Industry Leader Challenge 2017

Daksh Gupta, CEO of Marshall Motor Holdings Plc handed the baton for Ben’s 2017 Industry Leader (ILC) Challenge to Jeremy Hicks, MD of Jaguar Land Rover UK. Jeremy, who is a Trustee of Ben, galvanised his team to raise awareness and crucial funds for the charity in the ‘Jaguar Land Rover Channel Swim Challenge’ 2017. Through the team’s endeavors, the Jaguar Land Rover Channel Swim Challenge raised over £214,000, completely smashing the £160,000 target.

Jeremy swam the English Channel, along with 13 of his Jaguar Land Rover colleagues in a two team relay in August 2017. Jeremy took up the ILC baton and chose the Channel Swim Challenge as he felt it was something that would really test him physically and mentally also requiring an extraordinary team effort.

The English Channel is 21 miles wide and has taken anything between 7 and 27 hours to swim. It’s an incredibly demanding test of endurance and stamina, understandably it’s considered by many to be the ultimate long distance challenge. There are extreme conditions, cold water, tides, gusting winds and waves of over 2m. It’s not for the faint hearted, the channel is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, ferries and tankers take priority also, with other hazards such as the resident jellyfish population.

As part of its role as a responsible business, Jaguar Land Rover is leading the ‘Benergy’ initiative which involves regular meetings with Ben and other car manufacturers to lead an ongoing and evolving plan to organise a constant stream of fundraising activities. These activities involve employees and the company as well as the general public. Retirees are encouraged to become Ben volunteers and signpost those who are experiencing financial or other issues to contact them for support.

At the Ben Ball 2017, Jeremy handed the Industry Leader Challenge baton for 2018 to Andy Bruce, CEO of Lookers, who has accepted the 2018 challenge and will be taking it on with a team of colleagues.