working life in the Dairy Industry. His last ten years were spent running The National Dairy Council, whose role was to promote and protect the Dairy Industry and its products, and including acting for the whole dairy industry during the BSE crisis. He is perhaps the only Chartered Accountant to win an international marketing award.
He and Sue have lived in the same house in Gerrards Cross for nearly 50 years. He reckons that he has planted virtually everything in it. A keen golfer, he has been Captain, First Team Captain and Chairman of his golf club and organised the Livery’s annual golf event for 12 years.
He is the elder son of Past Master Dick Balfour joining the livery in 2005, with his younger brother, Michael, following a year later. His younger daughter, Catriona, is also a Liveryman; hopefully she will not be the last of the younger generation to be so.
Clerk
Ollie Finn
The Clerk acts as Chief Executive, and is responsible for managing the Company office and supporting the Master, Wardens and Court. The current Clerk, Ollie Finn, began working for the Gardeners' Company in June 2023.