PRINCE Charles has presented Farnham resident David Havelock with the honour of Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) at an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace.

The award was in recognition of David’s services to the British economy at the Department for International Trade, which is currently led by Dr Liam Fox.

David has worked for 50 years in the financial markets, having started his career in banking at National Provincial Bank before the merger with Westminster Bank and District Bank to form National Westminster Bank in 1970.

He worked in Asia for 10 years and reached the senior executive role of director of corporate banking at NatWest after 33 years with the company.

David also had a prominent role in the corporate workout market and had the accolade of being recommended by the Bank of England to chair the Insol Lenders Group, a group of senior credit risk specialists from the international banking community with services to the rescue culture for companies in financial difficulty.

He subsequently had corporate finance roles at Close Brothers, Arthur Anderson and Ernst and Young before joining UK Export Finance (UKEF) in 2005 as director of credit risk group and a member of the management board. He also served as interim chief executive in 2012-13.

David had an outstanding record at UKEF in support of British exports to emerging markets with credit risk exposure in more than 80 markets.

His credit risk group was responsible for country risk assessment in more than 200 markets, credit risk approvals, pricing and financial risk management modelling.