Charlotte Seddon-Ellis celebrates her Leaders of the Future award

A rising star in Lockheed Martin UK’s commercial team who first joined the business as an apprentice from college is part of a winning team scooping a global award. 

The Leaders of the Future programme, for people under the age of 30, is run by the International Association of Contract and Commercial Managers (IACCM) and is usually conducted face to face at the organisation’s conference.

But as with so many events, the 2020 conference was cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions – and instead the programme was run virtually. Teams were asked to address how commercial relationships and benefits can be sustained during ‘virtual’ trading.

Contracts administrator Charlotte Seddon-Ellis and her ‘virtual’ team-mates in Spain, Poland, Italy and Ireland, used their own experiences working remotely during lockdown to address the question. The team had never met before and had to build their own relationships digitally. They used animation to bring their thoughts to life in their presentation and identified that the development of a common platform was key. 

After winning the Europe award in June, the team went on to win the global award, beating teams from the Americas, India and the Middle East.

Charlotte, who works in the LMUK commercial team, said: “I was so pleased with the results of the global programme. Competition was tough, with different ideas coming from the other teams. I believe ours stood out for being fully animated. I am so grateful for all of the members who voted and I am very proud of my achievement.”

Ian Wakeling, UK Commercial and Trade Compliance Director, said: ‘The Young Leaders programme is an important part of encouraging and growing talent in our commercial team. It’s a great way for our younger members of staff to interact with the wider commercial community across the globe, and brings new ideas and continuous improvement back to Lockheed Martin UK.’

Charlotte has worked for Lockheed Martin, based at the company’s office in Havant Hampshire, for five years. She joined aged 18 as an apprentice in the procurement team. The company is currently sponsoring Charlotte through a Degree Apprenticeship – a BA(Hons) in Business Leadership and Management at Portsmouth University.